Margins
Mythmaking book cover
Mythmaking
Self-Discovery and the Timeless Art of Memoir
2024
First Published
4.14
Average Rating
199
Number of Pages

Best-selling Heroine’s Journey author Maureen Murdock invites readers to explore their personal story within the rich tapestry of human experience by examining the craft of memoir alongside fresh writing advice and prompts. Maureen Murdock looks at thematic connections between ancient myths and contemporary memoirs to probe questions What is my journey? Where is home? Her background as a Jungian psychotherapist enriches her teaching—urging us to dig deep to identify our own universal archetypes. Writers who feel stuck or unworthy of writing about themselves will find thought-provoking inspiration and validation in this book, while those simply looking to use writing as a tool for self-exploration will examine their patterns and stories to reveal their true inner selves. And all will be left with a deeper understanding of the rich scope of the memoir genre by exploring contemporary favorites—like Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge, Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, and David Carr’s The Night of the Gun—from a mythological perspective. Like myth, memoir reveals a unity to human experience that ultimately we all share similar hopes, dreams, and desires as well as fears, losses, and heartbreaks. Memoir helps writers understand the trajectory of their lives and helps readers better grasp our own place within the human experience.

Avg Rating
4.14
Number of Ratings
28
5 STARS
54%
4 STARS
25%
3 STARS
7%
2 STARS
11%
1 STARS
4%
goodreads

Author

Maureen Murdock
Maureen Murdock
Author · 6 books
Maureen Murdock is an author, educator, Jungian-oriented psychotherapist and photographer. Maureen teaches memoir writing, which she loves, through the Memoir Certificate at Pacifica Graduate Institute, for IWWG (International Women's Writing Guild) and in workshops throughout the US. She was Chair and Core faculty of the MA Counseling Psychology Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara and adjunct faculty in the Depth Psychology Department at Sonoma State University. Murdock blogs about mental illness, addiction and incarceration on her website and participates in Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) as a volunteer at Lompoc Federal Prison.
548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2026 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved