Writing Your Resilience: Building Resilience, Embracing Trauma and Healing Through Writing How to Write a Memoir When You Don’t Remember Everything (Memory, Trauma & Emotional Truth) with Sue William Silverman
What do you do when the memory you need most for your memoir is the one you can’t quite reach? You listen to this week’s guest, Sue William Silverman. Sue is the award-winning author of nine works of nonfiction and poetry and co-chair of the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She joined me for a deeply honest, craft conversation about what to do when you can’t remember, how to work with fragmented memory, how to use structure, voice, and sensory detail to tell the emotional truth of your story, and how to trust yourself even when certainty is impossible. If you’ve ever felt stalled by memory gaps, afraid of getting it “wrong,” or unsure how to write what you can’t fully recall, this episode will give you both permission and practical tools to keep going. Let’s dive in.
Episode Highlights
- 04:48 Writing Memoir When Memory Feels Unstable
- 05:48 From Bad Fiction to Honest Storytelling
- 07:13 The Five Senses Trick for Unlocking Memories
- 09:38 Emotional Truth vs. Perfect Facts
- 20:29 Writing the Gaps: What You Don’t Fully Remember
- 27:30 What You Cut (and Why It Matters Later)
- 30:55 You Don’t Have to Fit Your Whole Life in One Book
- 33:47 Finding the Voice That Can Tell the Story
Resources for this Episode:
Books by Sue William Silverman:
- Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader
- Because I Remember Terror Father, I Remember You
- Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul
- Love Sick
- How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences
Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma by Melanie Brooks
The Part That Burns by Jeannine Ouellette
Playing with Dynamite by Sharon Harrigan
The Queen’s Path by Stacey Simmons
Finding Your Voice and Crafting Stories that Ignite the Soul with Sue William Silverman
Can You Trust Your Memories? with Stacey Simmons
Sue’s Bio: Sue William Silverman is an award-winning author of nine works of nonfiction and poetry. Her new book, "Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader," is longlisted for the 2026 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. Sue has appeared on such programs as The View, Anderson Cooper 360, and PBS Books. She’s co-chair of the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Connect with Sue:
- Website: https://www.suewilliamsilverman.com/
- Facebook: @SueWilliamSilverman
- Instagram: @suewilliamsilverman
Sign up for Find and Refine Your Memoir’s Narrative Arc: https://bit.ly/4aK5wQI
Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Produced by Espresso Podcast Production