Thank you for sharing this. I'm starting to share more publicly about my parents' suicides and I do so knowing that my family has experienced this traumatic loss as individuals and as a collective. I also think about the ethics of speaking about people who are no longer alive. This is a helpful framework.
Thanks for sharing. My partner and I were in a traumatic accident almost three years ago. Through my healing journey I’ve started to want to share this story publicly, in part to raise funds for the search and rescue organization that helped bring us to safety. My partner is not comfortable with the story being shared publicly, a difference that has been challenging to navigate but this has helped me understand a bit more about how to have this discussion and respect his role in the story and how the telling of it impacts him. Thank you.
This is so helpful. I believe this was a divine read as I am about to speak at my first podcast about my experience after an awful divorce. I’ve been asked to speak several times and I’ve turned them down every time because I was unsure how to speak my truth without harming others while also knowing that I need to speak my truth in order to help others. I believe the Lord told me that it was time and this article has helped confirm that. Thank you so much for your obedience in writing this in such a timely manner for people like myself.
Appreciating ALL of this and will share with English teachers to share with students. For a thesis I did a case study that involved children, and there were about 40 pages of documentation to provide to the ethics committee to get approval do that, forms for parents, means of gaining assent from kids, etc. While that seems (and ok, felt) a bit much, the consequences of getting it wrong are worse. Unintentionally exploiting people is still exploiting them. I kiiinda wish some authors and filmmakers were held to similarly tough ethical standards!
Thank you for this. I’ve been thinking about sharing stories of people I never knew, but who exist in family stories or of myself and my growth process. I’ve been trying to decide how to tell these stories and of the impact. Maybe they can just be verbalized and never published. You can’t always be sure. Reading this starts the process of finding out.
I really appreciate this resource, thank you. Your questions and framework help lend form to an issue that I find gauzy and confusing. I've been really torn about talking openly about my childhood trauma, which necessarily would require explaining the intergenerational/familial context. It's helpful for me to talk about, and I've heard from readers that it's helpful for them. But my family is strongly against it, perhaps unsurprisingly. Thank you for sharing this(!)
I so appreciated your advice in this piece. (As someone with ADD, I find the bullets and numbers you use so helpful for my brain!) The piece about the children rang true for me. When I saw how upset my son was about some of his friends disinterest in race talks at school after George Floyd was murdered, I asked his permission to write about it for my blog. He volunteered to chronicle the events, share text exchanges he had so I could more accurately capture his voice and need at the time. I have written about my children and parenting with a cultural lens in a white dominant world before, but never asked them their permission. I'm taking your advice and moving this new experience I had with my son forward.
This really hit home. I started developing a graphic novel that was supposed to be about my experience as a parent when my kids transferred from a very traditional school to a super progressive charter school. I was all excited to share a vision of how schools could be different. I got stuck when I realized that in order to tell my story, I had to talk about some of my kids' academic and social issues too. At this point, I've procrastinated for years, and now my kids are both very young adults. Maybe they should just become co-authors at this point...
These 6 questions are not only offer the best writing advice I've ever seen; they truly allow the writer to see with more clarity and self awareness all the people involved in the story...I've really never seen anything like this. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing this. I'm starting to share more publicly about my parents' suicides and I do so knowing that my family has experienced this traumatic loss as individuals and as a collective. I also think about the ethics of speaking about people who are no longer alive. This is a helpful framework.
Thanks for sharing. My partner and I were in a traumatic accident almost three years ago. Through my healing journey I’ve started to want to share this story publicly, in part to raise funds for the search and rescue organization that helped bring us to safety. My partner is not comfortable with the story being shared publicly, a difference that has been challenging to navigate but this has helped me understand a bit more about how to have this discussion and respect his role in the story and how the telling of it impacts him. Thank you.
This is so helpful. I believe this was a divine read as I am about to speak at my first podcast about my experience after an awful divorce. I’ve been asked to speak several times and I’ve turned them down every time because I was unsure how to speak my truth without harming others while also knowing that I need to speak my truth in order to help others. I believe the Lord told me that it was time and this article has helped confirm that. Thank you so much for your obedience in writing this in such a timely manner for people like myself.
Appreciating ALL of this and will share with English teachers to share with students. For a thesis I did a case study that involved children, and there were about 40 pages of documentation to provide to the ethics committee to get approval do that, forms for parents, means of gaining assent from kids, etc. While that seems (and ok, felt) a bit much, the consequences of getting it wrong are worse. Unintentionally exploiting people is still exploiting them. I kiiinda wish some authors and filmmakers were held to similarly tough ethical standards!
Thank you for this. I’ve been thinking about sharing stories of people I never knew, but who exist in family stories or of myself and my growth process. I’ve been trying to decide how to tell these stories and of the impact. Maybe they can just be verbalized and never published. You can’t always be sure. Reading this starts the process of finding out.
The timing of these tips can only be called providential. Thank you so much. The questions you pose deserve my thought and intention.
Wow this was so good! Exactly what I needed to read right now! Thank you!!
I really appreciate this resource, thank you. Your questions and framework help lend form to an issue that I find gauzy and confusing. I've been really torn about talking openly about my childhood trauma, which necessarily would require explaining the intergenerational/familial context. It's helpful for me to talk about, and I've heard from readers that it's helpful for them. But my family is strongly against it, perhaps unsurprisingly. Thank you for sharing this(!)
I so appreciated your advice in this piece. (As someone with ADD, I find the bullets and numbers you use so helpful for my brain!) The piece about the children rang true for me. When I saw how upset my son was about some of his friends disinterest in race talks at school after George Floyd was murdered, I asked his permission to write about it for my blog. He volunteered to chronicle the events, share text exchanges he had so I could more accurately capture his voice and need at the time. I have written about my children and parenting with a cultural lens in a white dominant world before, but never asked them their permission. I'm taking your advice and moving this new experience I had with my son forward.
This really hit home. I started developing a graphic novel that was supposed to be about my experience as a parent when my kids transferred from a very traditional school to a super progressive charter school. I was all excited to share a vision of how schools could be different. I got stuck when I realized that in order to tell my story, I had to talk about some of my kids' academic and social issues too. At this point, I've procrastinated for years, and now my kids are both very young adults. Maybe they should just become co-authors at this point...
These 6 questions are not only offer the best writing advice I've ever seen; they truly allow the writer to see with more clarity and self awareness all the people involved in the story...I've really never seen anything like this. Thank you.
This was extremely helpful. I was considering writing an “inspired by a true story” piece but your input still felt relevant.