My Teaching My Memoir About Me

Meet Brenda Smit-James

Meet Brenda Smit-James

I never expected to be a writer!

 

I never saw myself as a writer, let alone as an author. 

It was the experience of an 18-month depression in my late thirties that set me on the path of unearthing and giving expression to the writer within me. As I emerged from that season of self-evaluation and regret, I realized that I needed a life-giving focus for the next phase of my life.

But what was it going to be? 

I knew this much, it had to be something creative. I considered art classes and playing the piano. I even wondered about calligraphy. And yet ... I had this niggling thought ... what if there was something within me, some skill I already had, that I had been ignoring?

Writing came to mind.

I never expected to be a writer!

 

I never saw myself as a writer, let alone as an author. 

It was the experience of an 18-month depression in my late thirties that set me on the path of unearthing and giving expression to the writer within me. As I emerged from that season of self-evaluation and regret, I realized that I needed a life-giving focus for the next phase of my life.

But what was it going to be? 

I knew this much, it had to be something creative. I considered art classes and playing the piano. I even wondered about calligraphy. And yet ... I had this niggling thought ... what if there was something within me, some skill I already had, that I had been ignoring?

Writing came to mind.

As I looked within, I remembered the accolades I had received in the past about my writing and started to entertain the thought that—just maybe—I could write.

Instead of watercolor lessons, I signed up for a writing class. So began the journey that took me from there to here— my own author website and my life as a book coach.

Are you on a path of discovery? Is writing a love in your life? Or, like me, is it a gift that you have been afraid to embrace and explore? I encourage you to do what it takes to fan it into flame. It is so worth it! And you never know where it will lead.

Write Your Memoir | Change A Life ... Starting with Yours.

Writing my memoir changed my life!

 

I had no idea that signing up for a writing class would be the first step into my writing future and that writing my memoir would change my life. 

I wrote my memoir to survive my grief so that I could be released from what I call the fear of forgetting and the torment of remembering. I thought that if my hard story could live outside of me, then I could move forward in my grief. I was right. What I had no idea of knowing was that I had also opened the door to a rich and rewarding life.

In order to have an author platform I started my YouTube channel. But I couldn't imagine just talking about myself, my grief and my book. So, I thought I would talk about memoir and help others to write their book. Little did I know that this would open a door to book coaching—and now teaching.

The more I book coached, the more I realized that it would be helpful for me and my clients if they grasped the essential elements of writing and the structure of a chapter before working with me. And so out of that I designed Chapter-By-Chapter | A Concise Memoir Framework to teach memoir writers the structural parts they were missing.

Not that teaching is new to me.

Before I was a book coach— before I was a writer, before I was a business manager, before I was an accountant, and before I was a bookkeeper—I was a high school English teacher. In my previous working lives I was often the one delegated to write persuasive letters with clear communication to tax agencies or effective and compelling reports for departmental heads.

As an English teacher, my first love was grammar, not writing. The structure of language intrigued me, while the creativity of writing scared me. My second love was literature: I earned my degree in literature from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. So, I always thought I was destined to correct grammar and read books—not write books.

But this is the surprising thing. Writing has more structure to it than I ever realized; it's not only creative fire. I also discovered that my avid reading and literature degree had let the structure of writing seep into my bones and soul without me ever knowing it. Such is the gift of reading.

And the creative fire of writing? Well, I tap into it in my downtime. I love to bike, hike, snowshoe, travel and try out new recipes in the kitchen with Michiel, my husband for the past thirty years.

Not that teaching is new to me.

Before I was a book coach— before I was a writer, before I was a business manager, before I was an accountant, and before I was a bookkeeper—I was a high school English teacher. In my previous working lives I was often the one delegated to write persuasive letters with clear communication to tax agencies or effective and compelling reports for departmental heads.

As an English teacher, my first love was grammar, not writing. The structure of language intrigued me, while the creativity of writing scared me. My second love was literature: I earned my degree in literature from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. So, I always thought I was destined to correct grammar and read books—not write books.

But this is the surprising thing. Writing has more structure to it than I ever realized; it's not only creative fire. I also discovered that my avid reading and literature degree had let the structure of writing seep into my bones and soul without me ever knowing it. Such is the gift of reading.

And the creative fire of writing? Well, I tap into it in my downtime. I love to bike, hike, snowshoe, travel and try out new recipes in the kitchen with Michiel, my husband for the past thirty years.

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