I taught myself to write in order to understand who I was and so yes, writing was an act of self-actualization in the beginning.
In terms of style, I think the memoirist should have a novelist's skill and all the elements of a novelist's toolbox. When I read a memoir, I want to really, deeply experience what the author experienced. I want to see the characters and hear the way they speak and understand how they think. And so in that way, writing a memoir feels similar to writing a novel.
The most obvious difference between writing novels and memoirs is that my memoirs are true stories, and explore certain experiences I've lived, and thus operate within the boundaries of memory and fact.
One thing that I don't ever want to do is write something I don't love.
Since the Middle Ages, people have been writing about angels. Angelology was actually at one point a scholastic discipline.
I always knew I wanted to write really imaginative fiction - fiction that was very different from my real life.
Writing grew out of the pleasure of escape. My novels are very much outside of my personal experience. That is why I love writing fiction. It allows me to leave my existence and inhabit other lives.
If I'm not writing, I'm not fully living. It has become the essential element that defines who I am.
