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Archive | Strategies for Successful Writing

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.

telling the truth

Do not waffle in telling the truth

Certainly, the memoir writer has permission “not to waffle,” but there is more that is incumbent on the writer. S/he has the obligation not to waffle. As memoir writers, “not to waffle” means to tell our truth about what happened. This is a must. Over the years, I have been amazed at how I can […]

Becoming a Disciplined Writer

A First Step to Becoming a Disciplined Writer

Becoming a disciplined writer is a practice. Do you struggle with becoming a disciplined writer on a regular basis and do you wish you could be more focused? Do you ask yourself, “Why is it so hard to write when I really do want to write?” You have to decide to become a disciplined writer […]

family stories you don't agree with

Writing About Family Stories You Don’t Agree With

How do you write about family stories whose interpretation you don’t agree with? We may all have family stories that we feel are wrongly told. When you distort your insights in order not to contradict other people’s take on your story—to “make nice,” your readers will sense that something is wrong. (more…)

picking up your memoir again

3 Tips for Picking Up Your Memoir Again—and Finishing It!

Have you struggled with picking your memoir up 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 Pick Up Your Memoir Again—And Finish It! a course on successfully dealing with writer’s block. […]

quicker writing

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 quicker writing of your first draft that you would do well to learn. They are easy to implement and the rewards are significant. (more…)

finish a memoir

9 Ideas to Help You Finish Your Memoir

When your writing is stalled, 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 Pick Up Your Memoir Again—And Finish It! a course on successfully dealing with writer’s block. (more…)