Permission

The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create

De: Elissa Altman

Narrado por: Elissa Altman

Who am I to tell my story? And how can we grant ourselves permission to write the stories we’re compelled to tell when we've been told we shouldn't?

Without fail, almost every writer—new or experienced—has faced dire questions of permission and story ownership: there is something that they want to write about, that they need to write about. Yet: they can’t. They have been warned not to. They might be paralyzed with shame, threatened with shunning, chastened into silence. Even if what they need to write about has defined them and their worldviews.

But what if they did? What if you did?

After writing three critically acclaimed memoirs and a decade of teaching memoir workshops at every level, Elissa Altman has helped students face the elephant in every writer’s room: how to craft the stories that are most vital to them despite the voices that have told them not to. Permission is a master course, not only on how to craft memoir, but how to begin and keep going when you’ve been told you can’t, and how to how to give yourself permission to transcend the fear that keeps vital stories from being written.

We are the storytelling species; this book will inspire and guide all creatives to a place of transformation, of freedom from the constraints of shame and fear in all their forms, and to the understanding and recognition of the ethics of story-making, art-making, truth-telling, and creative soul-saving.

©2025 Elissa Altman (P)2025 Dreamscape Media

Lots of great writing advice.

I liked the blend of personal memoir and craft advice. Both demonstrate the author’s insight and wisdom.

I'll read (or listen to) any book Altman writes

Nice mix of memoir, craft, and thinking about "permission." Not just the permission of who gets to tell the story on the page but in life as well. Altman tells an interesting anecdote in which she tells her dad that she wants to get her MFA. I won't spoil his reaction, but it wasn't good. So though she was an adult and could still do it if she wanted, she felt like she didn't have "permission" and didn't get her MFA.

As always, I enjoy how Altman structures her writing.

Love this book

Such a beautifully woven memoir that made me laugh and cry but ultimately left me feeling uplifted. Our life stories are so important to tell ❤️

Exceptional storytelling

What a book. What a writer. I’ll be reading this one over and over. Stunning and sacred.

Authenticity in Every Word

She has one of the most sought after memoir workshops in the country and now I know why.

Writing on Eggshells: Cage-Free or Free-Range?

If you are trying to write a memoir and are penning on eggshells as to whether or not you should untangle a story which has haunted you for years, Elissa Altman's latest memoir gives you the Permission to explore and dissect your story from your wound to your worth as a storyteller. The book is a masterclass in her deep-dive to explore why you have a right to tell your story and how healing it can be to release it from your body - even if you have fallout with those who might not like it. If your story has affected the way you move through the world, how it affects your internal compass and the choices you make – and you have spent years trying to unravel your trauma, then you must consider writing it. Of course you can choose not to have it published, but writing it as an act of cartharic release is your right - as long as you are not writing out of spite or revenge. I've listened to her memoir several times and I'm glad she gave herself the permission to free herself from the cage of shame she carried about a family secret she didn't know was a secret – because her father talked to her about it every day of her life.

She makes some good points . . .

When her father was 3yo (and her aunt was 8yo), their mother walked out, and didn’t return for 3 yrs. Elissa’s father never got over it, and spent much of his life worried that he’d be abandoned again. This feeling was absorbed by the author, and she wrote about it in 2012. The other side of the family cut her off . . . literally has stopped communicating with her. “It wasn’t your story to tell”, they said. Really??

With this background, Elissa makes a few good points about writing memoirs - getting permission (do we need permission if it’s your story?). Chap 12, The Magic in the Mundane is good. However, much of the book is the author telling stories about herself that are not germane to the topic of the book.

At one point the author quotes Stephen King, but should have followed this quote of King’s: “When you write, you tell a story. When you rewrite you take out everything that is NOT the story”.