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This week, I’m joined by Wendy Dale, the author of The Memoir Engineering System, for a conversation that will change the way you think about structure, scenes, and what actually makes a memoir work. We talk about why “this happened, then this happened” isn’t a story, how connected events create momentum, and why your job as a memoirist isn’t just to show—but to transport your reader. If you’ve ever felt stuck in the messy middle, overwhelmed by pages, or unsure how to shape your lived experience into a compelling narrative, this episode is for you.

Episode Highlights

• 03:04 Wendy's Background
• 05:50 The "This Happened Then This Happened Problem
• 09:37 What Makes a Good Memoir
• 12:07 The Secret to Becoming a Great Writer
• 16:26 The Most Important Elements a Writer Must Consider
• 26:03 What Readers Really Want
• 33:15 The Real Work Scenes Must Do

Resources for this Episode:

• Story Cure: A Book Doctor's Pain-Free Guide to Finishing Your Novel or Memoir by Dinty Moore
• Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family by Mitchell Jackson
• What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
• Identify Your Memoir’s Essential Question
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now

Wendy’s Bio: Wendy Dale is the founder of Memoir Writing for Geniuses. She offers coaching and classes for newbies and professionals to write their memoirs using principles instead of a process of trial and error. Her memoir Avoiding Prison and Other Noble Vacation Goals was published by Three Rivers Press, a division of Penguin Random House. She is also the author of the book The Memoir Engineering System, the result of 15 years of research, which details a six-step process that allows writers to craft their memoirs from the ground up with no structural errors. Her motto is “Make your first draft your final draft.”

Connect with Wendy:

Website: www.geniusmemoirwriting.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@memoirwritingforgeniuses

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

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As we step into 2026, many writers feel ready to begin—yet remain stalled or exhausted from the year before. In this episode, I show you how to reclaim momentum through creative alignment and the one thing you must do to harness your success. We explore the three essential things every writer must do: shed limiting beliefs, build supportive habits, and set boundaries that honor who you’re becoming—so you can step into the year with clarity, sovereignty, and authentic momentum.

Episode Highlights

• 1:53: Why Your Momentum is Flagging or Lagging
• 6:09: Shedding Unhelpful Beliefs
• 12:33: Modifying Your Habits
• 16:34: Evaluating Your Relationships
• 28:10: The Most Important Practice to Cultivate in 2026

Resources for this Episode:

• What’s Up with the Year of the Fire Horse
• Welcome to the Year of Fire Horse 2026: Exploring Chinese Zodiac Horse's Cultural Meanings & Traditions
• What Are You Ready to Shed
• Identify Your Memoir’s Essential Question
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now

Lisa’s Bio: Lisa Cooper Ellison is an author, speaker, trauma-informed writing coach, and host of the Writing Your Resilience podcast. Working at the powerful intersection of storytelling and healing, she blends her writing expertise, clinical training, and soul-centered practices—including Akashic Records work and Human Design—to help writers turn their hardest experiences into art. Her essays—on sibling loss, grief, trauma healing, and the craft of writing—have appeared in The New York Times, HuffPost, and The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope, among others.

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Get a taste of the series by signing up for Identify Your Memoir’s Essential Question

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

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In this encore conversation, author and teacher Melanie Brooks and I explore the lifelong impact of silence—within our families, our communities, and our writing lives. Drawing from her memoir, A Hard Silence, Melanie shares how unspoken truths shaped her understanding of grief, identity, and faith, and what it took to finally claim her voice on the page. Together, we discuss how silence keeps writers stuck, the power of finishing the stories that haunt us, and how narrative medicine helped her weave two complex narratives into one.

Episode Highlights

• 2:55: The pain of living with secrets
• 5:54: Navigating anticipatory grief
• 15:45: The transformative power of finishing your story
• 20:00 The magic of timing and the stories we tell ourselves
• 26:00 The influence of narrative medicine on Melanie’s story
• 30:00 Marrying two stories into one
• 37:00 Melanie’s best writing advice

Resources for this Episode:

• My Family Kept My Dad's Secret For Years. I Wasn't Prepared For What Telling The Truth Would Mean.
• Interrogating the Cost of Silence and Finding My Voice
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now

Melanie’s Bio: Melanie Brooks is the author of A Hard Silence: One Daughter Remaps Family, Grief, and Faith When HIV/AIDS Changes It All (Vine Leaves Press, September 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017). She teaches professional writing at Northeastern University and creative nonfiction in the MFA program at Bay Path University in Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program. She recently completed a Certificate of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. Her work has appeared in Psychology Today, the HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, the Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from college), and two Labs.

Connect with Melanie:

Website: melaniebrooks.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melanie.brooks.1690

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melaniejmbrookswriter

X: https://twitter.com/MelanieJMBrooks

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/melanie-brooks-504826121

Book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-hard-silence-one-daughter-remaps-family-grief-and-faith-when-

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Produced by Espresso Podcast Production