If you are like many new writers, deciding to write a memoir had produced much excitement. You are psyched by the thought of how good this piece of writing is going to be and how finally you are going to get your book written and out into the world. This initial feeling is often followed by the challenge of actually getting started with the writing.
Writing begins to seem like pick-and-shovel work!
A letdown sets in. Or, perhaps the feeling is better described as fear. You’ve never written a memoir before. Where do you start and how do you keep going? And why should you ever believe you could pull this one off! After all, you’ve been a nurse or an accountant or a housewife or a UPS carrier—not a writer. What do you know about writing?
Are you supposed to have an outline, you ask yourself, and is there a best point in the story to launch your writing? Should you start from the beginning? You want to “do it right.”
Success is possible—if you commit to getting started.
Many people just like you have succeeded at what you propose to do. One day, they had a book in hand to pass on to family friends and perhaps to the world.
You, too, can succeed at getting started writing an interesting and meaningful memoir. It takes determination and discipline—and some knowledge of how to put a story together. But…
Not to worry. This is what the Memoir Writer’s Blog is here to do: we can help you write the best memoir you are capable of producing.
In conclusion
In this section, we offer you some conceptual and hands-on suggestions for you to start writing a memoir well so that you keep writing to the end.
Where Do You Begin Writing Your Memoir?
Is there a best place to start writing your memoir? It’s a quandary: where do you start writing your memoir? Many people may say: from the beginning. But, I don’t think that is the best place to start composing. The answer is actually quite simple.
Why we write stories that fascinate us
Why we write stories that fascinate us
In the following YouTube video to which I will send you shortly, I write about why stories fascinate us all our lives. As children, we love to listen to bedtime stories. As we grow older, we tell our own stories about what happened at school or at our after-school job. As adults, we often speak in stories and consume stories in the form of novels, movies, TV dramas, and conversations at the grocery store as we wait in line. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
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Use This Instead of Writing Prompts
In this video, Use This Instead of Writing Prompts, we discuss what to use instead of writing prompts. Writing should matter.
Six Reasons to Join a Long Distance Memoir Writing Program
Many of the biggest challenges facing memoir writers can be alleviated by joining a distance-learning writing program.
Your participation will convince you that you can succeed.
Memoir writers—as all writers—work in isolation. There are many times when a memoir writer would like to have a contact with a system that could help her/him to resolve a writing issue—whether it’s a question of grammar, style, or structure.
If you were not a plumber, would you do the plumbing to your house without first learning as much as you could about plumbing?
Of course, you would want to inform yourself.
You might peruse YouTube, buy some how-to books on plumbing, give a call to a person who is a plumber to ask your questions.
Here’s how you as a new writer can follow the same process to write your first memoir draft. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
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You Need Formal Research
Interviewing family members and friends is clearly a form of research, but interviews alone are usually not enough to give your stories the depth they require. For that, you need formal research.
Distance Learning: A Precious Opportunity
For most emerging writers, enrolling in a distance learning program is an exciting experience. At long last, for a period of time that is long enough to make a difference, you give yourself the opportunity to immerse yourself in learning the “best practices” of the writing craft that you has been so wanting to learn for a long time.
An adult-learning program which will help you to master writing might be a university course, a local workshop, a one-on-one relationship with a mentor, or a tele-course over the telephone and/or internet.
Many, perhaps most, adult learners, with responsibilities that often include a family, a job, a home, you are unable like your adolescent counterpart to take time out—months, even years—to leave your life to devote yourself to mastering the craft of writing.
Open your world up with distance learning.
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Scope: What’s Right for You?
In this video, Scope: What’s Right for You?, I ask how much time and energy are you willing to give to writing your memoir? The more honest and insightful you are in answering this question, the more pleasure you will derive from your writing and the greater the satisfaction you will find in preserving your stories. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
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Writing a Non-Fiction Book
Writing a non-fiction book is possible!
A common lament, I hear from writers goes like this, “I wanted a book, and I got off to a good start writing a memoir. I’ve always wanted to write a book, but then I just stopped. I don’t know why.”
What I have sometimes found is that people approach memoir-writing as an easy access to becoming “an author.”
“It’s my life after all,” people say. “I ought to know enough about myself to write a memoir without too much of a problem.”
Well, yes and no. It’s clearly your life, but feeling your way through it deeply enough to write about it with any insight, is not a sure thing.
“My own book”—the words convey an excitement and an importance that can be satisfying. And the memoir seemed an entrance, but the fact is that some people may not have the sensibility to write a memoir or may not be ready in their experience of their lives to undertake the project.
A special phrase–“My own book”
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6 Easy Steps to Creating a Book of Memoirs
Creating a book of memoirs is possible
Celebrating and honoring your life by remembering and writing both big and small stories is very rewarding. It is a significant way to understand your life and to come to peace with it. Creating a book of memoirs will leave a legacy your family will treasure for generations–don’t you wish your grandparents had written their memoirs?
Follow these simple writing suggestions and you’ll find the task of preserving your stories is well underway.
1. First, make a Memory List
A Memory List a list of all your life’s important events and relationships. Your Memory List can have hundreds of items. When you sit down to write a story, you’ll have this list of topics handy. The Memory List helps you to focus on things that deserve the most attention. It also primes the pump of memory: the more you write, the more you’ll remember. Your list will grow as you write! At first, just jot things down. As the list gets longer, organize it chronologically. With your Memory List handy to write from, you will never again suffer from “writer’s block!” Creating a book of memoirs will be easier than before.