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Telling the Past as It Probably Was!

Denis Ledoux — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 05:15:10 +0000

My latest book is Here to Stay / Lives in 17th-Century Canada. In this post, I want to make clear that people then lived with different paradigms. It’s the only way I can explain things. Telling the past of New France was not easy. As I was writing Here to Stay, a story of my […]

Surviving Childhood Abuse: A Writer’s Experience

Denise Brown — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 05:55:00 +0000

Congratulations to Denise Brown on the publication of her book, Transcending Darkness: A Memoir of Abuse and Grace. I recently had the opportunity to interview Denise about her experience writing her book on surviving childhood abuse. I am pleased to share her experience. To read Part 2, click here. To read Part 3, click here.—DL […]

Monday Focus: Don’t fib or stretch the truth.

Denis Ledoux — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 15:02:01 +0000

How much do you really know and do you have to tell everything you know? That is the challenge of writing the truth. (more…)

Difficult, Painful Memories Can Make a Memoir More Psychologically Astute.

Denis Ledoux — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 18:45:58 +0000

We all arrive at adulthood with some difficult painful memories. In this post, I offer you procedures for dealing with and healing those memories. First of all, writing about painful memories should not be an occasion to re-traumatize yourself. Stop for the moment if you feel overcome, but if you feel ready to write about […]

Banish Fear of Revealing Too Much: Be a Bigger Presence in Your Memoir

Denis Ledoux — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 13:00:00 +0000

The fear of revealing too much of ourselves in the memoir we are writing can be paralyzing. We wonder: “What will people say? How will people react to what I am revealing?” So… We hold back in our writing. We stop ourselves from personal revelation, from sharing secrets. The fear is founded—it’s not always a […]

Have you ever succumbed to this memoir shortcut?

Denis Ledoux — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 17:45:00 +0000

“I just added a little bit of fiction to move the story along,” you say, to explain a memoir shortcut you have just taken, joining the ranks of such pseudo memoirist as James Frey in A Million Pieces? Or, perhaps the ranks of Frank McCourt who fictionalized long dialogs in Angela’s Ashes. (No one remembers […]

Writing more Deeply: The pain in telling the truth

Denis Ledoux — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 11:00:00 +0000

My new memoir, French Boy (due out in the summer of 2023), is about my childhood. Much about this time in my life has a context that is unique and consequently different from that of my contemporaries. This memoir has a place in the world of memoirs, and I want it to find that place, […]

Solving Problems of Telling the Truth in Your Memoir

Denis Ledoux — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 10:00:00 +0000

Telling the truth is not always easy. How much of what happened do you have to tell in order to tell the truth? At what point does withholding the truth become a lie? For instance, in all her famous diaries, as Anais Nin celebrated the freedoms of her life as an artist, she never once […]

Work With or Through Pain: Writing Painful Memories

Denis Ledoux — Tue, 17 May 2022 15:30:00 +0000

In this video, Work With or Through Pain: Writing Through Painful Memories, I talk about writing through painful memories. Pain is often a barrier to memoir writing. Who wants to revisit difficult times? Although delving into the past is a generally pleasant experience and promotes healing and growth, it can also be painful. (more…)

Only Telling the Truth in Your Memoir Will Set You Free

Denis Ledoux — Sat, 06 Nov 2021 12:30:00 +0000

I urge all readers to commit to telling the truth—100% of it—in their memoir. It’s the only way you will get to the truth—and as they say, the telling the truth will set you free. (more…)