Kristena Tunstall

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Kristena Tunstall > My Journeys > 365 Day Writing Journey > Day 89: Worries of Writing Memoir

Posted on March 15, 2014 By Kristena Tunstall

Day 89: Worries of Writing Memoir

White Keyboard with My Story Button.I want, no, I need to share this excerpt from the book I’m using. Even as I sit here writing this, I feel my eyes moistening. I hope you will see why this has touched my heart and maybe why God lead me to the very book to use in my 365 day journey.

“Robin Romm worried whether to publish the memoir she had written about the last three weeks of her mother’s life. She wrote thirty pages of notes during those weeks, then ninety pages in the ten days after her mother died. Romm felt there were more reasons not to write a memoir than to write it, and asked herself the questions many of us struggle with: “Will people think I am using a tragedy for personal gain? Would my mother like being portrayed sick in a book? Is it a trespass to tell other people’s stories? What right did I have to them? Will I be disowned? Will critics be mean? Will some petty blogger go, ‘Egads, another cancer book!’ I could fill a page with these questions.”

“But then she read her mother’s journals and came across an entry in which her mother, who was an attorney, wrote that she felt her sphere of influence had been so small in this world. “And I had a moment of thinking,” says Romm, “that maybe her story, my story, our story, would find its way into the hands of others in the middle of a tragedy, or those trying to help someone in tragedy’s clutches. That this story —so small, really, just a mother’s death —might have the power to be more universal.””

“I felt what I felt and I knew what I felt and I wrote what I felt.” —ROBIN ROMM

I have felt for a long time that I needed to write Mari’s story. At first, I thought it would be more of a biography/autobiography. I got the idea while Mari was still alive in the hospital that maybe I could write her story. But then God showed me the real story He wanted me to write which is the memoir of what happened those 16 days while in the hospital before she died to the few days after to include the wake and funeral. Then include a chapter of how I am today which is more of my testimony.

I see Mari’s story as being one to help others as they go through their own hard times and tragedies, especially those where you lose someone with the hardest ones being the loss of a child. When Mari died there weren’t any I could find. It was more of the self-help kind. However, although I didn’t realize until later, the kind of book that helped me the most was reading someone else’s journey of loss that paralleled mine. It struck me right to my core. In that moment I knew Mari’s story would help others as that one had done for me.

 

Day 90: The Wrestling Match

March 16, 2014 Kristena Tunstall 2
Here's a question for you: Are you ever fully satisfied with yourself? If you say yes, I don't think you're being truthful with yourself. No matter who we are or what we do there's always room to grow. As a writer, I'm still a long way off from being able…
 

The Journey with Yvonne Anderson

March 14, 2014 Kristena Tunstall 0
Please welcome this weeks guest Yvonne Anderson for The Journey. She answers the question: How have you seen God work in your writing journey? The Reluctant Writer My mom had a lifelong desire to write. So much so, in fact, that when I, her third born, came into the world,…

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4 Comments

Comments

  1. Jean Williams says

    March 19, 2014 at 9:54 am

    Great topic, the memoir. I, too, am writing a memoir about my son’s suicide. It’s a devotional memoir that I pray will touch others and draw them closer to a Great and Wonderful Lord God. Thank you, again, Kristena for sharing your heart.

    Reply
    • Kristena Tunstall says

      March 23, 2014 at 4:20 pm

      Thank you Jean. My hope is that when people read what I write they can get to know me just a little bit more and that they can see how I immerse myself in my writing.

      Reply
  2. Hilary says

    March 22, 2014 at 3:21 am

    Hi Kristena .. I’m over from the A -Z .. and memoir is a good thing to do – from which ever angle who wish to take it … I will probably do mine at some stage – but that’s for the future .. Good Luck with the A-Z .. cheers Hilary

    Reply
    • Kristena Tunstall says

      March 23, 2014 at 4:21 pm

      Thank you Hillary. I’m looking forward to the A to Z Challenge this year.

      Reply

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