Writing Your Resilience: Building Resilience, Embracing Trauma and Healing Through Writing

Send us Fan Mail This week, you will hear from Wendy Hawkes, an emerging writer working on a coming-of-middle-age memoir about how she survived category 5 Hurricane Dorian, a storm whose intensity was due to climate change, and how this experience taught her to go with the flow. During our conversation we talk about how to write tough scenes without overdramatizing them or falling into a victim ro...

Send us Fan Mail This week, you’ll hear from Meredith Master, a writer working on her memoir who is deciding on its structure. In this episode, we discuss writing a braided memoir, writing with a disability, telling the story of someone who has passed away, and how to write about the parts of someone’s life you weren’t present for.  Meredith’s Bio: Meredith Master is a blind writer living in New Y...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever felt the need to write your story and share it with others? What if you believed breaking the silence would heal you, but family members want you to keep certain stories private? Could you find a way to respect their wishes while honoring your truth?   In this episode, I am joined by Stephanie Shafran, a writer who’s spent a lifetime being silenced and is now experie...

Send us Fan Mail Before you send your book to beta readers, listen to this episode! In it, you’ll meet Melissa Macomber, another Camp Structure alumni who’s working on her memoir. During this episode, we explore how to know when your book is ready for beta readers, the three types of beta readers you’ll need, how to choose beta readers wisely, and questions to ask them before sending out your work...

Send us Fan Mail This week, you’ll hear from Camp Structure alumni Shoshana Koch, a writer and speaker who’s working on a coming-of-age memoir. During this episode, we explore the challenges trauma survivors face when building an author platform, how to deal with rejection, and how to re-engage with a writing project after an extended break. Shoshana’s Bio: Shoshana is a psychologist, writer, and...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to season three of the Writing Your Resilience podcast! During seasons one and two, I interviewed experts and published authors who generously shared their wisdom on writing and healing. We’ll get back to that in season four. But sometimes it’s nice to know the people walking this journey alongside you. For my season three “Summer Shorts” series, you’ll meet ten writers in...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the last episode of Season 2! This second season has been amazing, and I am so grateful for all of the featured guests and all of you listeners. Just as I did last season, I decided to sit behind the microphone and open myself up to answering questions. In this episode, you’ll meet Katie Rouse, a poet, memoirist, and former student in my Camp Structure course. During th...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Ramani Durvasula, author of It’s Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People , shares her insights into narcissism, how narcissistic abuse survivors can heal and get support, and how to care for yourself when writing and promoting a book on tough topics.  Ramani Durvasula, Ph. D. is a licensed clinical psychologist in California, the founder and CEO of LUNA Educa...

Send us Fan Mail Author Ann Batchelder talks about her daughter’s struggle with addiction, their recovery journeys, the myths she had to confront, her struggle with perfectionism, and the writing tips she learned as she was writing her memoir, Craving Spring: A Mother's Quest, a Daughter's Depression, and the Greek Myth that Brought Them Together Ann’s bio: Ann Batchelder writes about wo...

Send us Fan Mail Author, Jennifer Lunden, shares her struggles with chronic illness, the challenges of writing a hybrid memoir, especially when you’ve not trained in science writing, and the grit all writers, but especially writers with disabilities, need to cultivate.   Jennifer Lunden Bio: Jennifer Lunden (she/her) is the author of American Breakdown: Our Ailing Nation, My Body’s Revolt , and th...

Send us Fan Mail Author Laura Cathcart Robbins shares book marketing tips she learned while promoting her memoir Stash: My Life in Hiding, and how recovery helped her cultivate the honesty needed to write her memoir.  Laura’s Bio: Laura Cathcart Robbins is the best-selling author of the Atria/Simon & Schuster memoir, Stash, My Life In Hiding , and host of the popular podcast, The Only One In T...

Send us Fan Mail Andrea Firth  joins the Writing Your Resilience podcast to talk about what personal essays are, how writers can uncover their essay’s aboutness, and how to develop resilient editing practices. As an added bonus, she also offers writers the inside scoop on how to get published on the Brevity Blog . Andrea’s Bio: Andrea A. Firth is a writer, editor and educator living in the San Fra...

Send us Fan Mail Author and writing coach, Suzette Mullen shares tips for structuring your memoir, navigating the dark night of the soul, living with integrity, and learning to listen to your inner voice.  Suzette’s Bio: Suzette Mullen (she/her) is a memoir and nonfiction book coach, retreat leader, and the author of the memoir The Only Way Through Is Out (University of Wisconsin Press, 2024), nam...

Send us Fan Mail Natalie MacLean joins the Writing Your Resilience podcast to talk about surviving a social media witch hunt, how it impacted her relationship with alcohol, threading a theme through her memoir and marketing your book like a pro.  Natalie’s Bio: Natalie MacLean, named the World's Best Drinks Journalist, has also won four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. She’s the best...

Send us Fan Mail Lennie Echterling joins the Writing Your Resilience podcast to talk about the lessons he learned from landmine survivors, the difference between empathy and toxic positivity, the importance of fostering your posttraumatic growth, and how to use writing to build your resilience.  Lennie’s Bio: Lennie Echterling, Ph. D., is a Professor Emeritus at James Madison University with more...

Send us Fan Mail Sue William Silverman joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to talk about the power of creative nonfiction, how to use metaphor, masks, and language to harness its power, and how this work can lead to personal growth. As you listen along, here are a few questions to ponder: Which of your stories yearn to be told?  How do you uncover their many emotional truths? What do those t...

Send us Fan Mail Ingrid Clayton joins the Writing Your Resilience podcast to talk about Complex PTSD, how narcissistic abuse leads to self-gaslighting, its impact on the writing process, and how Ingrid confronted these experiences while writing her memoir Believing Me .  Here’s a list of questions to ponder as you follow along: Have you ever doubted your own experiences? Have you ever felt like if...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to season two of the Writing Your Resilience Podcast!  After celebrating season one’s fantastic interviews, I decided to kick things off right by having a fireside-style chat with you about a topic that keeps coming up: Forgiveness.  Whether we’re on a healing journey or writing the tough stuff, forgiveness can be a complicated thing to grasp and work through. In this epis...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the last episode of Season 1! This season has been amazing, and I am so grateful for all the listeners who return week after week to learn from my featured guests. After weeks of  asking other writers questions, I decided to invite some of the writers I work with onto the podcast to ask me questions! In this episode, you’ll first meet Sara Pam Neufeld, a yoga teacher an...

Send us Fan Mail Tia Levings joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss her experience as a debut author,  writing to heal without retraumatizing yourself, the gaslighting that happens in religion, and getting things off your chest and onto the page to educate others with your writing.  As you listen to this episode, consider the following questions:  What would you need to do to claim y...

Send us Fan Mail Brett Will Taylor joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss vulnerability, family stories, shamanism, and the importance of leaning into the mystery. As you listen to this episode, consider the following questions:  What are the family stories that you are living from? Who are your people and who or what do you consider to be your guides? How do you grapple with the thi...

Send us Fan Mail Katie Rose Guest Pryal joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to take a deep dive into what neurodiversity is and how it impacts writers. Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: What do you know about neurodiversity? Do you consider yourself to be neurodivergent? If you are, how does that impact the way you set up your writing life, what you write abou...

Send us Fan Mail Athena Dixon joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss the multiple facets of loneliness, how to decide what is for you and what is for the public, and how to create your own definition of success.  Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: How do you define loneliness? How did the pandemic impact the way that you define and experienced it? What...

Send us Fan Mail Sarah Perry joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to talk about the choices they  made while writing their award-winning memoir, After the Eclipse , and how each decision helped them build a book about their mother’s murder that was more than a true crime story. In this conversation, they explore the structure of Sarah’s book, how to build a character based on research, naviga...

Send us Fan Mail TW: Mention of Suicide Eileen Vorbach Collins joins the Writing Your Resilience podcast to talk about living with and writing about grief, breaking free of stigma and shame, how your structure serves your readers, and the importance of humor, even when writing about unimaginable pain.  Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: Have you experienced a profoun...