The Summer I Dropped Acid with My Father

PODCAST SHOW NOTES:Episode Title:The Summer I Dropped Acid with My Father: A Deleted Scene and What I Had to Let goEpisode Description:Some scenes are written perfectly and still have to go. In this special episode of The Writer's Journey, acclaimed author and writing teacher Laura Davis opens her archive of cut material from her award-winning 2021 memoir, The Burning Light of Two Stars, and shares a piece she fought hard to keep — a single afternoon in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her father that changed something between them permanently. Woven through the storytelling is an honest, behind-the-scenes look at one of the hardest decisions in memoir writing: how to release even your most cherished work when it doesn't serve the book's core arc.What Laura Covers in This Episode:Why even the most beautifully written scenes sometimes have to be cut — and how a memoirist knows when that moment has comeThe backstory of Laura's relationship with her father, and the years of silence that preceded this afternoonA fully rendered deleted scene set at a Back to the Land weekend party in the Santa Cruz Mountains, June 1980What happens when carefully constructed emotional armor starts to crackThe conversation fourteen years in the making — and what finally made it possibleA moment of reckoning that neither of them could have planned or predictedThe memoir craft principle of "killing your babies": releasing what the book can live withoutHow a memoir's central arc determines everything — including what must be sacrificedEpisode Highlights:Why Laura is sharing this now. While on vacation, Laura opens her archive of deleted scenes from The Burning Light of Two Stars — material she spent months crafting and held until the very end. This episode is the first in a series, each one carrying its own embedded craft lesson.The scene begins. Laura sets the stage — a winding road into the mountains, a day that feels unhurried, her father nearby — and then a moment arrives that nobody planned for. What happens next is anything but ordinary.When the interior world takes over. Something shifts mid-afternoon that Laura cannot control. Old grief surfaces. Old loneliness. What had been carefully held at a distance is suddenly right there, impossible to look away from.Finding solid ground. Slowly, steadily, Laura makes her way back. It takes time — and patience — and something she has to locate entirely within herself. When she finally arrives, the world looks different.A conversation that had been waiting. Laura finds her father alone, in a space that feels quietly sacred. Fourteen years of unspoken feeling finally have somewhere to go — and he is, at last, listening.Something she had never received before. Her father says something she had never heard in her family. Laura doesn't just hear it — she chooses to take it all the way in. That choice matters.Forgiveness that held. Laura is clear: what shifted that afternoon didn't dissolve when the day ended. It stayed. It changed the shape of what came after.The craft lesson underneath. The scene was cut not because it failed — Laura loved it — but because The Burning Light of Two Stars was built around a different relationship entirely. Understanding that distinction is one of the most essential, and most difficult, lessons in memoir writing.About Host Laura Davis:Laura Davis is an acclaimed author, writing teacher, and host of The Writer's Journey podcast. With more than 35 years of experience helping writers find and tell their most authentic stories, she is one of the most trusted voices in the writing world today. Laura is the author of seven books, including her award-winning memoir The Burning Light of Two Stars (BookLife Prize Winner, 2021) and the landmark co-authored classic The Courage to Heal.She teaches weekly writing classes on Zoom, leads international retreats including the Creative Camino pilgrimage, and Flourishing as We Age, and hosts the Midweek Pause for Peace series.Her teaching is grounded in a belief that courageous, vulnerable storytelling has the power to heal both the writer and the reader.Key Takeaways from This Episode:Your memoir has a spine — protect it. Every scene must earn its place by serving the book's central arc. Clarity about what your memoir is truly about is what makes every other editorial decision possible."Killing your babies" is an act of craft, not failure. The ability to release scenes, sentences, and words the book can live without is one of the most important — and most painful — skills a writer develops. Holding on too long is what makes books drag.Receiving is its own act of courage. When something long-withheld is finally offered, a writer — and a person — has a choice about how to take it in. That choice can change everything that comes after.Deleted scenes are not wasted writing. The material that doesn't survive into the final manuscript is part of discovering what the book truly is. These scenes illuminate the story and the craft in ways the published version couldn't contain — and they are worth sharing.Episode Call-to-Action:If this episode moved you, Laura invites you to sit with a question: What scene from your own life has been waiting years to be told? What might need to soften before you could write it?If you haven't yet read The Burning Light of Two Stars — Laura's award-winning 2021 memoir and BookLife Prize Winner — this deleted scene is just a glimpse of what's waiting inside. You can purchase the print edition and audiobook here: 👉 lauradavis.net/the-burning-light-of-two-starsIf you're a writer wrestling with what to keep, what to cut, or how to find the courage to write the scene that frightens you most, Laura's weekly writing classes are where that work happens. Visit lauradavis.net to learn more.And if this episode resonated, please click the ❤️, leave a comment, or share it with someone who needs it. Every click helps new readers and listeners find The Writer's Journey.Connect with Laura Davis:Substack: laurasaridavis.substack.com — essays, poems, nature photos, and writing craftWebsite: lauradavis.net — classes, retreats, books, and workshopsWeekly Classes: Online Zoom writing classes, ongoing enrollmentInternational Retreats: Including the Creative Camino pilgrimage writing programPodcast Series: Midweek Pause for Peace — also available on SubstackDeleted Scenes in This Series:The Summer I Dropped Acid with My Father: https://laurasaridavis.substack.com/p/5d90f2b6-2d68-4d9f-a120-cad131f6e3f2I Could Still Let Her Comfort Me Then: https://laurasaridavis.substack.com/p/d72ed72f-70c3-4489-8def-1cf5ad6d5a86They Made Me Part of History: https://laurasaridavis.substack.com/p/de5c307d-9165-43e9-a7d2-50b7cf957362The Writer's Journey with Laura Davis is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support her work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. You'll receive regular posts like these, as well as beautifully curated poems and nature photos, essays on life and the craft of writing, and more.You can subscribe here: https://laurasaridavis.substack.com/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit laurasaridavis.substack.com/subscribe