1. Life Story Emotion On and off the page

2. Writing to Connect While the stories we tell are particular, emotions we share are universal, thereby inviting a broad range of others into our world. Emotion is the currency, the bond, between writers and readers.

3. Why Write? “This is the work of stories and bookmaking and art…we have been given the sacred task of making hearts large through story. We are working to make hearts that are capable of containing much joy and much sorrow, hearts capacious enough to contain the complexities and mysteries and contradictions of ourselves and of each other” Kate DiCamillo

4. One Big Emotion Courage No matter who your audience is, writing takes a certain kind of badass nerve. Especially if you are grappling with difficult emotions.

5. On Emotion and Life Story “You must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight to the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act— truth is always subversive.” Anne Lamott

6. Robert Frost “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.”

7. Workshop Relationships between memory, emotion, and writing Why some life experiences are harder to write about than others Test drive some techniques that make writing therapeutic AND powerful Workshop: like conversation— please ask questions or make connections

8. Free-write Your goals for writing Questions you have so far

9. My Background Career Educator Writer/ scholar University of Nevada, Reno Utah State University Black Hills State University Study Life Writing

10. A Workshop 15 Years in the Making

11. So: Emotion Doctoral questions: 1.What constitutes the right kind of story? 2.Who decides? 3.What do I do with all of these pesky feelings?

12. Writing WORTHY Well before the 8-year “writing” Artifacts kept coming in Unfamiliar with memoir as a genre Emotionally complicated Showing emotion suspicious culturally Difficulty of identifying the “demon”

13. Life Writing OFF THE PAGE Private “Closed door” writing You as a human being Understanding self Aim for insight, healing, etc. ON THE PAGE Public “Open door” writing You as a “Character” Geared toward readers Aim for catharsis

14. Emotion Off the Page “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right—as right as you can, anyway—it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it.” Stephen King

15. Emotions: Blessing or Curse? Are are “intelligent”(Martha Nussbaum) Signal that something important is at stake Can change depending on interpretation of an stimulus Can interfere with insight or acquisition of information (emotional reasoning)

16. “If we haven’t chosen something important to write about, we’d feel nothing at all.” Louise DeSalvo

17. In Other Words… If it’s worth writing about, it’s probably messy emotionally.

18. Stop and Think: Have you ever liked or disliked something without knowing what it is? Have you felt good (or bad) without knowing precisely why? Have you had emotion(s) you “can’t get over?” Have you felt a physical reaction to something you can’t account for? (goosebumps, wave of melancholy, increased heartbeat, etc.?) Have you ever tried to write about a difficult memory? What challenges did you encounter?

19. Emotion and the Brain

20. Fun facts about the Brain Amygdala: Emotional Non-verbal Preverbal Assigns emotional weight Hippocampus: Contextual Spatial Semiotic Age 3-4

21. “Traumatic” Memories “In excess of our frames of reference” Felman and Laub “Not encoded like ordinary memories…in a verbal, linear narrative” Judith Herman “Lack verbal narrative [story] and context” “Permanently encoded as images and emotions” Marian MacCurdy

22. Traumatic Memory “… it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way. The angles of vision are skewed. When a booby trap explodes, you close your eyes and duck and float outside yourself... The pictures get jumbled, you tend to miss a lot. And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed.” Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried

23. The “Demon” Shame Preverbal: develops age 18 months-3 right hemisphere hypothalamus, amygdala Guilt Verbal: Emerges 3-6; L brain but distributes widely Emerges from self observation and story-making Adaptive

24. “Shame gives feedback to the self as to perceived social rank as well as an ultimate measure of one’s value or worth within a group” Robert J. Neborsky “Guilt says: I'm sorry. I made a mistake. Shame says: I'm sorry. I am a mistake. “ Brené Brown

25. “Healing?” According to the Experts: Integrating emotion, imagery, language Assimilating events into an ongoing life story “Reconciling” life events and decisions-- realizing you control the meaning According to me: The ability to step into the world in increasingly powerful and compassionate ways

26. Writing “[The] methods that produce good writing are the very ones that facilitate healing: iconic image rather than voice- over narrative is the core of both processes.” Marian M. MacCurdy, “From Trauma to Writing”

27. Stop & Connect Make a list of “iconic” images from your own life:

28. Story + Emotion + Reflection Group 1: Instructed to write about trivial topics Group 2: Instructed to write about traumatic event, focus on venting emotions Group 3: Instructed to write about traumatic event, focus on what happened Group 4: Instructed to write about traumatic event, focus on emotions and events

29. “The emotional findings…suggest that to gain the most benefit from writing about life’s traumas, acknowledge the negative, but celebrate the positive.” James W. Pennebaker

30. Emotion on the Page

31. Show-not-tell Non-integrated writing is vague I was speechless It was beyond description I was struck dumb My heart was in my mouth Effective writing is detailed and specific “When I'm out there at night I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving, my skin and fingernails, everything, it's like I'm full of electricity and I'm glowing in the dark - I'm on fire almost - I'm burning away into nothing - but it doesn't matter because I know exactly who I am.” Tim O’Brien

32. Practice Choose one of your iconic memories, and brainstorm all of the sensory details. Invent dialogue. Use as much concrete detail as you can. What do you see? Smell? Insofar as you can, recreate the experience, including your emotions. (Conflicting emotions are especially important). What does it look like, feel like, to be you in that moment? Once you’ve written the scene, reflect. What do you learn about yourself or others from it?

33. Writing as Inquiry I am in that space between writing and lived experience. Before you know what you will later come to know. This morning, I return to a question that I’ve never really answered: How do you proceed when your destination is unclear? Who is the person floating this boat? From whence come those bearings? Denice Turner 9/24/ 2015