See Sharon’s bio, photo, and Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3.
Q&A with Sharon Lippincott (Question 4):
Q: What inspired you to want to guide other people in crafting lifewriting and generously offering so many tips to lifewriters (and co-founding the Life Writers Forum Yahoo group) — “helping others discover how to find and express their unique stories?” Did you have someone who similarly mentored you?
A: My professional career was in training and staff development coaching. During that time I wrote a book about how to conduct more effective meetings, and had dozens of articles published. Writing was my favorite part of my career. When I retired, I began writing about my early life for my grandchildren and fell in love with lifestory writing. I began teaching workshops on the topic as a way to keep my own writing flowing and my skills growing.
I’ve learned most of what I know, whether it’s about writing, using computers, or anything else, from reading, trying things out and hanging out with other people doing those things. In my mind, knowledge is like air, and should be as freely available as air. I teach because I love to teach, but also because I always learn more than my students each time I go to class.
Jerry Waxler and I founded the Life Writers Forum because we love the energy of group interaction and the only firmly established national organization for life writers adamantly refuses to admit male members. I find that the constant influx of new ideas and questions keeps me on my toes, continually advancing the boundaries of my own thinking, and pushing me to take further steps in developing my skills and broadening my interests.
One of my mentors in my graduate course in counseling psychology constantly urged me to focus on writing, claiming I had a gift for it. He’s the one who kindled my interest and and got me started, though I suspected that part of the reason he encouraged my writing was his recognition that I was ill-suited for a career in the field I was training for. (That turned out to be true.) Since then, my writing mentors have resided between the covers of their books.