Matilda Butler teaches women's memoir writing classes with the goal of helping women tell their life stories whether for personal understanding, family and friends, business marketing, or commercial publication. Her collective memoir, Rosie's Daughters: The "First Woman To" Generation Tells Its Story, has just been awarded the 2008 IPPY National Book Award, women's issues category.
Butler taught and conducted research at Stanford University, created the nationwide Women's Educational Equity Communication Network, and co-founded Knowledge Access International, a software company specializing in CD-ROM information products. She has published more than 50 articles about women, contributed chapters to published books about women in education and work, co-authored the award-winning book Women and the Mass Media and co-edited the book Knowledge Utilization Systems in Education. Her websites: Women's Memoirs, Two Women Business & Publishing, and Rosie's Daughters.
A Note from Matilda:
Writing, in all its forms, has been a part of my life since I was about 10. I appropriated my older sister's manual Smith-Corona typewriter and created a school newspaper that I sold for a nickel a copy. That launched me in what continues to be my two passions—writing and entrepreneurship. Today, more than 50 years later, I continue to write (books rather than newspapers) and to help writers become authorpreneurs.
I've always been drawn to the non-fiction side of the writing ledger but believe strongly in creative non-fiction. A good story well told is the goal and use of dialogue, the five senses, conflict, plot line, etc. are just as important in a memoir as they are in fiction. I am currently working on a book for memoirists that will help them bring insight to the people they write about and show depth and understanding in their life situations. The book (with two working titles—Sexy Secrets of the Social Sciences for Writers—and—Personal Narrative and the Social Sciences) draws on my research training in the social sciences and enables me to use many of the classic psychological and sociological studies that can guide us in becoming stronger writers. I get to test my material in my memoir classes. Several other books are tugging at my brain and just as soon as they join forces with my heart, I'll turn to them.
We write because we have stories to tell, because we want to share those stories with family, friends, even the wider world of readers. I can't talk about writing without mentioning my collective memoir, Rosie's Daughters: The "First Woman To" Generation Tells Its Story. "Why?" you ask. Because Rosie's Daughters turned me from a researcher to a memoirist. The power of the stories that came out in the more than 100 interviews I conducted stayed with me long after the interviews ended. I lived their stories. I dreamed their stories. I cried their stories. I laughed their stories. I was honored that they gave me the gift of their life stories and humbled when these women thanked me for letting them tell their stories. They often said they had never taken the time to look back on their lives. Now that they had, they could move forward with new insights.
Then I had my own struggle. I wanted to respect the individual stories of these women and their lives. Yet how do you tell more than 100 stories and make sense of it all so that an entire generation's experiences are captured in a single book? This took me down the path of innovating a new format that let me tell individual stories, show the parallel historic timeline, convey my analysis, highlight iconic photographs of the period, and incorporate the words of well-known women from this generation of women born during World War II. Talk about a growth experience.
Moving from the particulars of my own writing out to the books of others, I have a somewhat unusual philosophy. It is important to read good writers. They set the gold standard. But I also urge my students to read as many memoirs as possible. There is something to be learned about writing in each one. Sometimes a student comes into class saying, "I didn't like this book." I love that response because it lets me ask, "Why?" By the time the student has told me what's wrong or what doesn't work, she realizes she's learned a lot about what she needs to avoid in her writing as well as what she does want her writing to be like.
If you are looking for a mentor, then I'll assume you are serious about your goals. We all get stuck. We all need help. I'm here to help you in whatever way you feel you want assistance. I work with women at all stages in their writing. Some are struggling to figure out what is their story. Others are fine writers who simply have become blocked and need a way to get moving again. Still others don't know how to tell their stories. Some need feedback in order to see their way forward. This process we call writing is a bit mysterious. My words of wisdom are to "trust the process." Of course, the trickster in my head reminds me, "You'll never be the same, writing changes you and your life." I reply, "Celebrate the changes."
If you'd like to work with me, I can receive your written work as email attachments—either PC or Mac word processing files. I'll read and make suggestions based on your goals and needs. Then we'll have a conference call (I use FreeConferenceCall) that I'll record and give to you as an mp3 file that you can listen to as often as you like. This means you won't need to take notes and we can really get into a productive discussion of your writing.
Tip to writers: Read out loud. After you write a vignette or chapter or article, read your story out loud. This is a powerful tool for self-improvement.
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