Memoir Magic: Mining Your Journals to Craft Gripping Memoir

Julie Ryan McGue — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 20:07:20 GMT

Current Revision posted to Researching Your Idea by Julie Ryan McGue on 9/10/2025 8:07:20 PM

Journaling gives us a private space to vent, reflect, speculate, problem-solve, record memories, and heal. But it also holds the raw material of powerful storytelling.

In this recorded webinar with award-winning memoirist Julie Ryan McGue, you’ll discover how to use your journals as a springboard for memoir writing. You'll explore how to:

• Breathe life into memories with vivid sensory details and authentic dialogue
•  Identify recurring themes, emotional arcs, and pivotal turning points
•  Unearth tension, conflict, and transformation hidden in everyday entries
•  Shape scattered thoughts and timelines into a compelling memoir structure

By the end of the session, you’ll have a practical roadmap for transforming journal pages into a cohesive, emotionally resonant narrative—one that speaks to readers and honors your voice.

Here are the two handouts referenced in the session:
www.authorlearningcenter.com/.../McGue_2D00_ALC_2D00_Journals-to-Memoir.pdf
www.authorlearningcenter.com/.../McGue_2D00_ALC_2D00_Journal-to-Memoir-Themes.pdf
www.authorlearningcenter.com/.../MemoirMagicMiningYourJournalstoCraftGrippingMemoir.mp4

About the Presenter:
Julie Ryan McGue is an American writer, a domestic adoptee, and an identical twin. Her first memoir, "Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging" (She Writes Press), released in May 2021, won multiple awards. Her work has appeared in Writers Digest, Story Circle Network Journal, Brevity Nonfiction Blog, Imprint News, Adoption.com, Adopting.com, Lifetime Adoption Adoptive Families Blog, Adoption & Beyond, and Severance Magazine. Her personal essays have appeared in several anthologies, including "Real Women Write: Seeing Through Her Eyes" (Story Circle Network), "Real Women Write: The Power of Friendship" (Story Circle Network) and "Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis" (She Writes Press). Her collection of essays, "Belonging Matters: Conversations on Adoption, Family, and Kinship" (Muse Literary) released in November 2023. She writes a bi-weekly blog and monthly column (The Beacher Newspapers), in which she explores the topics of finding out who you are, where you belong and making sense of it. Her third book, "Twice the Family: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood" (She Writes Press) released February 4, 2025. Julie splits her time between northwest Indiana and Sarasota, Florida.

Tags: Christian Books and Bibles, Self-Help, Nonfiction, Subscriber, Religion and Spirituality, Recorded Webinar, Biographies and Memoirs, Religious and Inspirational

Memoir Magic: Mining Your Journals to Craft Gripping Memoir

Author Learning Center — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 20:01:54 GMT

Revision 1 posted to Researching Your Idea by Author Learning Center on 9/10/2025 8:01:54 PM

Journaling gives us a private space to vent, reflect, speculate, problem-solve, record memories, and heal. But it also holds the raw material of powerful storytelling.

In this recorded webinar with award-winning memoirist Julie Ryan McGue, you’ll discover how to use your journals as a springboard for memoir writing. You'll explore how to:

By the end of the session, you’ll have a practical roadmap for transforming journal pages into a cohesive, emotionally resonant narrative—one that speaks to readers and honors your voice.

Tags: Christian Books and Bibles, Self-Help, Nonfiction, Subscriber, Religion and Spirituality, Recorded Webinar, Biographies and Memoirs, Religious and Inspirational