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Okay, on to the show.

Welcome to how to. I'm Carvel Wallace. Some of you may know that last year I published a memoir called Another Word for Love, and it was a pretty scary thing to do. I was afraid that people wouldn't like me. I was afraid the book would flop. I was afraid that my writing would be too weird and inaccessible. It was not easy. And I know a lot of

you relate. I mean, I'm not the only person who likes to write memoirs. And not everyone who doesn't

wants to be a professional author. Some people need to write memoirs because they want to share their

stories with their family members or their children or grandchildren.

Some people write memoirs because they just want to understand what happened to them.

I've taught people like that, and in my experience, writing professionally and writing for personal reasons,

it's pretty much the same.

You come up against the same difficulties, the same fears, the same challenges,

and of course, the same exhilaration. So when I was facing all this stuff, I did what I have

learned to do, what we do on this show. I reached out to someone who might have answers.

Melissa Fibos is a national best-selling author of four books,

including Girlhood, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and Bodywork,

...