Since 2013, David Chrisinger has taught military veterans, their families, and other trauma survivors how to make sense of and recount their stories of loss and transformation. The lessons he imparts can be used by anyone who has ever experienced trauma, particularly people with a deep need to share that experience in a way that leads to connection and understanding. In Stories Are What Save Us, Chrisinger shows-through writing exercises, memoir excerpts, and lessons he's learned from his students-the most efficient ways to uncover and effectively communicate what you've learned while fighting your life's battles, whatever they may be. Chrisinger explores both the difficulties inherent in writing about personal trauma and the techniques for doing so in a compelling way. Weaving together his journey as a writer, editor, and teacher, he reveals his own deeply personal story of family trauma and abuse and explains how his life has informed his writing. Part craft guide, part memoir, and part teacher's handbook, Stories Are What Save Us presents readers with a wide range of craft tools and storytelling structures that Chrisinger and his students have used to process conflict in their own lives, creating beautiful stories of growth and transformation. Throughout, this profoundly moving, laser-focused book exemplifies the very lessons it strives to teach. A foreword by former soldier and memoirist Brian Turner, author of My Life as a Foreign Country, and an afterword by military wife and memoirist Angela Ricketts, author of No Man's War: Irreverent Confessions of an Infantry Wife, bookend the volume.
David Chrisinger (CHICAGO, IL) directs the Harris Writing Program at the University of Chicago as well as The War Horse's writing seminars program, which offers workshops for military veterans and their families. He is the author of Public Policy Writing That Matters and the editor of See Me for Who I Am: Student Veterans' Stories of War and Coming Home.
Foreword, by Brian Turner Acknowledgments Introduction: Atonement Part I. The Searching Chapter 1. Finding Your Story of Transformation Chapter 2. Uncovering Your Object of Desire Chapter 3. Recognizing the Story underneath Your Story Chapter 4. Turning Yourself into a Character Part II. The Structure Chapter 5. Incorporating the Five Essentials of Storytelling Chapter 6. Starting with One True Thing Part III. The Story Chapter 7. Crafting Immersive Scenes Chapter 8. Using Fiction to Tell the Truth Chapter 9. Telling Your Story to Build Connection and Understanding Afterword, by Angela Ricketts Storytelling Exercises Suggested Further Reading About the Author Index
A seasoned writer and teacher of memoir explores both the difficulties inherent in writing about personal trauma and the techniques for doing so in a compelling way.
