It doesn't sound stupid, it sounds neat! :)

Yeah, the problem with summarizing books is that they always sound stupid. xD

That sounds interesting Kai :)

Wow Marianne--now that I've finished my first draft, I'm thinking about seriously doing it, not just dabbling, like I have in the past.

"Has anyone read or done The Artist's Way? She talks about the censor a lot and how to overcome it."

I have read the Artits' Way and I highly highly recommend it! I go through the excercises a couple times a year. And always do my morning pages everyday. And the Artist Date. I cannot recommend this book more highly. I give it for gifts alot. Tr it out. Marianne

It's a novel; I guess you would classify it as Sci Fi. It's about a newspaper company that had bought out all the other companies and looked to gain in power even more, so they genetically altered people to have no opinion so they could write better articles than what they were doing. It's hard to explain. (:

The main character's taking care of one and is plotting to bring the company down.

I've been working on it a while--three years. And since it was a memoir, I didn't have the ardous task of making up a plot. Not that writing memoir isn't ardous in its own special, painful ways.
Good luck on your book! I'd like to hear about it--is it a novel or nonfiction? What's it about?

If you do the math, you've written ten times what I have. Haha.

And I'll have to check it out, thanks. :)

You might really like it--she deals with so many issues that hold us back, the censor, all kinds of stuff.

Wow, that's amazing! I'm at about 14,000 words on a new book. ;) And no, I haven't. I'll look into it.

I agree! Has anyone read or done The Artist's Way? She talks about the censor a lot and how to overcome it.

And by the way, I finised my first draft this past Friday! 140,000 words! So, I'm happy!

I know exactly what you mean. It bothers me so much, and I'm working on it. I have been battling it back by doing most of those things anyway, unless it is way beyond reason. It's actually helped me a lot, and even if it didn't save me when my family read the first draft of a book I'm writing, I'm still more satisfied in the long run.

Memoir is so hard--because of that rotten censor! I'm almost done with the first draft of mine, and she's been there, every step of the way. It sounds like she's met your friend Robert, by the way!
I see your post is from 2008--how is it going? I'd love to hear about it. Maybe we can talk memoir-talk.

Hi Bonita,
Ugh! The censor. I have thought about writing a memoir, and even the thought of writing such a book brings out the censor full force. Poetry is so much easier.
My censor gets me more at the finish line with the words, "Well, that's not good enough to publish! Now don't even try. Have you eaten any chocolate recently?" LOL
All the best for writing. I'll be rooting for you.

Hi, Bonita! Hmm...I wish I could say I've tamed my censor, but the beast still rears her ugly head. I was painstakingly careful when writing my book (very much a memoir, but in poetic form). Most people love it, but there are a few who "don't get it." Those few people make the censor roar all the louder. I guess all I can say is, you're not alone. Keep writing the story you know you need to write. Some things will stay, and some will go. But, tell the story. Someone else out there needs to know they're not alone either! Blessings!

Let me warn you. This post is gonna be all about me ranting about the dreaded censor... if you're a serious writer, you know what I'm talking about.

As one of my writing friends, Robert Masello puts it, 'before you can really get any book rolling, much less done, there's a fearsome beast you've just got to get past. It guards the gateway to any book, and snarls so fiercely that many writers pick up their heels and run for it. This beast represents a big problem, one that you have just got to come to terms with, because if you don't, your book will suffer for it. You'll be writing the whole thing while trying to look over your own shoulder, and that, I can tell you, is a surefire way to run smack into a tree.'
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Let me interject here. I've been trying really hard to keep the censor at bay. I've read the best way to write an auto-biography or memoir is to just write, to just let it all flow, then go back later for minor revisions and rewrites. That is the time to tweak the words, the sections, the pages into a real work of heart.
At times, it's so hard writing the story of your life. For the memories you share, are your memories, not necessarily the same memories of those you're writing about. You are writing your story.
I am writing my story. The way I saw things. The way I felt. How I survived. How I overcame. Some may not think I had much to overcome, but they weren't walking in my shoes at the time. How could they know? It's why I'm writing the book I'm writing.
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Let me share more from my friend, Robert.

'The censor is the nasty little voice that keeps whispering in your ear, "You can't say that.You'll hurt Harriet's feelings, " or "Better not include that scene, Uncle Ben will know who you're talking about," or "Sex? You're going to include sex? Your mother is going to be reading this book!"

The censor is the one that keeps pushing you away from your own experience, your own true feelings, in a futile attempt to render everything you write, so neutral, so unrecognizable, so foreign to your own real perceptions that not a soul you know, living or dead, could possibly take offense.
Am I prepared to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? - As I felt it, as I lived it, as I remember it?'
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The dreaded censor.
Writing a memoir is hard work.

I walk a fine line. A very fine line.
Do I write my book as I remember things, as I felt them?
Or do I write my book with the dreaded censor on my shoulder?

I struggle with this every day. Every day.
What are some of your thoughts out there? I welcome your views.

How would you write your memoir, if you were writing one?