Mechanics of writing a memoir – the work of writing a stories and how life can insert delays & provide contemplative times yet leave time left to write.

Note: This is the 2nd article in a series of 4 on the writing process of A Sugary Frosting published in 2016. 

Post 1: I Finish A Sugary Frosting: Notes on the Memoir Writing Process

Post 2: Mechanics of Writing a Memoir: It’s not all Inspiration

Post 3: Preparing for A Successful Book Launch

Post 4: Better Book Production is Possible

The mechanics of writing a memoir involve the work of writing a story and how life can insert delays & provide contemplative times, yet leave time left to write.

I started to write the memoir seriously in May of 2015. Since I continued to be active in the daily running of my business, The Memoir Network, I could commit myself only to writing 30 minutes a day—but, and this is important, to show up every day for the writing. 30 minutes a day may not seem like much, but it adds up to 3 1/2 hours a week.

It is not just 3 1/2 hours. It adds up to more than that because, as I went about my days—writing emails, taking notes for a coaching session, walking along the lovely river trail in our town—knowing that I would be writing the next day, my imagination would create text. When it came time to sit at my computer the subsequent day, I often had much of what I wanted to write already composed in my mind. In that way, I was able to create text more quickly in the allotted half hour then I might have otherwise had I sat down and written for 3 1/2 hours straight—not knowing what I would be composing that day.

Life happened even as I wrote

As in every life, things got in the way. There was a tele-class I had to prepare and market that required a good chunk of time. There were coaching, editing, and ghostwriting clients. There were tasks of having to take care of the house—painting porches, for instance. In short, there was life.

The memoir writer must check facts.

There were also delays generated from within the story. At one point I realized that some of the chronology was probably incorrect. I went through the manuscript and made a list of dates for everything. This revealed a probable error in the dating of some of Martha’s life events between her 19th and 20th years. Since she is not here to set me straight, I had to spend several days going through photos trying to get clues from them, going to boxes of correspondence and other paper realia (artifacts) that her parents “warehoused” faithfully and that Martha inherited. (Do you want to know how much a muffler for a Chevy Impala cost in 1972? I have a receipt to tell you exactly how much!)

These boxes of realia are a memoir writer’s dream come true, but it remained that it was a time-consuming task to go through box after box to study page after page. To go from document to document. Sometimes I would come across a bit of information that I did not, at the time, realize was important. It was only the next day when I came across a second bit of information that I understood I ought to have jotted down the date and details of the first piece which was now someplace—but exactly where?. This oversight required going back into the boxes from a previous day and finding the letter or the note that I had thought inconsequential.

The end is in sight!

Finally, I was ready to finish this project.  I was very close to the end of creating A Sugary Frosting / A Memoir of a Girlhood Spent in a Parsonage. I set a publication date of March 30, 2016, for both the hardcopy and the e-version.

A public reading

I hosted a salon of writers. Some of us had been meeting periodically for the last 30 years. It was a wonderful and supportive gathering of fellow creatives. It was also the opportunity for me to read from the preface and the first paragraphs of A Sugary Frosting / A Memoir of a Girlhood Spent in a Parsonage. Writers in attendance asked me questions about the book and the mechanics of writing a memoir and made comments that showed I had gotten the story across to them. That felt good.

My goal: to leave a legacy

My fervent for this book was for it to serve both a personal story that will leave a legacy cherished by Martha’s and my granddaughters, and it is also to create a book with universal appeal to a wide audience.

Besides Éléonore and Aurélie, our granddaughters, why would somebody be interested in this book? I hope that it will appeal to anyone interested in a 1950s and 1960s childhood. I also hope that it will appeal to people who are interested in what role religion – specifically Protestantism – might have played in the development of an individual. Thirdly, I hope that it appeals to anybody who is looking into how to understand and transcend a childhood. There is an every woman/man story here.

How do the mechanics of writing and the work of writing stories evolve around your life? Have you made time to write despite when ‘life happens’?

I welcome any reader who is interested in writing a review for A Sugary Frosting / A Memoir of a Girlhood Spent in a Parsonage to email me for a complimentary review e-copy.

To find help to finish writing your memoir, go to Write to the End, and use coupon code WTTE25 to save 25%