9 Tips for a Fast Start Writing Your Memoir
To help you to get a fast start writing and to write your memoirs more prolifically–and even bring them to a finish in the form of a published memoir–I offer these nine suggestions. They are tried and true tips that bear repeating and repeating. (more…)
Similes and Metaphors: Don’t Let Them Scare You!
Don’t be afraid of similes and metaphors. “I don’t quite know how to describe what I’m feeling,” you might say during your writing as you grope for a way to describe in words this emotion that is beyond words. (more…)
Dramatic story development, rather than dramatic events, adds up to an interesting memoir
To view this post as a YouTube video, click here. — People will sometimes suppose that only big drama can make an interesting memoir. Of course, there are many readers who require constant titillation if they are to remain reading. Perhaps they are not the readers you should be seeking for your memoir. Nonetheless, nearly […]
Self-Publishing Means Extroversion!
DL: This post was published in 2022. French Boy/A 1950s Franco-American Childhood has been out in the world for two years. In 2025, I am about to publish Here To Stay/Life in 17th Century Canada. The same introversion/extraversion struggle is about to play itself out again. ___ I am committed to independent publishing—even if self-publishing, […]
Four Tips For Moving Your Memoir Plot With Action
Action drives your story and keeps your readers interested. Writing with effective action is the key to creating lifestories that people want to read. Here are four tips for moving your memoir plot with action. (more…)
Beginning the End Stage Before Publication
Last week, I realized I needed to acknowledge to myself that I was in the end stage before publication of writing my memoir. For one thing, I finally came up with a name—French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Chidhood—that I’m likely to keep. (So many titles in the trash!) This title reveals the content of […]
How Long Does It Take to Write a Memoir?
Sometimes, years after I’ve heard from someone that he is writing a memoir, I will connect with the writer again. Perhaps it’s three or four or five years later, but the writer is working on the same memoir. I don’t get it. So I ask politely, “What has snagged the memoir?” (more…)
Best Title for a Memoir: How to Choose
Writers ask me how to choose a best title for a memoir. Because I have worked with them, usually as their coach or editor and know their story, I am in a position to brainstorm with them to come up with a decent —and sometimes even a great—title for their book. Editor’s Note: This content […]
Dialog Tags: the good, the bad and the sometimes intrusive.
We all know how important a precise and varied vocabulary is to our memoir writing. Words are our tools to make meaning. Most of the writers I have worked with want to develop the precise and varied vocabulary that can be so helpful in writing narrative. Unfortunately, they also believe that an extensive vocabulary is […]