Listen Up: Grow Your Memoir Business
Again this week I’m offering something a little different — this post offers you a link to a podcast. Kansas City-based Amy Woods Butler speaks to Denis Ledoux of the Memoir Network on How to Grow Business as a Memoir Professional. Click here to listen. “Denis started as a writer of autobiographical fictional. When he […]
The Problem With Writing Prompts
Is there a problem with writing prompts? This is my issue with writing prompts: they tend to lead to isolated stories, stories that are searching for humor, searching to be shared with a group that is perhaps looking for entertainment. They are not, by and large, searching for meaning lost in the morass of your […]
Regular Writing Practice: An Important Decision!
In this post, you will learn the many benefits of a regular writing practice.
Many people set off to write their memoirs with considerable enthusiasm. It’s a new project and it’s full of energy. This is going to be the greatest memoir the world has ever known!
How long can that last? Enthusiasm takes you only so far. Over the months and years it takes to complete a manuscript, the initial enthusiasm wanes and the memoir project that had seemed so interesting at its onset now begins to bore the writer. We begin to hear about the writer “trying to write a memoir.” Unless the writer changes attitude, the memoir will soon be abandoned.
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The Difference between a Memoir and an Autobiography
The difference between a memoir and an autobiography can be rather minimal—or fairly large.
“So what is the difference between a memoir and an autobiography?” you may persist in asking as so many people do. Perhaps they are masking their diffidence about writing, wanting to “get it right.”
Practically speaking, for most people, there is no difference between a memoir and an autobiography. In common speech, the terms are interchangeable.
People say, “I’m writing an autobiography” or, “I’m writing a memoir.” (It’s the word memoir that has grown not the word autobiography that has shrunk.)
But, technically (or perhaps in the historical meaning of the two words), there is a difference between a memoir and an autobiography.
Two definitions
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Write The Stories Behind Your Photos
Your photos tell stories. Did you store away a slew of photos in shoe boxes over the years–and more recently created huge photo files in your computer? (These are perhaps even worse than shoe boxes. At least, photos in shoe boxes are easy to look at vs photos as thumbnails!) Your photos tell stories.
Five Questions for Checking a Memoir Ghostwriter’s References
Hiring a memoir ghostwriter will lead to a long-term relationship. This relationship will cost you money. It will also cost you time and energy. It is reasonable that you want it to function smoothly and well. Of course, you ask the writer for references, but are they reliable? Here are five areas of questions you […]
3 Tips to Help You Write Today and Everyday
All of us struggle to some extent to produce writing content. Writing is often difficult. It takes time and energy—both of which the laws of entropy suggest we ought to preserve. Here are a few writing processes to help you write today and every day. While the following are not exactly self-motivation, they have gotten […]
Tips for Doing a Memoir Reading Program
Q. I am about to have my first opportunity to read from my newly-finished memoir. Any tips for a memoir reading program so that I can make the most of the opportunity? A. I have many tips for a memoir reading program, but I will limit myself to five.
How to Make Writing Easier
Why is writing so hard? Why does what you want to write become so difficult the moment you sit down to write? Where are the words you need to convey the excitement or the dread or the anticipation. You are shocked to realize that what appears on the computer screen has no pizzazz! This is […]