Telling the Truth About your Life
In a world where we are constantly being bombarded with subtle—and not so subtle—messages about who we ought to be, it is a bold statement to take a stand for personal truth and authenticity.
The telling of your stories is a revolutionary act.
—Sam Keen, Writer
One of the most transformative statements an individual can make is to tell his/her story with honesty and objectivity. At its best, this is what a memoir is—a statement that declares “this is who I am, who I think of myself as being.”
Lest you think that telling the truth is only about revealing scandals and unmasking abuses, let me assure you that it is more often about smaller issues, issues more within the realm of the everyday experience. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
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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. There are a whole lot of people who join The Memoir Network who secretly want to become “a writer” and are hoping that memoir writing will be their ticket into the writer’s life.
I might, in all seriousness, respond, “Start calling yourself a writer and see what happens.”
“Does saying you are a writer make you a writer?” might be their comeback and likely will be.
Well, of course, the answer is no. Not ipso facto. But…
An example from my life
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Three Tips That Will Keep You in the Memoir-Writing Conversation
Recently, someone asked me what are the biggest barriers memoir writers face to being prolific. The following three came to mind right away. Below, I write about them and offer suggestions for eliminating these impediments to staying in the writing conversation. Writers often put…
Two Tips For Conveying Theme Effectively
Underlying all of your stories is its theme. The theme is really a message, the global way in which you understand your story — either in its entirety or in its
Is It a Memoir or Autobiographical Fiction ?
What Makes It Memoir or Autobiographical Fiction?
I read a memoir that did well here in Maine (it’s by an excellent Maine writer)—I can’t vouch for its reach in the rest of the country. I’m left wondering whether the author was writing memoir or autobiographical fiction.
It’s an interesting book, very well-written in terms of style and organization, but my nagging doubt is that it is autobiographical fiction and not memoir. I will choose to leave the book nameless as my intent is not to be negative about it but only to use it to elucidate a point about memoir writing which I think is important to keep in mind as we write.
I have frequently spoken about using fiction techniques to make a memoir more interesting. Dialog, for instance, can be marvelous. The trick, as I have offered frequently, is to use only a few words in direct dialog (“I won’t,” she said) and then put the rest in indirect dialog (She said that was because blah, blah, blah…)
Fiction Techniques in a Memoir
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Don’t Talk Your Stories Away
Don’t Talk Your Stories Away
When a writer talks too much and too revealingly about a work-in-progress—especially at the early stage before the writing has taken shape—the energy to get the story written is often scattered. Sometimes what passes for a writer’s block is only a failure to relate to your stories in a way that’s conducive to getting them written. This may seem like a writer’s block but it’s not. It’s really poor writing discipline!
People have an urge to make their stories public—in any format that will satisfy the impulse. Talking over a cup of tea may be just as satisfying a release as shaping a memorable poem or novel or life story.
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4 More Steps to Reaching a Larger Book Audience for Your Memoir
Reaching a Larger Book Audience for Your Memoir
It is possible to reach a larger book audience than family and friends with your memoir. Here are four suggestions to enable your story to appeal to a larger public.
1) Write a story that is truly well-written and whose reading—the prose itself—will bring joy to your reader.
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Where Do You Start Writing Your Memoir?
Where Do You Start Writing Your Memoir?
It’s a quandary: where do you start writing your memoir? Many people may say: from the beginning. So? Does that mean you start from the first thing you can remember in the sequence of the story? I suppose you could do that, but, I don’t think that is the best place to start your memoir. So where is the best place to start your memoir?
1. The answer is actually quite simple: Start your memoir anywhere in the story.
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Authority/Author: words with the same roots
A Few Steps to Assuming Writing Authority To those who struggle with whether they should write or continue to write a memoir, let me be clear: no one can give you the authority to write your story, to tell the truth about your life. You are the only person who can do that (Of course, […]