New in Paper! Author Bill Roorbach explains how to turn the engaging, untold stories of one's life into vivid personal essays and riveting memoirs. His friendly instruction and stimulating exercises teach writers how to: open up memory, access emotion and discover compelling material; shape scenes from experience, as life events become plot lines; populate stories with the fascinating, silly and maddening characters that surround them - their family members and friends. Readers will find innovative techniques of value to writers at all stages of their craft. Much more than teaching the rudiments of autobiography, this book will help writers see their own lives more clearly, while learning that real stories are often the best ones.