
Why we write stories
Why we write stories. Stories fascinate us all our lives. What is the meaning of telling (and listening to) all of these stories? Obviously, stories entertain us, but our need to be entertained doesn’t fully explain our great hunger for stories.

Write Better Memoir Dialog: 7 Pillars (Proven and Easy to Do!)
Seven easy, proven techniques to write better memoir dialog. How much dialog do you include and when? Follow these 7 pillars for success.

Writing Process Steps—Linger With Your Story
Many, and perhaps most, people write too fast. I don’t mean that they end up with a text characterized by sloppy grammar, spelling problems and chronology issues. No, what I mean is that they push through the process of writing their stories much too quickly. They end up with only a part of the story […]

Write A First Memoir Draft Efficiently and Well! (Really, this is do-able!) 4 Pillars.
Here’s advice contrary to much you’ve been told: don’t write a first memoir draft that is of poor quality and less than what you want.

Monday Focus: Avoid this big mistake! Don’t slight the soul of your story.
Your theme is the soul of your story, the element that elevates it from a recitation of facts to a statement. But don’t make this mistake!

Monday Focus: Structure your memoir: because your memoir is not an amoeba, it needs a backbone.
How to structure your memoir is today’s Monday Focus topic. Turn your collection of vignettes and stories into a memoir.

Monday Focus: Don’t fib or stretch the truth.
How much do you really know and do you have to tell everything you know? That is the challenge of writing the truth.

Sit in on this Virtual Memoir Tour
Today, I am urging you to sit back and enjoy this virtual memoir tour in which I read an excerpt read from my memoir French Boy/A 1950s Franco-American Childhood. Here’s some necessary background: I did not learn English until I went to grade school. My brother had preceded me in school where he had learned […]

Monday Focus: Don’t ignore the setting(s) of your story.
Today’s focus reminds you that your stories take place in some context. This is the setting of your story. There are two general sorts of settings. the physical setting that is tangible the abstract setting that consists of family, culture, and the era, etc. This setting tends to be ethereal. Some of the writers I […]