Naked, Drunk, and Writing Shed Your Inhibitions and Craft a Compelling Memoir or Personal Essay

The material is right there in front of you. Yours"ve known yourself for, well, a lifetime-and you finally feel ready to share your story with the world. Yet when it actually comes time to put pen to paper, you find that yours"re stumped. Enter Adair Lara: award-winning author, seasoned columnist, beloved writing coach, and the answer to all of your autobiographical quandaries. Naked, Drunk, and Writingis the culmination of Larars"s vast experience as a writer, editor, and teacher. It is packed with insights and advice both practical ("writing workshops you pay for are the best--itrs"s too easy to quit when yours"ve made no investment") and irreverent ("apply Part A [butt] to Part B [chair]"), answering such important questions as: bull; How do I know where to start my piece and where to end it? bull; How do I make myself write when Irs"m too scared or lazy or busy? bull; What makes a good pitch letter, and how do I get mine noticed? bull; Irs"m ready to publish-now where do I find an agent? bull; If I show my manuscript to my mother, will I ever be invited to a family gathering again? As thorough and instructive as a personal writing coach (and cheaper, too),Naked, Drunk, and Writingis a must-have if you are an aspiring columnist, essayist, or memoirist-or just a writer who needs a bit of help in getting your story told.

ADAIR LARA wrote a weekly column for the San Francisco Chronicle for twelve years and won the Associated Press Award for Best Columnist in California. Lara currently teaches at Mills College and leads sold-out writing workshops.

Part I: Writing Down Your Stories  1
   one That Which Is Most Personal Is Most Common  2
   two Hot Heart, Cold Eye: The Inconvenient Importance of Craft  8

Part II: The Personal Essay  11
   three Elements of the Successful Essay  12
         KEEP IT SMALL | 13
         WHAT QUESTION DRIVES YOUR ESSAY? | 14 
         WRITE ABOUT THE MOMENT SOMETHING CHANGED | 15
         BUILD THE ESSAY | 19 
         OUTLINE THE ESSAY | 22
         WRITE THE EPIPHANY | 24
   four What’s Your Angle?  34
         YOU HAVE A SUBJECT—BUT DO YOU HAVE AN ANGLE? | 35  
         HOW TO FIND AN ANGLE | 37
         HOW TO USE SETUP | 40 

Part III: Techniques and Practices for Essay and Memoir  43 
   five Tone: How to Assert a Specific Temperament  45 
         ARE YOU FUNNY? | 47
         BE A SCREWUP | 54
         WATCH YOUR TONE | 56
         FINDING YOUR VOICE: DO YOU SOUND LIKE YOU? | 59
   six Image: The Luminosity of the Particular  62
         USE YOUR SENSES | 65
         BUILD IMAGES WITH SPECIFIC DETAILS | 69  
         THE DREAD NECESSITY OF INNER EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE | 75
   seven How to Trick Yourself into Writing 80
         APPLY PART A (BUTT) TO PART B (CHAIR) | 82
         WRITE EVERY DAY | 85
         NO TIME TO WRITE? CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY | 86  
         LOWER YOUR STANDARDS | 87
   eight It Takes a Village: Working with Other Writers  90 
         HOW WRITING PARTNERS MAKE YOU WRITE | 91
         HOW THE WRITING PARTNERSHIP WORKS | 93
         TAKE CLASSES | 96
         JOIN A GROUP | 98
         FEEDBACK: HOW TO GIVE IT | 100
         FEEDBACK: HOW TO TAKE IT | 104
   nine Revising Rewriting Your Work  108
         STEP BACK FROM YOUR DRAFT | 110
         FIX THE BEGINNING | 112  
         FIX THE ENDING | 114
         FIX IN GENERAL | 116
         FIX THE SENTENCES  | 121
         HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’RE FINISHED? | 126

Part IV: The Memoir  127
   ten Planning Your Memoir  128 
         WILL YOUR IDEA WORK? | 129
         USE REFLECTIVE VOICE | 134  
         DO YOUR REASEARCH| 141
         ORGANIZE YOUR MATERIAL | 144
         WRITE A DISCOVERY DRAFT | 145
   eleven What Goes In, What Doesn’t  148
         IDENTIFY YOUR DESIRE LINE AND OBSTACLES | 148  
         DETERMINE THE PIVOTAL EVENTS | 151
         DRAW THE ARC | 154  
         STRENGTHEN THE ARC | 158
         WHY IT’S CALLED CREATIVE NONFICTION | 163
         HIRE AN EDITOR | 164
         CONSIDER A NONCONVENTIONAL STRUCTURE | 166
   twelve How to Write Narration and Scene  168
         THE USES OF NARRATION | 168
         WRITE COMPELLING SCENES | 170  
         BRING YOUR MOM TO LIFE | 175
         USE DIALOGUE | 180 

Part V: Getting Published  183
   thirteen Words for Money: Selling Your Essays  184
         WHERE TO FIND A MARKET | 188
         HOW TO FIND HOOKS | 193  
         A WORD ABOUT RIGHTS | 195
         HOW TO SUBMIT | 196
         HOW TO HANDLE REJECTIONS | 200
         HOW TO HANDLE ACCEPTANCES | 202  
         GET YOUR WORK OUT THERE | 203
   fourteen Publishing Your Memoir  204
         FIND AN AGENT | 205 
         PREPARE TO OBSESS OVER THE QUERY LETTER | 207
         PUT TOGETHER THE PROPOSAL | 209
         YOUR NEW JOB: PROMOTING YOUR BOOK | 213
         SHOULD YOU SELF-PUBLISH? | 215
         WHAT IF MOM READS IT? | 218
         CONSIDER YOUR OPTIONS | 220
       
   What You Get When You Write from Life  225
   Appendix  231
         READING LIST | 231
         USEFUL TEXTS | 231
         WRITING EXERCISES | 232
         TRICKS OF THE (COMPUTER) TRADE | 241  
   Contributors  243  
   Index  244  
   About the Author  248