We have perhaps all been trained to write the essay that focuses on thinking rather than generate more creative writing that invites emotions in writing. The result is that too many would-be memoirists slip into writing essays and avoid placing emotions in memoir writing.

An essay addresses the mind while a memoir speaks to the heart: one mind speaking to another mind rather than one heart speaking to another heart.

Intuiting this, people ask often, “How can I make my story more interesting? It doesn’t have much emotion?” These are people who are on the right tack. Others need to hear, “You aren’t in your stories at all. How can you make space for more emotion?

You belong in your stories

As Viga Boland, a guest memoirist on this blog, so well said it, “Put the me back into memoir.”

Essentially, when we read a memoir, we are not looking to learn about theories and philosophies. We read memoirs to learn about a person’s experience, about a personal hero’s journey.

Of course, in placing your emotions into your memoir, you need to safeguard your boundaries. Writing a memoir is not an occasion to “tell all” and cause emotional injury to one’s self or to others. But, even with this caveat, it is possible to share much. For many writers, that is much more then they are willing to share at present.

The more a writer shares the more sharing become all right. A good rule of writing to set for yourself is to write you vignette or story and let lose with your emotional side. Then, put the text aside and read it much later—even months later. Often the writer is comfortable with a text that had seemed too revealing earlier.

In conclusion

Each in its own way, the posts below address emotions in memoir writing and offer you a path to introducing more feeling into your writing.