Press Release: French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood by Denis Ledoux
NOTE: You are invited to the book launch for French Boy! The links to attend live or via Zoom are at the end of this press release. Re: French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood / Denis Ledoux, Soleil Press, 2024, 345 pages, photos, $19.95. Contact: [email protected] Release date: October 16, 2023 “It was a […]
Writing with passion! How to Bring Passion into Your Story
Why does what you want to write become so difficult to do the moment you sit down to write a memoir? Where are the words you need to convey the excitement or the dread or the anticipation of your life experience? After writing a while, you are shocked to realize that what appears on the computer screen has no pizzazz! This drivel is not what you had in mind when you thought with excitement of writing your memoir. So why is writing with passion so hard sometimes? [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
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3 Decisions That Sustain Your Memoir Writing
I want to share with you three decisions you can make to help you to succeed more quickly and easily at memoir writing.
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Five Tips for Avoiding Vagueness in Your Memoir
Do you struggle with vagueness in your writing? Here are 5 tips for writing clearly and vividly to help you avoid vagueness in your memoir.
How to write vividly–Avoiding vagueness in writing
If you want to learn how to write vividly, use the following tips for avoiding vagueness in writing your memoir.
When a manuscript slips into a vagueness, the reader reads and rereads and does not quite “get it.”
“What’s the author trying to say here?” we ask ourselves. “What am I missing?”
Here are a few of my ideas as to why this may happen.
1.
Solution if this is you: journal around the story, look at your photos, take a walk to ruminate about the events you have written about, ask yourself, “What exactly am I trying to convey here? What do I really mean to say?”
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10 Ways to Stop Writer’s Block
Why should writers have writer’s blocks? Do plumbers have plumber’s block? Do accountants have accountant’s block? Stop writer’s block now.
Sweetheart, Are You Using Precise Words for Your Memoir?
Is writing precise words really important in a memoir?
Over the years, I have written energetically about the importance of writing precise words instead of generic ones.
I was dropping someone off at the bus station (aka the Intermodal Transportation Center) when I overheard an exchange that purported to be a dialog that convinced me once again of the necessity for precision in speech–and, by extension, in our memoir writing. It was proof that generic words really do miss the mark and lead to confusing messages.
A grandmother was seeing her daughter (I presumed from the similarity of looks) and three grandchildren off—or perhaps it was the other way. The grandmother had said goodbye to the two girls and there was a boy of about 10 whom she had not yet bid her fond farewell to. He was looking around the space, distracted by this and that and not paying much attention to what was going on.
“Sweetheart,” the grandmother said, holding her arms out to hug him. The boy continued to look around elsewhere.
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You Don’t Have to Rush To Complete a Memoir
You don’t have to rush to complete a memoir, but taking these action steps will keep you writing until you finish your memoir.
What is Your Memoir’s “BIG WHY”
What is your memoir’s BIG WHY? Without a BIG WHY, your memoir will not shine. You story will be smaller than it needs to be.
As I interview prospective clients for coaching—something I do often, I listen to why their reasons to write a memoir. Many do not yet have a compelling reason to write their memoir, a pushy “why.” I strongly suspect they will not continue into coaching or editing—and may not finish their memoir at all.
What is your memoir’s BIG WHY?
Yes, there is something that has urged them to be in touch with me, but that presenting reason, I sense, is not yet gnawing at their consciousness, boring into them until they have to give in to it, causing non-writing to be more painful than writing. These people will “try to write” a memoir, but I sense they are not committed.
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