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.
Making time to write your memoir–Time management that works
Note from the Editor: The following post is taken from the introduction to Writer’s Time: Management That Works. This program functions with an open enrollment. Registrations are being accepted now. Make time to write your memoir—now! There’s no denying that writing a memoir takes time—a lot of time. In this program, you will learn strategies […]
Regular Writing Practice: An Important Decision!
In this post, you will learn the many benefits of a regular writing practice.
Many people set off to write their memoirs with considerable enthusiasm. It’s a new project and it’s full of energy. This is going to be the greatest memoir the world has ever known!
How long can that last? Enthusiasm takes you only so far. Over the months and years it takes to complete a manuscript, the initial enthusiasm wanes and the memoir project that had seemed so interesting at its onset now begins to bore the writer. We begin to hear about the writer “trying to write a memoir.” Unless the writer changes attitude, the memoir will soon be abandoned.
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Organize Your Memoir: Life Phases
Organize Your Memoir with 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.
Every life proceeds in irregular and unpredictable phases. We can go along with our lives for a long time without much change, thinking that we have arrived at a resolution of the great “who am I?” question, and then unpredictably and perhaps quickly find ourselves dealing with totally different emotional and psychological challenges. Often, it is only in looking back on our lives that we are aware of these life phases.
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4 Ways to Write About Love
Valentine’s Day! The perfect invitation to write about love…
What does Valentine’s Day mean to you? For me, it was an opportunity to think of the people I love. I sent greetings to my daughter, son and granddaughters.
I got to thinking about writing stories of our love lives. Where are the love stories in your life? Where to start? What to tell?
1. As always, write a Memory List.
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Memoir Writing Needs Inner Work as well as Outer Work
Whether as a coach or as an editor, when I have engaged with writers, I have often found similar presenting problems— I don’t have time, I never had a good grammar education, I have so many stories to tell I don’t know which one to start with. Frequently, these “reasons” writers present for not writing […]
A Key to Memoir Writing Success
Do you ever wish you had the key to memoir writing success? Let me offer you one key that, I believe, every writer needs to make use of. Memoir writing success is built on daily habits. As has been bandied about and attributed to many different speakers, it is said that “you go to the […]
Showing up for writing—regularly
In the first days of creating a manuscript when we writers sit down to write—or rededicate ourselves to writing—it is often a struggle to find the energy to show up for the task. So many things seems to compete for our attention. We ask ourselves about “the point of all of this” and “who will read this book anyway” and “will people find this memoir a bit lightweight.” But showing up—regardless of what negative thoughts go through your head—is important because that is how a habit is formed. The first ten or so weeks of writing are when you will grow the habit of writing. You will begin to need to write, to find sustenance from writing. That sustenance will keep you writing.
People have said to me, “The first months were the hardest. After a while, the writing was something I did out of habit. I didn’t necessarily like it but I showed up whenever I said I would. The after a while something happened. I didn’t feel good if I didn’t write regularly. I just didn’t feel as if I were all right. My writing seemed less of an effort, and I even thought it was better. My stories were adding up, and it made me happy to see how much I was accomplishing.”
Underpromise and overdeliver
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Use Time Wisely to Write Your Memoir
Below, I share two ideas about how to use time wisely to write your memoir. Time has many permutations and I would like to take you on a coaching journey. We’ll make a couple of stops to help you hone your ability to use time wisely. I hope you enjoy reading these ideas and let […]
Save your Writing Energy: Don’t Give Your Memoir Gold Away
People everywhere have an urge to make their stories public—in any format that will satisfy the impulse. Because in human development, speech comes first and writing later, the impulse to make a story public is almost certainly to speak it initially and only subsequently to write it. But this can be dangerous for chanelling your […]