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Today’s Write Now interview features Patricia Grayhall, medical doctor and author of MAKING THE ROUNDS: DEFYING
Though I was more fortunate, I still encountered stiff resistance, as I describe in my memoir Making
This is my debut memoir about coming out as a lesbian in the late 1960s and training
I took out the journals and letters from the late 1960s and 1970s and read them
The challenge of finding stable love during second-wave feminism and the sexual revolution
However you define your sexual identity, we all want to love and be loved
We all want friendship, to belong, and to do meaningful work
In memoir writing, you write about life events that have affected you deeply and may be associated
I had written and published many medical articles but never a personal story
I wrote dozens of unsatisfactory drafts and killed numerous darlings
In the end, I came to love the process, even writing about hard things
Learning the craft of writing and discovering the arc of my coming-of-age life experience was deeply satisfying
For example: “Once upon a time there was a young woman who thought she could have everything
Then I use a dedicated computer for writing and ignore incoming emails
Sometimes, I stick post-it notes on the wall with ideas for scenes
I write early in the morning after coffee but before breakfast and before my partner gets up —
Brene Brown once said, “One day you will tell your story of how you overcame what you
I am mostly (though not completely — it’s difficult to give up one’s identity as a
But a residual desire to help, to understand human strength and frailty — particularly my own — still motivates
Writing has replaced doctoring for me and has opened a whole new world of learning and creativity
While writing my memoir, I felt once again the passion and pain of my late teens and
However, it was necessary to feel those feelings again to write a narrative that could connect with
Feelings that could be tempered with understanding and meaning
If I found myself reluctant to write about hard things, I would tell myself to just write
I live in the Pacific Northwest near the ocean with opportunities nearby to walk and hike in
Happy dog energy fuels me, takes me out of my head, motivating me to be more aware
He and I are on the alert for the possibility of siting a barred owl, river otter
With humans, I enjoy chatting with my wife, happy hour with friends, or binge-watching Survivor with our