Kids do ask me for writing advice. And when it comes to The Tryout and memoir, I usually tell them that … I definitely encourage them to keep a journal because there were years when I kept journals and then I wouldn’t do it, and I stopped. And I mean, I just wish that I had those journals. They’re just gold. So I think one thing, I think there’s two things about writing about your own life when you’re young. One is that you’re not going to realize how much story you have in your own life, probably until you’re older. Most of my life I was like, my life is boring. I live in this little town. I don’t go anywhere. I don’t do anything. There’s not even a mall here. And then it’s not until 30 years later when I reflect back on it and I’m like, oh my gosh, I had the most interesting childhood.
Look at all these incredible things that happened to me. I had to try out for cheerleader in front of the whole school. At the time, that didn’t seem like a story. Traveling to Europe felt like a story. So I … just collect the things that are happening to you, even if you think it’s not worthy of telling a story. You need to be able to remember those things. But then the other thing too is that I think writing about your own life can also be painful. It can be hard to talk about things when you’re so close to them. So I think journaling helps because nobody’s going to read it and you can get out your feelings. I mean, you need to have some outlet, some way to talk about your feelings when you’re going through something hard. So I think for some people that’s journaling.
And for some people it’s making up fictional stories where you can work things out where it’s not you, because maybe that’s just a little too close. So you really have to, I think time helps you tell your own story. There is no way I could have written The Tryout as a 25 year old. I think I was still too close to it. I think it’s taken all this time for me to be able to see it for what it was, and for some of the things that were painful to not be painful anymore, for me to tackle them.
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