Book Title: Lessons for Life: Finding Your First-Person Voice

Book Description

Many people worry about using the first-person voice in their writing, sure they’ll say the wrong thing or don’t have a right to speak. For that reason alone, finding your own voice matters. But even experienced book authors can struggle with how much to say about themselves in a public venue. That’s why these “Lessons for Life” emphasize the writing process over a final product. They are geared toward personal nonfiction and storytelling rather than fiction writing. However, exploring and developing a first-person voice can be a stepping stone to creating convincing fictional characters.

This series of five lessons emphasizes the process for getting to a meaningful personal story. Each lesson contains a sequence of four activities – Dream First (idea generation), Write Fast (drafting), Vision Share (focusing), and Think Again (revising), along with optional “stretches” and reading assignments. Do the lessons on your own, with a group of your choosing, or as part of a classroom course. You’ll keep a Process Notebook throughout to document your work, including self-evaluations at the end of each lesson.

The first lesson, “Dear Me,” is about looking inward by writing a letter to “me.” In the second lesson, “Six Views of Yourself,” you’ll describe your “I” in different ways. This is followed by “Observing Moments,” a lesson in which you observe a natural place and write capsule descriptions with vivid details. In the fourth lesson, “Responding to Life,” you’ll build a story around a personal turning point. The final lesson, “Dear World,” returns to letter writing, in this case a public letter about a topic that matters to you.

Writers live by their stories, but other professionals use storytelling to communicate, including medical workers, salespeople, app designers, political activists, managers, and teachers. Personal storytelling matters because it helps us make meaning of the world and our communities. Journalists have much to gain from these lessons, but so do new writers and anyone who wants to express themselves with more confidence and individuality.