To do ...

or to feel.

[Photo credit: me]

I’m probably a better journalist than I am a memoirist. At least that’s what I’ve discovered while writing my book. I’ve had a lot more experience as a journalist, and while I’ve written personal essays, I’ve never written a memoir. Although, arguably, a memoir is nothing more than a very long personal essay. I prefer journalism to memoir writing. As I see it, journalism is about what you do, and memoirs are about what you feel. Some of my preference for journalism over memoirs comes from what memoirs have become over the last few decades, particularly when they’re written by women. See: Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love and Glennon Doyle’s Untamed as examples. It’s as if the only thing women are capable of doing is having feelings, while the real work of reporting is left to men who are brave enough to do, do, do. In any case, that’s what’s been on my mind lately. Maybe that’s because I do better than I feel. Or so it seems.

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