What does Imaginal Memoir Cave mean?

A caterpillar contains the cells that will “turn on” to become a butterfly. Within its DNA is the code to what it can’t yet imagine. These cells are literally called “imaginal cells”. We feel this is a gorgeous metaphor for both a memoirist and the memoir. We have been teaching writers for nearly 30 years each, and we’ve seen over and over again how writers start a project with enthusiasm and eagerness, only to flounder as the process shifts. (Hint: it’s normal for enthusiasm to shift to dread or apathy and back again to enthusiasm. Writing isn’t a static thing.)

There are many amazing programs that will help a writer draft a book or provide feedback on a finished draft.

This is NOT what we’re doing here in the Imaginal Memoir Cave.

Here, we hope to address the emotional and psychological gifts and challenges that arise when we tell our own stories. We believe deeply in the power of story to transform not only others, but ourselves as the writers. To do that, we have to also change. And this is where the “stuck” can happen. Change is scary!

But just like that caterpillar must go into its cocoon and completely dissolve into goo before it can become a butterfly, the memoirist must also completely dissolve who they were or thought they were so they can become the person who can tell and share their story.

This is a sacred, deep place and time. We are creating a safe sanctuary for the dissolution and rebuilding required to write our stories. And yes, we’ll be doing a lot of writing along the way!

We want to offer support for this dissolution—this re-becoming—and so we are focused these nine months on inner work. On process. On cultivating kindness and compassion for our story and for ourselves as both our story and our selves change through the process of writing and witnessing.

Consider these words from memoirist Mary Karr: “In any memoir, you search for lost beloveds, trying to unravel what went right or oh so wrong between you. But you’ll also have to exhume any former self. Just because you wear now some semblance of the body she wore then, don’t doubt she’s a stranger—maybe even more so. The past comes filtered through whatever self we’re wearing now, and we lie to our dang selves. The book gets better every time I do battle with the old narrative and lose.”

We are here to help with the surrendering of old narratives, forgiveness of old selves, and rebuilding of foundations.

You can jump right in to write your memoir in a month. You can generate pages like a machine. But for a memoir to succeed (and succeed doesn’t mean get published — succeed means to have told its story authentically and well), a writer cannot skip the foundational process work. One way or another, it happens.

Let’s support one another for this unraveling.

Let us help you find joy and delight—and just like the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, let’s welcome the journey to goo and beyond!