Nina Solomita, MFA, Professional Writing Services
Writing Your Memoir is an Unselfish Thing to Do
by Joyce Krieg
CEDAR STREET TIMES • November 18, 2016 Keepers of our Culture
If you wanted to improve your golf game or learn ballroom dancing, you’d probably sign up for a class or two. Maybe you’d even hire a pro for some one-on-one instruction. So why not apply the same logic to writing your life story? Our community offers a variety of free or low-cost writing classes at places like OLLI at CSUMB, the Sally Griffin Center and the Carmel Foundation, as well as the free monthly memoir classes that Patricia Hamilton is offering in partnership with the Pacific Grove Public Library.
And we’ve got a writing coach in our midst—meet Nina Solomita, the latest member of the “Keepers of Our Culture” team. Nina offers a personalized, customized service to help you access memories, organize them and get them on paper so they will be preserved for future generations.
Who Are Your Readers, and What Is Your Message?
Typically, Nina’s process will start by asking a client to describe for whom they are writing the memoir, and what message they would like to leave for their readers. Some people are interested in reviewing and recording the important events of their lives, while others are inspired to share the lessons they’ve learned from life. To get the creative gears going, Nina suggests collecting objects that have played a significant part in your life and see what sort of stories they evoke. One client found that an old Bible with her mother’s name in it prompted a flood of memories.
Another helpful technique is to review the major news and cultural events that have occurred in your lifetime, recall where you were at the time, and reflect on the impact the event had on your life. As one might expect, many of Nina’s clients are from the “Greatest Generation,” with vivid memories of the Depression and World War II, remembering exactly where they were when they heard the news about Pearl Harbor. “Everybody of a certain age remembers the ice man bringing a block of ice to the house,” she says.
Letting the Story Come Out
Many of us are intimidated by the whole process of writing, an aversion often tracing back to well-meaning but strict teachers who attempted to instill rigid standards about “good writing.” Nina encourages budding memoirists to simply tell their stories as if they were talking to friend, and to forget the “rules” about writing an essay that we all learned in eighth
grade. “Let it come out as a story and let it come out the way it wants to come out,” she advises.
In addition to helping with the actual writing process, Nina assists her clients in organizing what is often a lifetime’s worth of material: cards, letters, journals, important documents, and photographs.
Each project is unique, but will typically include giving the client a transcription
of the stories and recollections for their review and revision. For some, just one printed copy is all they desire. Others turn the project into books to be presented to family and friends, or even offered for sale in bookstores and online.
Nina brings 20-plus years of professional writing experience to “Keepers of Our Culture.” She holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Goddard College and has taught playwriting and other courses at Pacific Repertory Theatre’s School of Dramatic Arts in Carmel, where she was also the Dean of the Adult Program. More recently she’s designed and offered writing workshops in Marin County. Nina has taught a variety of courses at the college level, including at CSUMB and at Osher Lifelong Learning Centers (OLLIs) at Berkeley, Dominican University, and California State University of the East Bay. Her special love is playwriting. Recently The Listening Place Readers Theater of Monterey presented her play, Every Spreading Moonbeam (now entitled Fania), at La Mirada Museum.
Nina may be reached at ninasolomita@gmail.com, 831/402-0224.
Whether you hire a coach like Nina, take a memoir class, or write on your own,
the important thing is to keep going and finish the project. “It’s the story only you
can tell,” Nina says. “Writing your memoir is an unselfish thing to do. It’s your gift to the world, and to the generations to come.”
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If you wanted to improve your golf game or learn ballroom dancing, you’d probably sign up for a class or two. Maybe you’d even hire a pro for some one-on-one instruction. So why not apply the same logic to writing your life story? Our community offers a variety of free or low-cost writing classes at places like OLLI at CSUMB, the Sally Griffin Center and the Carmel Foundation, as well as the free monthly memoir classes that Patricia Hamilton is offering in partnership with the Pacific Grove Public Library.
And we’ve got a writing coach in our midst—meet Nina Solomita, the latest member of the “Keepers of Our Culture” team. Nina offers a personalized, customized service to help you access memories, organize them and get them on paper so they will be preserved for future generations.
Who Are Your Readers, and What Is Your Message?
Typically, Nina’s process will start by asking a client to describe for whom they are writing the memoir, and what message they would like to leave for their readers. Some people are interested in reviewing and recording the important events of their lives, while others are inspired to share the lessons they’ve learned from life. To get the creative gears going, Nina suggests collecting objects that have played a significant part in your life and see what sort of stories they evoke. One client found that an old Bible with her mother’s name in it prompted a flood of memories.
Another helpful technique is to review the major news and cultural events that have occurred in your lifetime, recall where you were at the time, and reflect on the impact the event had on your life. As one might expect, many of Nina’s clients are from the “Greatest Generation,” with vivid memories of the Depression and World War II, remembering exactly where they were when they heard the news about Pearl Harbor. “Everybody of a certain age remembers the ice man bringing a block of ice to the house,” she says.
Letting the Story Come Out
Many of us are intimidated by the whole process of writing, an aversion often tracing back to well-meaning but strict teachers who attempted to instill rigid standards about “good writing.” Nina encourages budding memoirists to simply tell their stories as if they were talking to friend, and to forget the “rules” about writing an essay that we all learned in eighth
grade. “Let it come out as a story and let it come out the way it wants to come out,” she advises.
In addition to helping with the actual writing process, Nina assists her clients in organizing what is often a lifetime’s worth of material: cards, letters, journals, important documents, and photographs.
Each project is unique, but will typically include giving the client a transcription
of the stories and recollections for their review and revision. For some, just one printed copy is all they desire. Others turn the project into books to be presented to family and friends, or even offered for sale in bookstores and online.
Nina brings 20-plus years of professional writing experience to “Keepers of Our Culture.” She holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Goddard College and has taught playwriting and other courses at Pacific Repertory Theatre’s School of Dramatic Arts in Carmel, where she was also the Dean of the Adult Program. More recently she’s designed and offered writing workshops in Marin County. Nina has taught a variety of courses at the college level, including at CSUMB and at Osher Lifelong Learning Centers (OLLIs) at Berkeley, Dominican University, and California State University of the East Bay. Her special love is playwriting. Recently The Listening Place Readers Theater of Monterey presented her play, Every Spreading Moonbeam (now entitled Fania), at La Mirada Museum.
Nina may be reached at ninasolomita@gmail.com, 831/402-0224.
Whether you hire a coach like Nina, take a memoir class, or write on your own,
the important thing is to keep going and finish the project. “It’s the story only you
can tell,” Nina says. “Writing your memoir is an unselfish thing to do. It’s your gift to the world, and to the generations to come.”
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