Theo Pauline Nestor
Category Archives: More Stuff for Writers
Why I Brought a Film Camera to Rome
I packed an aged Pentax with a heft of approximately 1.5 pounds to lug up ancient staircases. I did this not because I believed the film photographs would be superior to those I could take with my phone. I did this so I wouldn’t go all the way to Rome and miss it. I carried this camera so I would do what one would hope would be natural and automatic: To see. Continue reading
Monsters, Miss Americana, and Me: A Taylor Swift Fan’s Objection
As I listened in this crowded room to a discussion referencing the names we’ve come to associate with fan exodus–JK, Woody, Roman–a particular biography that is everywhere began to form a montage in my thoughts unbidden: the biography of Taylor Swift. A biography dear to me as a Swiftie who’s found great joy not only in the music of Taylor Swift but in the Swiftie TikTok community that admittedly relishes connecting the dots between her lyrics and what we know of her life. Like a whirring and clicking microfiche in a movie about a 1970s exposé, my inner filmstrip zoomed in and offered up grainy images of Taylor’s reported new love interest, Matty Healy, at her May 2023 concerts in Nashville and Philly followed by truncated clips of TikToks outlining the questionable quality of the character of this guy, lead singer of the band 1975 and a known “provocateur” (ugh!). Over the last day, the temperature of the conversation had escalated, and I’d seen TikToks allude to his harmful comments. I watched but didn’t investigate, perhaps because I didn’t want it to be true. Continue reading
Posted in More Stuff for Writers, Taylor Swift, What I'm Reading Now
Tagged Claire Dederer, New books, Taylor Swift, Writing
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The Thing You Least Want to Write About
In a June 2017 Fresh Air interview, Roxane Gay shared that her book, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, “felt necessary to write because it was the book I wanted to write the least.” She goes onto explain: “When I was thinking about what to do next in terms of nonfiction just before Bad Feminist came out, I thought You know, I’d really never want to write about fatness. And in that moment I knew that’s something I have to write about.” Continue reading
5 Reasons You Need an Author Website Before the Book Deal
My best advice for writers wishing to sell their books: Act as if the book deal is already yours. If you can pretend it’s a done deal, you’ll be more motivated to do the work of building a platform. Besides … Continue reading
Posted in More Stuff for Writers, platform building
Tagged audience, author website, Memoir, platform building, websites, Writing
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Help! I want my short writings to cohere into something publishable!
A question my clients and students often ask: “What can I do with all the bits and pieces I’ve written?” If you’ve written to prompts over a number of years, you may feel like you’ve written quite a bit without … Continue reading
Posted in More Stuff for Writers, triptych, writing advice, writing prompts, Writing Tips
Tagged essays, Memoir, writing activities
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Is My Manuscript Ready to Send Out?
One of the questions I get asked quite often: Is my book (or book proposal) ready to go out to agents and editors? Unless it’s clear the writer is jumping the gun, this is a tricky question to answer. True benefits abound from jetting out into the world, even prematurely. Most significantly: If the work is circulating, air is getting in and often giving life new ideas, leads, and connections.The downsides are obvious–chiefly, a half-baked project blowing your shot with someone you value and self-recrimination for overeagerness raining down shortly after rejection’s sting. Here are some questions you could ask yourself if you are on the verge of clicking “Send.” And hopefully, your answers will bring you to the right decision–or at least a bit closer. Continue reading
Inspired by Taylor Swift: The Eras Writing Prompt
Last post I wrote about how Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert in Glendale last weekend made me think about the challenges of writing about our past selves. And that made me remember a writing prompt I created a while back … Continue reading
What I Learned at a Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Concert
And as Taylor S rapid cycled from a Speak Now era youthful romantic in a pink Cinderella gown to a Reputation era bad bitch clad in black and red to an Evermore cottage fairy, I found myself thinking about how the entire magical show was a giant lesson in self-acceptance and reclaiming the disowned parts of ourselves. And, how that reclaiming of disowned selves is 90 percent of why most who’ve tried it will agree that writing a memoir can be, um, hard. Like, brutally. Continue reading
Posted in Memoirists, More Stuff for Writers, Taylor Swift, Writing Tips
Tagged finding your voice, writing advice
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Alyson Shelton & the Strange Magic of “Where I’m From”
This week I joyfully participated in Alyson Shelton’s “Where I’m From” project.” I’d describe the process of filling the blanks of George Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From” poem as a Mad Lib that jettisons you straight into the heart of your family legacy. I absolutely loved writing the poem and had fun talking about it with Alyson on Instagram Live–a part of Instagram I’d never travelled to before. I interviewed Alyson about the project below and throughout you can find clips from other “Where I’m From” Instagram readings and chats. Continue reading
The Essays That Came Before the Book Deals
Writers worry about “giving the story away” before their book is out in the world. But publishing a personal essay about a related story can stir up interest in the memoirist’s larger narrative. And, that following you create as an essayist can pay off when you go to sell your memoir. “That following” is also known as a platform, an author’s existing audience for a particular story. (This is why writing/revising/submitting an essay to a target publication is a key part of my Platform Building 101 course). Writing essays also gives a writer a chance to develop a story and explore its themes before setting out to write (and rewrite) 300 pages. But perhaps the greatest benefit of those essays: Early reader enthusiasm that boosts writer confidence and wards off those thoughts of who’s gonna care anyways? that haunt each of us with a personal story to tell. Continue reading
Writing Is My Drink 