Adair Lara

“Naked, Drunk, and Writing: Shed Your Inhibitions and Craft a Compelling Memoir Or Personal Essay“ by Adair Lara is a thought provoking, informative, and inspiring book on writing personal essays or memoirs….

As a writer who focuses on writing essays and memoirs, it makes sense that Lara’s book on writing is not a dry, technical writing manual. It’s engaging and full of stories. I found it enjoyable to read, as well as informative and educational….

I enjoyed reading this book, and found it to have some great advice for writing in general, and especially for writing essays and memoirs. If you are interested in this type of writing, I recommend this book. Not only for the practical advice it contains, but also for the motivation and inspiration reading it provides.

Read the whole article by Alain Burrese on EzineArticles.

Book Review: Naked, Drunk and Writing

Our resident Book Reviewer, Claudine Wolk, is at it again!  (Really, how does she do it?)  In case you don’t know Claudine’s own story, she was a self-published author before getting picked up by a big time publisher and has developed a passion for aspiring writers.  Claudine was given a copy of this book to review; a risky decision if it were not to her liking….

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Naked, Drunk and Writing by Adair Lara is a gem and a breath of fresh air. The nice folks at the Amazon Vine Program sent me a free copy of this one. If you ask me, any author willing to admit that she put the word “naked” in her book title because she heard that books with the word “naked” in the title sell better, is A-OK in my book.  What’s even better, the book is a pleasure to read and chock full of great wisdom for any writer or aspiring writer.

How often do you hear someone say (or have you said yourself) “I Should Write a Book About That!”  If that sounds like you and you are serious, this book is for you. Extremely readable (my favorite quality), well-written (so we know we can trust her), and entertainingly witty (which I know is not her purpose, but still), Naked, Drunk, and Writing is going to get you excited to get your story out there.  It also educates you on the tools of the trade so that when you do have a piece to hand to someone it is going to be what a professional would expect!

Here are some of the things you will find in this book: how to get started, where to put your focus, countless examples, clever exercises, and how to sell your manuscript to a publisher.  This book can be read from cover to cover for sheer enjoyment value as well.  The author put all of her experience, anecdotes, and heart into this one.  Don’t miss it.

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Claudine Wolk is our New Moms Expert on BucksMont Style.  If you are a new mom with a burning question, don’t hesitate to contact her at Claudine@Help4NewMoms.com.  She is sure to talk you off the ledge and to remind you that motherhood is just plain difficult! Oh, and you can find her at all of these other places listed below.

(via bucksmontstyle.com.)

My article, “FIND AN ANGLE TO BRING YOUR SUBJECT TO LIFE,” has just been published in the current (October 2010) issue of Writer’s Digest. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post an excerpt from this soon.

The July/August 2010 issue of Writer’s Digest includes my article on “Elements of Effective Arc” – which explains how to “build your story around this foolproof framework to keep your memoir afloat.” I’m making a copy of the article available here: Effective Arc.

Here’s the opening:

When I began work on my memoir, Hold Me Close, Let Me Go: A Mother, a Daughter, and an Adolescence Survived, about my daughter’s action-packed coming of age, I had never heard of arcs. I thought, I lived this story. I’ll just write it down the way it happened. Type, type, type. It was as if I decided to build a house and just started nailing together boards with- out having ever even heard of blueprints. I put up some strange-looking houses that way, in the form of inert drafts filled with pointless scenes. I would have saved myself a lot of time if I had drawn an arc. But back then, I hadn’t even heard of an arc. Now I know it’s the emotional framework of a memoir.

My latest book – on how to “shed your inhibitions and craft a compelling memoir or personal essay” – is out now from Ten Speed Press:

The award-winning author of an autobiographical newspaper column, Adair Lara has written more than ten books, including the memoir Hold Me Close, Let Me Go. Packed with insight and wit, Naked, Drunk, and Writing is the culmination of her extensive experience as a writer, editor, and teacher. In this instructive and refreshingly irreverent guide, she shows aspiring writers how to cast off self-doubt and become skilled storytellers.

read the full press release – Ten Speed

This is not one of those inspirational writing books that tell you to go to a café and write about your mother; it’s one that tells you what to do with what you wrote in the café.

read all about it