Advice from Nora Ephron on owning your story

“When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you.

But when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it's your laugh.”

- Nora Ephron

The wise words of Nora Ephron. Photo by Louis Hansel @shotsoflouis on Unsplash.

Last night I watched Everything is Copy, a documentary about writer Nora Ephron by her son, Jacob Bernstein. The title comes from something that Nora’s mother, who was also a writer, used to say to her girls when they were growing up: “Everything is copy” — meaning, everything that happens to you is fodder for your writing.

In the end, Bernstein concludes that his mother ultimately embraced this advice but only to a certain extent: She wrote about personal experiences she was willing to give away, but kept other things—including a leukemia diagnosis—private.

I love this reminder that:

1. Telling our stories is a form of claiming power, and

2. It’s always up to us, and us alone, to decide what to share.

To share another Nora Ephron quote,

“Above all, be the heroine of your own life — not the victim.”

Amen.

Everything is Copy USA 92 mins "Jacob Bernstein's lovingly critical examination of his mother, Nora Ephron ... couldn't be better curated." - The Independent A beloved essayist, novelist and filmmaker, the late Nora Ephron was an editorial polymath whose scathingly witty, confessional and poison-fuelled pen embodied the most vivacious and bitchy elements of New York culture.