Here’s what I learned from Still Life At Eighty by Abigail Thomas:

• Revealing the dark parts of yourself in writing makes those things less scary and less powerful. 

• Simple, clear, no-frill writing can be just as powerful and moving as fancy prose. Lean into your style, whatever it may be. 

• Sometimes writing can just be keeping a log of your feelings and experiences. It might not be something to publish now, but later, when you can look back at that time in your life and have rich details to include once you’ve had some separation from it. 

• If you don’t know what to write about, write about what you’re struggling with.

• Rhythm is important: Print out what you’ve written in a different font so it looks like somebody else wrote it and read it out loud. When your voice goes dead, there’s either something hiding behind that sentence or it’s just boring. 

• Memoir is not a place to get revenge or cast oneself as victim.

Freelance Writing Direct podcast interview with Abigail Thomas