No one has ever seen the world the way you have. This is a truth that noted author, poet, and professor Richard Lee Zuras knows well. Mining your past - for its characters, its lessons, its regrets, and its joys - can feel intimidating, but it leads to authenticity in a writer's work that cannot be replicated. No one has seen the world the way you do, and so learning how to tap into that world as you create new stories is an invaluable way of finding your voice. In this accessible and informative writing guide, Zuras skillfully combines his previous written works and personal histories with concrete tools for any readers looking to integrate their own pasts into authentic writing. Refreshingly reader-focused, Mining Your Past provides its audience tangible methods for uncovering their unique worldview in order to create more compelling and genuine storytelling. Readers will step away with a greater faith in their potential as writers and with a better understanding of their own pasts, making this an essential read for novice writers searching for a way to share their stories, as only they can tell them.