Writing Through the Lens of Empathy
Show notes
Lauren Reisner admits that her dad might not totally love her decision to give up being a lawyer to follow her dream to write.
“My dad is supportive, but he is having a very hard time with me saying, I’m not a lawyer anymore,” she says.
Describing herself as “trauma-informed,” Lauren brings empathy to those suffering from life’s setbacks, allowing her to tread lightly as she gathers information to ghostwrite their personal stories. She credits her 20 years as a disability lawyer, representing people with disability claims through the Social Security administration, with her ability to translate their experiences into words. That experience carries over to her writing process.
“I got my BA in Psychology, so a lot of my writing tends to skew towards psychology, either psych theory or neuropsych or cognitive psych, but in a very accessible way. I always use metaphors and things like that to make it easier to understand. But I think the psych background and the legal background have trained me to see things more analytically and objectively.”
Lauren’s ghostwriting business has gotten a running start, and she is in the process of querying agents for interest in her first novel. She is happy to lend her storytelling chops to anyone looking for help telling a personal story. Lauren’s website is laurenreisner.com, and her Substack is titled Molten Crystal. Here’s our conversation on the Type. Tune. Tint. podcast.
