Ever wish you had the secret of generating a fast way to fast start writing your memoir—or most any other book?

A proven way to start writing is to follow a set of steps that will help you get into the writing habit. When I wrote and published A Sugary Frosting / A Memoir Of A Girlhood Spent in a Parsonage, I appreciated the efficiency and effectiveness of my writing process all the more. A Sugary Frosting is the story of the first 20 years of my deceased wife’s life. She had written a number of her stories but died before completing a memoir. When I took up the task, I followed what I consider to be “best practices” of memoir writing.

Below I offer them to you to help you get a fast start and to write more prolifically—and even bring it to a finish in the form of a published memoir.

Here are my nine “best practices” for memoir writing. They are tried and true and bear implementing today.

1. Set up a regular writing time. This will get you a fast start writing your memoir.

How long you write is perhaps not as important as how frequently you do so. Once you have set up a writing time, honor it as you would a medical appointment. Don’t allow others to usurp your time!

A schedule may be the tool you need to make a success of your writing. Don’t become another person who tried to write, who is thinking of writing.

What you need to write a memoir successfully is discipline not motivation. Motivation will likely get you only so far while discipline will see you to a completed memoir. A schedule flows naturally as a part of discipline.

2. Give yourself permission to write a rough first draft.

Your first draft is messy, verbose, incoherent at times, embarrassing to have others see it, BUT your first draft is a necessary first step to writing a memoir. The real memoir writing occurs in the second and third drafts. You cannot rewrite and polish your story unless you have a first draft to work with.

Perfectionism is not a virtue at this stage. Keep writing for volume. Quality will enter in later. Perfectionism is really a loss of faith in your work and in your vision. It pretends to be in your favor but it is really a prison. Avoid perfectionism.

3. Start anywhere in the story you feel like writing about on any given day and keep writing as long as possible.

If the topic changes on the next day, write about the new storyline even if you haven’t finished the previous one. You are connecting to your muse at this point! Where you start to write is not the same place as where a reader starts to read. You will find the beginning of your memoir later. Right now: start to write.

4. Once you have a number of stories or story pieces, print them and collate them in a three-ring binder according to chronological order.

You will easily notice that some stories are missing. These are likely transition stories. Write the missing links between the texts that you have already written. Seeing your stories pile up will also encourage you to continue writing.

Our appreciation of our stories when we see them on paper in print is different from when we see them on a computer screen. If you doubt me, print your stories: you will evaluate them differently.

5. Read memoirs critically to learn as much as you can from other writers.

I call this process “reading as a writer”and it is different from reading as a reader.

When you read as a reader you are caught in the story, in its unfolding. Of course, this sort of reading is very enjoyable but it is not particularly developmental for you as a writer. When you read as a writer, however, you are looking for how the writer wrote. How did the author begin his chapters? How did she handle dialog? Was she good at setting? Did he use any special techniques to portray his characters?

Reading as a writer should be an integral part of your memoir writing education.

6. Commit to reading how-to-write books. 

There are many how-to-write books on the market. Read one, read several. Take notes, do the exercises, do the writing. The internet is also full of writing sites. Visit them, use the materials they provide.

Don’t forget the ebooks in the memoir writing series here on The Memoir Network. Our Turning Memories Into Memoirs / A Handbook for Writing Lifestories is a granddaddy of memoir-writing books. A true classic.

7. Take a class, tele-class or long-distance course.

Working in a community with other writers and a skilled teacher can provide you with a great jumpstart.

One such online program is our The Memorable Story / Write Your First Memoir Draft. Its ten modules—both in written and audio formats — will lead you surely and skillfully to writing your memoir with confidence.

8. Work with an editor or a coach to boost a fast start writing.

An editor can help spot problems that have become invisible to you. There are two kinds of editors:

• a copy editor who looks for periods and commas and spelling and the content editor who is often also called a developmental editor.
• A developmental editor is a close cousin to a coach. Both will guide you through the process of making your manuscript better than it is right now—without investing years.

A professional can create many shortcuts for you. Many writers are blocked by the same problems that a more experienced writer could help resolve in a short time.

In a story that I have always esteemed, we hear someone respond to Winston Churchill, an enthusiastic Sunday painter, when Churchill complained about having taken two years to learn how to do perspective, “But aren’t you glad you learned it on your own!” Churchill retorted, “No, I could have learned perspective in a few classes with a good teacher and then I could have moved onto something more interesting and meaningful.”

We give away much material on The Memoir Network site and this material will help you significantly in becoming a better writer. But, there is one element that can surely get you a fast start writing and that is to take this free material, actually compose something, and then work with a professional on staff to create a burst of creativity  and polish for your memoir.

9. Create an end date whether you go the traditional publisher route or self-publish as a stimulus to keep writing.

Tell people about this submission or publication date. This will be a goal to help you “keep your nose to the grindstone” and write more efficiently. Tasks can take as long as you allow them to take. By setting a deadline for self-publishing that has a certain flexibility within it, you are helping yourself to stay on the course.

These nine tips will help you to get a fast start writing.

Good luck.

[to see this as a YouTube video, click here.]