
Does calling yourself a writer make you a writer?
“How do you become a writer?” people ask me. While many of my memoir-writing clients are one-time authors, not everyone is in that category. Many people join The Memoir Network secretly wanting to become “a writer” and hoping that memoir writing will be their ticket into the writer’s life. I might, in all seriousness, respond, […]

Bringing Discipline in Memoir Writing
A big part of success is showing up and doing the work. The same is true in writing a memoir. To succeed you have to do some writing; you have to demonstrate some discipline, some nose to the grindstone. Now the writing process is not straightforward or linear and there are many unexpected twists and […]

My Mother Passes
On this blog, I have frequently offered excerpts of my mother’s memoir, We Were Not Spoiled. It has been such a satisfaction for me to have written her story and to have been able to hand her a copy. One day, after I had presented her with the hard copy of We Were Not Spoiled, […]

How to Write the Last Chapter of a Memoir
“How do I write the last chapter of a memoir?” coaching and editing clients will sometimes ask me, wondering how to end a memoir.It is a good question because the last chapter of a memoir is your final shot at affirming your theme and at creating a satisfying and meaningful ending to the story the […]

Clichés in your memoir—you need them like you need a hole in the head.
You can avoid cliches and stereotypes. If you do not avoid cliches and stereotypes, you will undermine the unique and personal feel of your memoir. Cliches and stereotypes place people in often erroneous and certainly indefensible categories.

Writing the right memoir
not writing the right memoir can constrict your writing. The person who has put down one memoir a number of weeks, or months or even years ago, may not be able to pick it up again because the energy that had initially informed it is gone. The memoir has become the wrong memoir to be […]

Develop Your Website: It’s A Prime Interface with Your Audience.
Develop Your Website Whether you have already written a book and are reaching for an audience or are still writing your first book, develop your website if you do not have a proprietary one. Why develop your website? ___ On the Third Thursday of every month (at 1 PM/ET, 12 CT, 11 MT, 10 PT), […]

There Can’t Be That Many Types of Memoir!
There used to be one memoir type. The one kind of memoir genre was that written by famous people about the important events in history that they had taken part in. Mostly, these accounts were about how wonderful they were and how important their roles in history had been. Oftentimes, these memoirs were about excoriating […]

Your Memoir’s “BIG WHY”—A Foundational Concept
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.