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Stories Are What Save Us: A Survivor's Guide to Writing about Trauma
A seasoned writer and teacher of memoir explores both the difficulties inherent in writing about personal trauma and the techniques for doing so in a compelling way.
Since 2013, David Chrisinger has taught military veterans, their families, and other trauma survivors how to make sense of and recount their stories of loss and transformation. The lessons he imparts can be used by anyone who has ever experienced trauma, particularly people with a deep need to share that experience in a way that leads to connection and understanding.
In Stories Are What Save Us, Chrisinger shows—through writing exercises, memoir excerpts, and lessons he's learned from his students—the most efficient ways to uncover and effectively communicate what you've learned while fighting your life's battles, whatever they may be. Chrisinger explores both the difficulties inherent in writing about personal trauma and the techniques for doing so in a compelling way. Weaving together his journey as a writer, editor, and teacher, he reveals his own deeply personal story of family trauma and abuse and explains how his life has informed his writing.
Part craft guide, part memoir, and part teacher's handbook, Stories Are What Save Us presents readers with a wide range of craft tools and storytelling structures that Chrisinger and his students have used to process conflict in their own lives, creating beautiful stories of growth and transformation. Throughout, this profoundly moving, laser-focused book exemplifies the very lessons it strives to teach.
A foreword by former soldier and memoirist Brian Turner, author of My Life as a Foreign Country, and an afterword by military wife and memoirist Angela Ricketts, author of No Man's War: Irreverent Confessions of an Infantry Wife, bookend the volume.
Since 2013, David Chrisinger has taught military veterans, their families, and other trauma survivors how to make sense of and recount their stories of loss and transformation. The lessons he imparts can be used by anyone who has ever experienced trauma, particularly people with a deep need to share that experience in a way that leads to connection and understanding.
In Stories Are What Save Us, Chrisinger shows—through writing exercises, memoir excerpts, and lessons he's learned from his students—the most efficient ways to uncover and effectively communicate what you've learned while fighting your life's battles, whatever they may be. Chrisinger explores both the difficulties inherent in writing about personal trauma and the techniques for doing so in a compelling way. Weaving together his journey as a writer, editor, and teacher, he reveals his own deeply personal story of family trauma and abuse and explains how his life has informed his writing.
Part craft guide, part memoir, and part teacher's handbook, Stories Are What Save Us presents readers with a wide range of craft tools and storytelling structures that Chrisinger and his students have used to process conflict in their own lives, creating beautiful stories of growth and transformation. Throughout, this profoundly moving, laser-focused book exemplifies the very lessons it strives to teach.
A foreword by former soldier and memoirist Brian Turner, author of My Life as a Foreign Country, and an afterword by military wife and memoirist Angela Ricketts, author of No Man's War: Irreverent Confessions of an Infantry Wife, bookend the volume.
- GenresNonfictionWriting
240 pages, Paperback
Published July 6, 2021
9 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
David Chrisinger
10 books8 followersDavid Chrisinger is the executive director of the Public Policy Writing Workshop at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and the director of writing seminars for The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit newsroom dedicated to reporting on the human impact of military service.
He is the author of several books, including "The Soldier's Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Story of World War II, "Stories Are What Save Us: A Survivor’s Guide to Writing about Trauma," and "Public Policy Writing That Matters," which in 2022 received the National Council of Teachers of English George Orwell Award.
He is the author of several books, including "The Soldier's Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Story of World War II, "Stories Are What Save Us: A Survivor’s Guide to Writing about Trauma," and "Public Policy Writing That Matters," which in 2022 received the National Council of Teachers of English George Orwell Award.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 12, 2025
On one hand, I thought this book provided a lot of interesting anecdotes on the writer’s students, their challenges, and how to teach writing to sensitive populations. There are interesting insights in here about the difference between confessional writing (fact-based, defensive) and confidential writing (reflective, connecting to the reader) and the importance of imagining details to fill in blanks when necessary as long as this is disclosed to the reader. I also appreciated the exercise worksheets included at the end.
On the other hand, I thought this book was quite disjointed. While I actually thought Chrisinger’s personal recollections were really interesting and well-written, I was thrown off by the way they skipped around in time and subject, and weren’t always satisfactorily connected to the topic at hand in my opinion. To me, the book could have been less reliant on memoir and used those stories to support the writing lessons, instead of shoehorning those lessons at the end of each chapter.
Finally, maybe this was unfair of me, but I expected a little more insight into trauma and how writing about it *feels*. The afterword by Angela Ricketts finally alludes to this in really effective language, which only made the lack of these insights in the rest of the book more glaring.
I also wanted a little more about incorporating your own trauma into fiction writing, and writing about trauma that isn’t from war — both of which are barely acknowledged. For the latter, Chrisinger even tells a story at the very end of the book about a woman who had trauma due to childhood abuse who challenged him, and his answer was so unsatisfactory that she refused to speak with him again. That should tell you everything you need to know. I don’t blame him too much because his professional focus is on veterans, but maybe he could at least do a little more reading on the topic if this book is supposed to be about ALL trauma, or specify that this book is specifically about wartime trauma.
So this book wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but aspects of it were quite well-done. I’m sure it’ll be perfect for a different kind of reader, even if that’s not me.
On the other hand, I thought this book was quite disjointed. While I actually thought Chrisinger’s personal recollections were really interesting and well-written, I was thrown off by the way they skipped around in time and subject, and weren’t always satisfactorily connected to the topic at hand in my opinion. To me, the book could have been less reliant on memoir and used those stories to support the writing lessons, instead of shoehorning those lessons at the end of each chapter.
Finally, maybe this was unfair of me, but I expected a little more insight into trauma and how writing about it *feels*. The afterword by Angela Ricketts finally alludes to this in really effective language, which only made the lack of these insights in the rest of the book more glaring.
I also wanted a little more about incorporating your own trauma into fiction writing, and writing about trauma that isn’t from war — both of which are barely acknowledged. For the latter, Chrisinger even tells a story at the very end of the book about a woman who had trauma due to childhood abuse who challenged him, and his answer was so unsatisfactory that she refused to speak with him again. That should tell you everything you need to know. I don’t blame him too much because his professional focus is on veterans, but maybe he could at least do a little more reading on the topic if this book is supposed to be about ALL trauma, or specify that this book is specifically about wartime trauma.
So this book wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but aspects of it were quite well-done. I’m sure it’ll be perfect for a different kind of reader, even if that’s not me.
January 25, 2024
Мне кажется, что это лучший мануал о том, как писать тексты, что я пока встречала. Образец текста - разбор, за счет чего создается впечатление. Одновременно очень про очень личное и очень техническое. Не идеальная книжка, но пока это единственные тексты о том, как писать, которые меня впечатлили и мне хотелось ими делиться
May 14, 2024
This was a start to having a more open conversation about trauma and all its different types. The book was informative but wasn’t what I expected. I appreciated reading about Chrisinger’s own stories, but it felt like the different sections weren’t totally cohesive. Maybe it would help to pair it with one of Chrisinger’s classes?
June 18, 2023
Solid book. Nothing mind-blowing for me but well written with good tips, particularly for those new to personal writing. My favorite parts were the author's own memoir woven in, and it served as both a powerful through line and illustrative example.
February 18, 2023
This book had some good tips. It was entertaining throughout. But, I didn’t learned what I hoped I would.
June 6, 2023
This book was informative, and had good advice about writing personal essays, memoirs, etc.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews