{"id":5948,"date":"2011-11-09T09:12:41","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T16:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=5948"},"modified":"2011-11-09T09:12:41","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T16:12:41","slug":"writing-tips-from-jasmin-darznik-of-good-daughter-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/writing-tips-from-jasmin-darznik-of-good-daughter-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"The Writing Room: Writing Tips from Jasmin Darznik of \u201cGood Daughter\u201d Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JasminBy Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

Jasmin Darznik was at the Book Passage <\/a>bookstore in Marin county, California, Monday night for the monthly meeting of the Left Coast Writers<\/a>. She had some tips for wannabe writers, particularly memoir writers.<\/p>\n

Tip # 1: Jasmin\u2019s New York Times bestselling memoir, The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother\u2019s Hidden Life <\/em>tells the story of her mother\u2019s marriage in Iran at the age of 13. Jasmin spent months interviewing her mother in Farsi, taking notes about her mother\u2019s life in Iran.<\/p>\n

The book is clearly a winner, but just as Jasmin was finishing it up, many industry folks were discouraging . \u201cIran is dead,\u201d they told her. \u201cNobody wants to read about Iran anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

If someone tells you your topic is dead, Jasmin advised her listeners, don\u2019t listen. She said Mark Childress is a Southern writer who often hears the lament \u201cSouthern writers are dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only one way to respond to the gloom-sayers, she heard him say one summer at the Squaw Valley writers conference. \u201cYou have to write your story so well that you can\u2019t be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tip # 2: Memoirs are stressful. It\u2019s tricky navigating the pressures of family and friends who don\u2019t want \u2013 or do want \u2013 to be included. But writing about your mother while she is still alive, is about as tortuous as memoir writing can get. Think twice before doing it.<\/p>\n

Jasmin is working on a right novel now (it\u2019s set in mid-twentieth-century Iran) and she\u2019s finding the fiction process soothing in comparison.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Jasmin notes, the memoir, because it tells a true story, has an authority that fiction lacks. Choose your poison.<\/p>\n

\"JasminTip # 3: In terms of time, for Jasmin less is more.<\/p>\n

While writing The Good Daughter<\/em>, Jasmin had a scant three hours per day to write between the time she dropped her son off at school and picked him up.<\/p>\n

The time constraint worked for Jasmin. She got a lot done \u2013 but might not have if she\u2019d had more time. \u201cGive me twelve hours and I will hang myself with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tip # 4: Enjoy the process. Enjoy your book. Of The Good Daughter<\/em>, Jasmin said with a tender smile, \u201cI love the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tip # 5: And finally: \u201cThe big lie of a memoir is that the story ends. I\u2019m still alive. My mother is still alive. I\u2019m still trying to make sense of her life. And I\u2019m still trying to make sense of our relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

FYI: Jasmin is a professor of English and creative writing at Washington and Lee University and teaches Iranian literature at the University of Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2011 BF Newhall<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The Good Daughter: A Memoir of\u00a0My Mother’s Hidden\u00a0Life<\/p>\n

By Jasmin Darznik<\/p>\n

Grand Central\/Hachett, $14.99 paper<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Jasmin<\/a><\/p>\n

Writing tips from Jasmin Darznik: “The big lie of memoir is that the story ends.” Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,52],"tags":[633,34,634,635,629,630,636,637,638,639,640,69],"class_list":["post-5948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-writing-reading","category-the-writing-room","tag-book-passage","tag-dont-miss","tag-iran","tag-iranian-writers","tag-jasmin-darznik","tag-left-coast-writers","tag-mark-childress","tag-memoir-writing","tag-southern-writers","tag-squaw-valley-writers","tag-the-good-daughter","tag-writing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}