People ask if there is a “magic bullet” for writing memoir better and faster.
Well, there almost is!
The Memory List is perhaps the closest you’ll ever get to a magic bullet for writing your memoir. The Memory List will keep you writing and writing. Honestly…
Once you write a Memory List—and there will be different ones for your different memoirs and memoir segments, you will never again be saddled with the “writer’s block.” Writer’s block will seem an indulgence and you will never be at a loss again about how to continue on your memoir. Day after day, the writing will flow. The posts below tell you why and how.
Better than a writing prompt
While the Memory List is not an organizational tool for your memoir, it is a text generator like you’ve never seen before.
Whether you are beginning your writing project or are well into writing your memoir, stop what you are doing and read the articles below, buy a copy of Turning Memories Into Memoirs where the Memory List is presented in even more detail, and then begin—or resume—to write.
I will not write in this introduction about what a Memory List is because the posts below do an extensive presentation on how to create one and how to use it effectively.
More than length
If the Memory List just helped you to write more text that would already be great assist, but it will also help you to write more deeply. Your stories will have a more insightful glimpse into your experience.
In conclusion
Read all the articles below as they describe the Memory List in clear understandable detail.
The topic is also developed in Writing Great Memory Lists 101 and in How to Go Beyond Writing Prompts.
Build your memoir-writing library. You owe it to yourself and your memoir to be well prepared!
Three Pillars of Starting a Memoir Right Everytime.
DL: this post—Three Pillars of Starting a Memoir Right—introduced a YouTube video which turned out to be the most popular of all my videos. Today, I would like to share both this post and the video. If you haven’t done so already, please share the post and the video and subscribe to my YouTube channel. […]
Another memoir finished: what was the writing process?
Writers can doubt their process. This is understandable as writing a memoir is a long undertaking that can—and usually does—have many discouraging moments.
A Best Memoir Writing Practice
When learning to write memoir, it can feel awkward and uncomfortable as you learn the process, just like in 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. They usually execute strokes too fast. This […]
The Memory List: How to identify events and relationships to put in or leave out of a memoir
Don’t write without a Memory List. If you’ve already started to write your lifestory: Stop and compile your Memory List as soon as possible.
Should You Create an Outline or a Memory List for your Memoir?
I do not write a memoir from an outline. Instead I create a Memory List as outlined in Chapter 2 of Turning Memories Into Memoirs. The Memory List helps you to follow the promptings of the unconscious rather than the dictates of the conscious mind as is the case with an outline. (An outline is […]
Instead of A Writing Prompt – Five Tips for Creating a Memory List
People who are writing a memoir will sometimes say, “I want to write my stories but I have forgotten so many details. Is there any way I can get them back? Should I use writing prompts?” There is one tool above all others that makes the experience of life writing successful. That tool is not […]
Use This Instead of a Writing Prompt
A writing prompt in my estimation leads to nothing. I’m not a great fan of a writing prompt. Sure, they get you to writing something. And many people will insist writing something is better than writing nothing. Well, I’m not so sure of that.
4 Tips For Making and Using a Core Memory List to Write More Efficiently
The Core Memory List is a list of the crucial relationships and events which have shaped your life. It contains just ten or fewer items. Use it to write more efficiently. This is because Core Memory Lists are about the relationships and events which, had they not occurred, your life (or your mother’s or father’s, […]
Organize Your Memoir: Life Phases
Life phases are one way in which you can organize your memoir. Life phases are the emotional and psychological cycles or phases that have marked your life. They are a great tool to give depth and cohesion to your memoir.