I'm about to undertake a new venture. Any words of advice for me?

For years I have been working away at the craft of fiction, producing hundreds of thousands of words and not selling anything (although I’ve given plenty away and also won some awards). What I have not attempted to do is tell my own story. I’ve used parts of it fictitiously, of course, but I have never tried to set down in narrative form the chain of experiences that shaped my adult life.

Since last March I have been processing my mother’s death. Some of the questions here on fluther have contributed to my reflections. It occurred to me only yesterday that now I feel free to tell the story that belongs to me.

Here are words my mother said to me when I was about fourteen: “If you want to write, you can’t spare anybody—not yourself and not the people you love.”

I’m on vacation for a few days, in a mountain cottage hideaway. I have my laptop and all my writing tools. I have just come fresh from the shower and am ready to begin.

What advice do you have for me?

I am going to close my browser now and open a new Word file. I won’t come back here and look until I’ve written a thousand words. Even that is only a scant beginning.