StoryDriven: Writing a Biography, Imagining a Life

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NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE

Write to Dona Munker at StoryDriven.Net.

This website is about what goes into telling the story of someone else's life—that is, it's about researching and writing a biography called SARA AND ERSKINE, AN AMERICAN ROMANCE.

I'm interested in what a "story" is (as opposed to "plot"). I'm also interested in what it means tell a life story in nonfiction, through the interpretation of information and evidence alone.

Most of all, I'm interested in the intersection of research and the literary imagination of the writer. I think a lot about how a writer trying to visualize another person's life can use information and evidence to create a narrative solely by interpreting the evidence a life leaves behind, as well as about the limitations of interpretation.

I also think a lot about what the story that drives me to write has to say about the human condition. Including mine.

If you're interested in any of these things, please visit the "Articles" page archive or my article on "Finding Our Voice" on my Daughter of Persia: A Reader's Guide page (sidebar).

If you'd like to be notified about future developments on this website, please enter your e-mail address in the SIGNUP BOX in the sidebar of the "Articles" page, then click on the automatic confirmation link that arrives in your e-mail and your name will be added to the notification list.


Sara Bard Field and Charles Erskine Scott Wood in 1920, after their "free union" on San Francisco's Russian Hill. I am reconstructing Sara Bard Field's life and their extraordinary May-December love affair in SARA AND ERSKINE, AN AMERICAN ROMANCE. (In progress.)


"Lyrical and enchanting....Beautifully written."The New York Times Book Review.

ARTICLES
~ StoryDriven ~
Writing a Biography, Imagining a Life


The ARCHIVE contains artciles from my NEWSLETTER: IMAGINING A LIFE AND THE CRAFT OF BIOGRAPHY.

The articles are for biographers, prospective biographers, general readers, and anyone interested in the process of writing biography. They examine the pleasures and challenges of planning, researching, and constructing a biography.

Each article focuses on a different facet of researching, envisioning, and writing a narrative, either by describing how I dealt with a specific technical or creative issue faced by all writers of biography, or by discussing a solution I found—or didn't find, as the case may be—to a problem. (You can also read about the creative process of building a nonfiction life narrative for the book DAUGHTER OF PERSIA. Go to "Finding Our Voice".)

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If you would like to be notified of other online activities of mine, please enter your e-mail address in the subscription box in the right sidebar (be sure to click on the confirmation link that arrives in your e-mail).

I'm always delighted to hear from visitors and hope that you will use the CONTACT PAGE to e-mail me.

Newsletter readers: I discontinued the Newsletter to give myself more time to write. If you'd like to know about any future Internet activities of mine, please enter your e-mail address in the SIGNUP BOX on this page and you will automatically be notified. Be sure to click on the link in the automatic e-mail you receive, which confirms that it's you signing up and not a spammer. The mailing list is private and not available to third parties. You can remove your address at any time by returning here and choosing "Unsubscribe."

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Picture Credit:

Center column: Photograph of Smith-Corona Electra 210 Typewriter (ca. 1965) reproduced by permission of Prof. Theodore Brown and the National Library of Medicine.

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Notice of Copyright:

     All material on this website Copyright © 2005-2010 by Dona Munker except where expressly stated or contributed by others. Copying, altering, or reproducing this material in any form without written permission is prohibited by law and may be prosecuted regardless of the venue or purpose of the copying.






            Biography:
            The Story of SARA BARD FIELD and CHARLES ERSKINE SCOTT WOOD
                  SARA AND ERSKINE, AN AMERICAN ROMANCE (in progress) is about a search for love that turned a Baptist minister's wife into a nationally known suffragist and women's rights advocate, a California poet, and an "anarchist and free-lover."
                    Biographical Nonfiction:
                        DAUGHTER OF PERSIA
                          A timely, riveting account of the life and work of an extraordinary Iranian aristocrat and social reformer, Sattareh Farman Farmaian, DAUGHTER OF PERSIA is at once memoir and historical journalism. It opens a personal window on Iran and America's involvement in the six tumultuous decades that laid the foundations of the crisis facing the United States and the West today.
                                REVIEWERS on DAUGHTER OF PERSIA
                                  What critics, Middle East experts, writers, and general readers have said about Daughter of Persia.
                                      A READER'S GUIDE to DAUGHTER OF PERSIA
                                        • Article: "Finding Our Voice."
                                        • Discovering the right literary "voice" for Daughter of Persia.
                                          • For Reading Groups:
                                              A Writer's Perspective on Daughter of Persia Reading Group Questions.
                                                Reading Recommendations. A personal selection.
                                              • LINKS and RECOMMENDATIONS
                                                Books and websites of related interest. • For first-time biographers: Helpful guides to writing a biography book proposal.