Writing through painful memories without becoming too distressed

Illustration by Natalie Foss

Antonina Mareglia wrote: "A blog post about how to write through painful memories without becoming too distressed would be very useful for me. People who meet me say I should write about my life, my childhood, but I struggle...I get too upset and then always worry I'm not remembering anything honestly or clearly. Your insight would be appreciated."

Dear Antonina, here is how I have dealt with this need to be absolutely correct, absolutely exact, and so on (still...