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Memoir Coaching provides support as you write your memories. If you are considering turning your memories into memoir, then memoir coaching is an option not to leave unexamined.

Writing alone can be hard!

With a memoir coach as your partner in writing, many of the decisions you must make can be explored until you arrive at a right solution.

You coach can help you to:

  • write more confidently. You might even begin to call yourself a “writer!”
  • recall your stories more deeply. The memories that seem to be superficial at the moment, whose meaning eludes you, don’t have to tank your memoir. Within you are foundational memories that explain you to yourself and to the world. Your coach will help you to excavate them more easily!
  • enjoy the process—even when it’s hard and you wish you could get through the writing. There’s no point in not learning to enjoy the challenges. They only point to a better memoir.

Sharing the weight of tough decisions

A maxim of writing is that we have favorite ways of portraying characters and actions. We become blind to the needs of the manuscript, but these favorite ways may not resonate with the reader and they will need to be excised from your memoir. This process is sometimes called “killing your little darlings.” Let your coach share in this logocide (this is not a word I just made up. It indicates removing the words that are weighing your memoir down.)

A memoir coach helps you to make the writing decisions that your manuscript calls for. Have you chosen the right point of view for your story? Are your characters well developed? How about the details? Do they support your story?

A memoir coach does this and so much more. Call 207-353-5454 today for a free session.

More memoir-writing resosurces

More memoir-writing resources at The Memoir Network.

Recently, we sent our  list of free resources. “Free” is great—in fact, we call it “superior”—but “free” can take you only so far. For more memoir-writing resources, explore the following.

Your fee-based options to learn memoir writing:

Our store:

~ The Memoir Store contains dozens of titles on the art and craft of memoir writing. Stock your ereader and / or bookshelves with quality memoir-writing titles.

Your books have given me a foundation in writing. They’ve taught me what to expect and how to go about writing.

Our programs & packages offer more memoir-writing reosurces:

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write memoir

Learning to Write Memoir Is Like Learning to Swim!

When learning to write memoir, it can feel awkward and uncomfortable as you learn the process, just like learning to swim. We often see people who are not comfortable swimming flail about in the water, their heads reaching up high, desperately, to catch a breath of air. This awkward gesture soon tires them. Try as they might there is not enough air for them as they constrict their ribs, twist their heads, contort their jaws. Soon enough, considering that they had set out to enjoy the water, these people quit and return to the shore. Swimming is over for the day. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]

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project manager

Writing a Memoir Is a Big Project. It Calls For the Project Manager Function.

Succeeding in writing a book of memoirs in an expeditious and meaningful fashion is important. If you dwell in your memoir project manager function for even a short while before you jump into your worker mode and write, write, write, you may be very pleased with how more smoothly and quickly you create.

I am not talking about outlining a story here. No, I am talking about setting writing schedules that don’t interfere with commitments, clearing unnecessary commitments so that they don’t nag at you, getting cooperation from other people in your household, and making sure you have the research capacity to pull off writing your memoir.

Writers love to dream and to do the writing. What they don’t like is planning their writing life. So… the planning is overruled and then the writing life is full of interruptions and rough going.

A Memoir Project Manager Helps You Set Goals for Your Memoir

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help writing a memoir

A Faulty Process Is—Well—Useless

One memoir writer who had spent two or three years writing her story submitted her formatted manuscript to me for a final edit. She told me she hadn’t gotten help writing a memoir because she hadn’t wanted to be influenced.

As I read her story, I struggled to find its focus. There didn’t seem to be any.

Ouch!

The manuscript was full of vague (meaningless, really) sentences that really didn’t transmit much meaning. Lines such as: “The town I grew up in was in the middle of nowhere.”

Ouch!

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publish a book

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.

Over the last two decades, I have coached many, many writers—more writers than I can remember. In those years, I have seen some people soar with the experience—it’s as if they can do no wrong—while unfortunately, I have seen others coach with me for periods of time without making any apparent change or progress.

This experience has enabled me to come up with three decisions a person who wants to succeed at memoir writing must make. These decisions will help you to reach publication faster than you can without them.

1. You must resolve to commit to the discipline necessary to succeed.

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Memoir Editing

Be a Better Memoir Writer with Deliberate Practice

We all wear many hats as we go through our days. In my case, I am a writer, a memoirist, a teacher, a memoir coach, a memoir editor, a co-author, a book publisher, and finally, a small business person. I wear those hats with pride and, I hope, some accomplishment.

Beyond these, I wear other hats as all of you do also. One is that of an athlete of sorts: there has been swimming, jogging, and weight lifting. In this post, want to focus on how I worked on my physical conditioning through deliberate practice and then apply that to memoir writing.

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Memoir Coaching

Is a coach for the memoir you are writing really useful?

Working with a coach for the memoir you are writing provides you technical, informational and emotional support. Often writers—usually first-time and (perhaps) only-time writers—struggle as they recall, explore, and write their memories. If you are considering or already busy at turning your memories into memoirs, then memoir coaching is an option that will likely help […]

memoir coaching

Memoir Coaching Laser-focuses on Getting Your Memoir Written Faster and Better

How does memoir coaching improve your manuscript?

“What does ‘My family was poor’ mean, ” I asked a memoir writer in a recent coaching session.

Poor?” he asked at the other end of the phone line. “What do you mean what does poor mean? Poor means poor!”

“Does poor mean you didn’t have enough to eat or does it mean you never ate out at restaurants? Does poor mean you were forced to run out on your rent or does it mean you did not have an in-ground pool?”

Clearly, descriptive always adjectives don’t mean what we think they mean!

Empty literary “calories”

On the spot, I shared with him how adjectives are empty literary “calories.” They do nothing for the story but fill up space. They pretend to be effective but are not. Every writer needs to depend on scenes, dialog, settings, characters to tell the real story.

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right memoir coach

How to Know if You Have the Right Memoir Coach

How do you know if you have the right memoir coach? The guidelines below will help you evaluate your writing coach prospect to ascertain if you are choosing the right memoir coach for you. This article contains evaluation guidelines centered on the availability of the right memoir coach.

1. Can your coach work with you so that you meet your deadline?

As you develop your memoir project, you may become aware of a natural deadline, such as a family reunion or a birthday. The right memoir coach for you will be able to meet your date. This deadline should be discussed before you and the coach commit to each other.

Your deadline may also simply focus on a time when you would like to be finished. This is a completely internal deadline.

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