Sustainability in Writing and Life

July 21, 2022 / Tanja Pajevic / blog / No Comments

The last couple of months have been a wild ride, with the dismantling of Roe v. Wade, the ongoing Ukraine war, climate inaction, inflation, oppressive heat waves, ugh. Staying engaged seems especially challenging these days. Writing, even more so. At the same time, how can we move forward if we’re not engaged? How do we stay resilient in the face of so much yuck? You might also be wondering if writing even matters when the world is on fire. The Importance of Sustainability in Writing and Life The past few years have been a doozy, and as we continue to navigate these deeply challenging times, I keep returning to the importance of sustainability. The only way I can affect change is to stay grounded, nourished and sane. When I fall into panic, overwork and depletion, nobody benefits. But when I can stay […]

The Importance of Choosing

December 20, 2021 / Tanja Pajevic / blog / 2 Comments

With the New Year around the corner, many of us are excited to start new writing projects or dive into old ones. If you have multiple writing projects on your plate, it can be challenging to decide where to spend your precious time and energy. How to Focus Your Writing Time and Energy That can be even harder if you’ve been working on your memoir for a long time. Stories grow and change over time, and sometimes we need to let go of an outdated vision in order to make way for a new one. Other times, the beating heart of the project is still there, waiting for us. The trick is in consciously deciding. Oftentimes, we put off choosing in a misguided attempt at keeping ourselves safe. But that just keeps us stuck. And it keeps our dreams on the back burner. So […]

What are You Really Writing About?

November 9, 2021 / Tanja Pajevic / blog / 2 Comments

What is Your Memoir Really About? With memoir, it can take some digging to get to the heart of what we’re really writing about. There’s the story of what happened, and then there’s the meaning we’ve attached to it. In memoir, it’s not enough to tell us what happened—we need to know what that event meant to you. To help with that clarity, here’s an exercise I did with a recent class at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. “Truth in a memoir is achieved not through a recital of actual events; it is achieved when the reader comes to believe that the writer is working hard to engage with the experience at hand. What happened to the writer is not what matters; what matters is the larger sense that the writer is able to make of what happened.” Vivian Gornick, The Situation and the Story […]

Writer’s Block? Try This

October 8, 2021 / Tanja Pajevic / blog / No Comments

In my Memoir Mastery course and Mastermind workshop group, we’ve spent the past month talking about structure. There’s the craft and technique of writing memoir and then there’s the pulling together of all the pieces. That can be daunting with a book length project. It can be easy to fall into overwhelm. Memoir Writing Tips Today I’d like to invite you to bring curiosity to your project. To approach your memoir with inquiry instead of overwhelm. Instead of shutting down into “I don’t know how,” try opening into inquiry: “How can I?” This can be a powerful reframe, helping us write from an open and expansive place vs. a stressed and constricted one. Here’s an example of how this played out for me this week: For the past month or so, I’ve been circling around a structural problem with my current memoir. Forcing […]

How to Motivate Yourself to Write

March 20, 2021 / Tanja Pajevic / blog / 2 Comments

How to Motivate Yourself to Write If you’re like most of us, you’ve probably had some challenges getting motivated to write and/or sticking with it. Inspiration and motivation can be challenging on a good day, and all the more so during a pandemic. I get it! When things got tough, I used to hunker down. Try harder. Should myself into being. Can you relate? We could do anything, we think, if we only had enough willpower. Determination. But what if I told you that willpower isn’t the solution? What if relying on our willpower is actually part of the problem? And what if we’re setting ourselves up by relying on this overly-simplistic equation? Instead of white-knuckling yourself into submission, what if you could approach your creative work with curiosity and excitement? What if you could approach it with a sense of expansion instead of […]

Spring 2021 Offerings

February 15, 2021 / Tanja Pajevic / blog / No Comments

If you’d like support for your writing, here are my spring 2021 offerings: Memoir Mastery (a 9-week comprehensive course) and the Writer’s Circle (a small, 3-month writer’s group). Both offerings start in early April; descriptions are below. If you’re not sure where to begin, I recommend starting with Memoir Mastery. It’s my flagship course and will give you everything you need to know to write a compelling memoir. MEMOIR MASTERY In this comprehensive 9-week course, you’ll go from feeling alone, confused and overwhelmed to feeling excited and supported in the power of your story, clear in its scope, and confident in the craft and technique of creating a compelling memoir. With 6 online modules, 6 live coaching calls and a private community forum, you’ll get plenty of support and accountability as well as laser-focused coaching within a wonderfully supportive community. You’ll leave this […]

How to Write with Ease

February 1, 2021 / Tanja Pajevic / blog / No Comments

How to Bring Ease to Your Writing For the past few months, I’ve been thinking about the concept of parenting from an open and spacious place vs. a stressed and constricted one. After hearing Tara Mohr apply a similar concept to work, I decided to apply it to writing as well and it was a game changer! So I wrote this post to share this insight with you. I hope that this helps you shift the equation from stressed to spacious in your writing life. Write with Ease (instead of Stress) The other day, I listened to Tara Mohr talk about the possibility of bringing relaxation to everything we do. Since Mohr’s definition of “relaxation” was built around the difference between ease and spaciousness vs. stress and constriction, I’ve translated her use of “relaxation” to “ease” for the purpose of this post. Let’s […]

Memoir Mastery: How to Write a Compelling Memoir

November 13, 2020 / Tanja Pajevic / blog / No Comments

How to Write a Memoir As a writer, teacher and long-time memoir fan, I’ve found that writing your story can be an incredibly rewarding journey. It can also be quite challenging. And trying to write a memoir without support can feel like wrestling an octopus. Where do you start? How do you narrow down your story, much less shape it? What do you do when the initial excitement wears off and you find yourself in the mucky middle? And how do you navigate the emotional terrain of delving into the heart of your life experiences? That’s why I created my Memoir Mastery course. For years, I grappled with the disconnect between writing a short piece and completing a full-length manuscript. Writing a book was much more complex, and my MFA program taught us how to write short pieces, not book-length manuscripts. Which meant […]

How to Write a Memoir While We Shelter in Place

March 25, 2020 / Tanja Pajevic / blog / No Comments

As we shelter-in-place, I’ve had a few folks reach out for writing help now that they have more time on their hands and/or are finally ready to start that book they’ve always wanted to write. To that end, I’ve decided to offer my 8-week Memoir Mastery course at a 50% discount as a way of making it accessible to more folks. Will this solve the very-real challenges we’re all facing? Absolutely not. But it might help provide you with a focus and a bit of grounding during an otherwise incredible challenging time. And writing memoir in particular can help you: find meaning during a challenging time reassess and reclaim your personal narrative tap into your creativity learn how to start your project create momentum as well as a consistent writing habit help you navigate the very-real challenges of having too much time on your hands […]

Why I Work as a Memoir and Nonfiction Writing Coach

January 10, 2020 / Tanja Pajevic / blog / No Comments

Welcome! We’ve had a lot of new folks join our community recently, and I wanted to take a moment to welcome you to our community as well as tell you a bit about who I am and why I do this work. How it all Started (Or How I Accidentally Became a Teacher) In 1998, I started my MFA program at Indiana University, a kid whose immigrant parents hadn’t gone to college. Suddenly I was in grad school, thrown into teaching two classes a semester while juggling my own class load. Many days, I was in over my head. Along the way, I picked up a business writing class (a fluke), then taught a few more. In three years, I taught 10 classes in creative writing, business writing and contemporary American literature. Throughout, I hid a secret: although I was earning my MFA […]

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