In this Strategies for Successful Writing category, you will read about processes and props you can implement to increase your success as a memoir writer.
While it would be comforting to think that “wanting to succeed” would be sufficient for success, it simply is not. Nor are best efforts, enthusiasm, and working hard.
You must master the craft—that is, the craft of memoir writing. Success for a memoirist is indexed both on the writer’s experience of best writing practices and ability to access feelings deep inside as well as on the reader’s experience. (The reader after all has to bring much to the story experience.) You don’t however have much control of the reader’s response, but you do of your writing.
Best Practices of Strategies for Successful Writing
As in all professions and trades, there are “best practices” for memoir writing that facilitate and improve your writing experience and your audience’s reading experience.
While no one would contradict that memoir writing is an art and requires intuition and sensibility, it is also a craft that relies on best practices of successful memoir writing.
In conclusion
The posts below will help you to write better narratives. But, don’t stop there. Read your way through the entire Memoir Writer’s Bog. Be sure to read How to write a memoir: our 21 Best Memoir-Writing Tips to get you writing your memoir—quickly and well—and getting it into the hands of your public.
As one of the most fundamental strategies for successful writing, let’s be sure to emphasize that when writers do not complete their memoir, they cannot be called successful. So…keep writing until you finish.
Good luck with your writing.
3 Tips for Picking Up Your Memoir Again—and Finishing It!
Re–read Your Lifestories
Have you struggled with picking up your memoir again and not quite knowing how to get back into it? Rather than castigate yourself, why not simply set some time aside to re-read your memoir?
The following suggestions are from the Write to the End–Eight Strategies to Deal With Writer’s Block! an ebook on successfully dealing with writer’s block. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.
Already a Member?
Not a Member Yet?
3 Tips to Revive and Finish a Memoir—Without Eviscerating Yourself
All of us struggle to some extent to produce writing content that will finish a memoir. Writing is often difficult. It takes time and energy—both of which the laws of entropy suggest we ought to preserve as they are constantly being diminished.
We find many compelling and valid reasons not to write: “the house is a mess”; “I ought to go to the gym while there aren’t many people there”; “my sister and I haven’t talked in a long time.”
Of course, all of these reasons are valid but, ultimately, they are all excuses. So… [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.
Already a Member?
Not a Member Yet?
4 Tips For Easier, Quicker Writing
You can benefit from easier and quicker writing by adapting appropriate habits of composition. Here are four habits for writing your first draft quickly. You would do well to put them into practice. They are easy to implement and the rewards are significant. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.
Already a Member?
Not a Member Yet?
9 Ideas to Help You Finish Your Memoir
When your writing is stalled and you find it difficult to finish your memoir, turn to your writing journal for help. The following are suggestions for what you might ask yourself in your writing journal. They are taken from the How to Write to the End—Eight Strategies to Deal With Writer’s Block, a book on successfully dealing with writer’s block. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.
Already a Member?
Not a Member Yet?
4 Tips For Making and Using a Core Memory List to Write More Efficiently
People who attend Turning Memories Into Memoirs workshops 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?”
There is one tool above all others that makes the experience of lifewriting successful. That tool is the Memory List. In this article, I will talk about the Core Memory List. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.
Already a Member?
Not a Member Yet?
How do you spend your memoir writing time?
Note from the Editor: The following post is taken from Writer’s Time: Management That Works. This eprogram functions with an open enrollment. Register today to find more memoir writing time.
How do you spend your memoir writing time? Your commitment to your memoir is the engine that will propel your writing to completion. Awareness of how effectively you spend your time—and the increasing skill with which you make use of your time—is the vehicle that will get your memoir written more quickly. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.
Already a Member?
Not a Member Yet?
Conquer perfectionism when writing your memoir
Note from the Editor: The following post is taken from Writer’s Time: Management That Works. This program functions with an open enrollment. Registrations are being accepted now.
It may seem unusual in a program called Writer’s Time: Management that Works to include a module labeled Conquering Perfectionism, but it isn’t. If you want to write your memoir, you will need to conquer perfectionism.
Perfectionism is a big waste of time.
If you want to write your memoir, you will need to conquer perfectionism.
[Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.
Already a Member?
Not a Member Yet?
Are you procrastinating? Time management tips for writers
Note from the Editor: The following post is taken from Writer’s Time: Management That Works. This program functions with an open enrollment and registrations are being accepted.
Are you procrastinating? Putting off today’s writing until tomorrow is not an effective process if your goal is to produce a memoir in the foreseeable future.
Why do people opt to procrastinate? I suppose we can’t really say they “opt” as in they make an active decision. As with other addictions, people generally “slip” into procrastination as their thoughtless reaction—“thoughtless” as in “no thought given to it.”x
Are you “lingering”? Or are you “procrastinating”?
[Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.
Already a Member?
Not a Member Yet?
Prioritize your memoir writing time
Note from the Editor: The following post is taken from Writer’s Time: Management That Works. This program functions with an open enrollment.
How do you prioritize your memoir writing time? Time management calls for understanding how you think of yourself and what you are willing to consider as important in your life. It entails becoming conscious of your priorities.
Prioritize your memoir writing time
While you cannot say “first priority”—prior means first in Latin and there cannot be a “first first”—you can have a number of things that are in first rank in your life: [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]