How to Write Personal Essays with Pam Munter

My guest this week is retired clinical psychologist Pam Munter.

Pam's written four books and had more than 150 personal essays published over the years. Her latest book is Fading Fame: Women of a Certain Age in Hollywood, a collection of ten short stories and two plays about the troubled lives of strong and talented women who survived #MeToo. Pam also writes a lot of non-fiction and memoirs.

In our interview, she talks about her approach to writing short stories, plays, and personal essays and talks about her life as a stage performer and a clinical psychologist.

Pam also has a fascinating insight into the creative process, which is worth listening to in the middle of the interview. 

If you feel that writing is a bit of a lonely profession, this is a conversation you want to hear.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How to balance writing with a professional career
• Dealing with feedback 
• Outlining stories in advance vs free writing
• Should writers attach value to their work?
• How long Pam spends writing each day
• Tips on getting published in journals

Resources:

• Pam Munter
• Fading Fame: Women of a Certain Age in Hollywood
• As Alone as I Want to Be
• When Teens Were Keen: Freddie Stewart and The Teen Agers of Monogram
• Almost Famous
• The Art of the Personal Essay
• The Best American Essays of the Century
• Duotrope

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Thanks for listening!