Today was day one of the Authors of the Flathead Writer’s Conference for 2026, a day I don’t usually go to because it means an extra night away from my family, an extra night in a hotel, and an extra day of extroverting: all of which take a toll.
But I had to come to the Friday Masterclass this year, because it was taught by Robert Petrone and it was all about first class POV and the Reflective Voice (basically writing memoir and including your grown-ass assessment of what happened then based on what you know now). In other words, it was a masterclass in what’s missing from the memoir I wrote a few years ago and called done until a bunch of other writers told me it wasn’t complete. And they’re right.
My memoir is all about what happened. It’s a lovely trip down memory lane. Just a story. Here’s what happened. Enjoy.
Apparently, the story does not a memoir make.
So I’ve spent the last year sulking and calling it something else.
I’ve spent the last year relying on obvious obstacles like child rearing and not having a space to call my own as reasons for not writing. And not really not writing, but not editing. Because there are two things missing from my totally complete and finished memoir: Reflective Voice and Editing.
That isn’t to say I haven’t spent the last year writing. I have been writing. But I’ve been writing in my head. I’ve been figuring out that I start the book in the wrong place. That if I start here and end here, there are lovely bookends. If I start here and then reflect back to here, it really allows the title to do more work. I’ve spent the last year trying to ignore the meaning behind what I wrote and why because I couldn’t stand the idea that I still had so much work to do on my life, on myself, on my book.
I wanted it all to be done.
Whoever said it’s not about the destination but the journey can kiss my frustrated patootey.
But the thing is, they’re right.
I was trying to take a short cut and that’s a cheat.
So…here I am. Back. Ready to do the work. Regardless of circumstances.
And I owe a lot of that to a woman I met at this years conference. She was only there for one day, this day, today. She was there to get what she needed and from the curiosity, wonder, and excitement she shared with me, she got everything she was looking for and more.
That was me several years ago. But I forgot. Or buried myself. Or allowed fear to take over.
But the thing is, there will always be reasons to stop, to come back to it later, to do this other thing now/instead. There’s only one reason to keep going, and it’s because I know what I needed and couldn’t find. I know what I still need, but haven’t voiced. I know there’s something left to uncover before I can move on to the next thing…the thing I already started but can’t make headway on either because this is still calling to me.
Fear will always be there. And the only way to lose, is to quit.
It turns out, I’m not ready to do either one.
Thank you to Robert Petrone. Thank you to Rachel. Thank you to Authors of the Flathead. And thank you to all of you. The people who believe in me when I forget myself for a moment, or a year.
Time to finish this conference, finish this book, and start the next thing. Was it Bob Dylan that said, “the only thing I knew how to do, was to keep on keepin’ on”? When I hear it, it’s the Indigo Girls singing it, so I no longer know.
ANYway, cheers to you! Cheers to us! Cheers to Conferences!
If you don’t want to have your world interrupted by ruminations often or at all, be sure to change your email settings; I don’t want to annoy you.
Thank you for being here. I appreciate you. I’m so grateful to you. And I can’t wait to continue this journey with you.
