Not telling the truth in a memoir is a great way to block your writing

Many writers say they suffer from writer’s block, yet few understand that they are unable to write easily because they are is not telling the truth in a memoir. Good memoir writing depends on telling the truth.

There are a number of reasons that create difficulty in writing. I don’t want to overuse the term writer’s block because I don’t believe much in it and have seen that the famous writer’s block has been made to answer to too many problems.

1. Dealing with uncomfortable material by not telling the truth in a memoir

In memoir writing, sometimes work stoppage can be the result of dealing with uncomfortable material. Perhaps you haven’t admitted to yourself the importance of your topic or you are not telling the truth in a memoir about it. What are you evading? What is the worst thing that could happen to you if you wrote this story honestly?

“My mother who died 20 years ago would hate me!” a writer will answer and then realize how groundless this worry is. Or perhaps the writer will say, “I would feel bad about revealing this truth about my father.”

Well, this reason is not about the writer’s father but about the writer. A good writing coach would respond, “Get to work on the tyranny of your feelings. They are not about your father. They are about you.”

Perhaps you are writing from someone else’s point of view. Writers who uphold someone else’s version of a story rather than their own will find the unconscious balking. If you are having trouble writing, ask yourself if you are writing from your point of view or from someone else’s. Sometimes coming to that awareness can be enough to help your writing to flow once again.

You can ask yourself ” Whose memoir am I writing anyway?”

2. Is it really writer’s block?

Sometimes what people call “writer’s block” is the way your unconscious has of informing you you’re not writing about something important enough. Sometimes the writing flow is waiting for you to come upon a more substantive idea. If you feel at an impasse, ask yourself if your current topic warrants the time you are putting into it. Sticking to a topic of secondary importance is not conducive to good writing. It turns out to be boring.

Your writer’s block may be boredom or self-awareness that you are skirting the real story of your life. Though persistence has its place, honor your writing: tell the truth—the whole truth. Choose to write from your own point of view, commit to important topics, and decide to never slip into not telling the truth in a memoir you are writing.

I have found that memoir writing is a constant challenge. When the writer lapses into not telling the truth in a memoir, s/he will find the memoir losing energy. It will hover over fiction, uncomfortable about landing in the world of “made up” and fearful of telling the truth.

Memoir writing is an opportunity to be your best self, the self who is committed to never not telling the truth in a memoir.

Good luck and remember to write a bit on your memoir today.