Mythmaking

Best-selling Heroine’s Journey author Maureen Murdock invites readers to explore their personal story within the rich tapestry of human experience by examining the craft of memoir alongside fresh writing advice and prompts.

Maureen Murdock looks at thematic connections between ancient myths and contemporary memoirs to probe questions like: What is my journey? Where is home? Her background as a Jungian psychotherapist enriches her teaching—urging us to dig deep to identify our own universal archetypes.
Writers who feel stuck or unworthy of writing about themselves will find thought-provoking inspiration and validation in this book, while those simply looking to use writing as a tool for self-exploration will examine their patterns and stories to reveal their true inner selves. And all will be left with a deeper understanding of the rich scope of the memoir genre by exploring contemporary favorites—like Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge, Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, and David Carr’s The Night of the Gun—from a mythological perspective.
Like myth, memoir reveals a unity to human experience that ultimately we all share similar hopes, dreams, and desires as well as fears, losses, and heartbreaks. Memoir helps writers understand the trajectory of their lives and helps readers better grasp our own place within the human experience.

MAUREEN MURDOCK, PhD, a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist, has been teaching memoir writing since 1990 in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She also teaches memoir and myth for the International Women’s Writing Guild and teaches weekly classes in Santa Barbara. Murdock has written five books as well as articles for publications like Psychological Perspectives and The Huffington Post.