I have a goal for this post. I want to help you to develop and articulate your writing goals for the next three months—that is, 90 days. You can start your three months today, at the beginning of the next week or at the first day of the next month, but don’t put off setting writing goals. It is a prime tim management skill.

Three months is taken from the business model which uses quarters—three months—to implement plans. It is a useful way to set goals for three months. Three months both give you time to accomplish something and is not too long that you get distracted or discouraged.

What exactly is a goal?

A goal is a wish with a schedule and a deadline. If you don’t have a schedule and a deadline, what you have is a wish and not a goal. You are free to dawdle and pine away that your memoir is not getting written!

Let’s work at setting memoir-writing goals and planning to achieve one of these in the next three months.

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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 office every day for 20 years, and before you know it, you are an overnight success.” Well, we can apply that ‘overnight success’ insight to writing a memoir. Write every day for a year or two, and before you know it, you have a book. “But, how do I find the time?” you ask. “Well, you already have the time,” I reply. In this video, I discuss building good writing habits. Habits will free up (more…)

You want your memoir to be interesting and meaningful, but what should you include in your storyline to make it interesting and meaningful? In short, ways of shaping your plot line. “Interesting” and “meaningful” doesn’t happen by itself. You have to make it happen. How do you structure the increase in tension so necessary in a plot so as to lead to a climax, a turning point, and an ending? Your storyline is a significant contributor to creating an “interesting and meaningful” memoir. If this is so, what should you include in your memoir’s storyline for shaping your plot line? (more…)

Here, 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 them inform your writing. 1. My first stop is with clock time and how we relate to that. Writing requires a commitment of time. Have you wondered what distinguishes one writer who perseveres and completes a memoir from one who does not? I have worked (more…)

It’s common for a writer to find that she has written much about a period of her life that is now uninteresting to her. Though she wrote with enthusiasm, intending to include this material in her memoir, it doesn’t seem to merit inclusion now. She may be despondent. “I worked so hard! Now I want to leave this out! Is this going to happen with everything I write?” Why do writers lose interest in parts of their memoir.

I’ve heard clients express this frustration and I’ve also experienced it myself. What’s up?

I believe the writer who now finds some of his material no longer of interest to him has accomplished an inner goal and has produced a good piece of healing writing. He is now free of the material’s emotional intensity and no longer needs to give it attention.

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To ensure that your memoir is a tight one, it will probably be necessary to cut some of your text.

Having finished my childhood memoir, French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood, of course, I have been thinking of all the things that I did not put into the memoir. Some of these omissions, I would say, were interesting and might have contributed to my story’s theme and plot line. However, the memoir had reached 350 pages, and I knew it was imperative to limit any further lengthening of the story.

Many writers have said—and I paraphrase—”a work of art is never finished. It is merely abandoned.”

Keeping this observation in mind, I understood, as every writer must, that I needed to choose the point of abandonment carefully. Cut back too early, and you don’t make your point—establish the importance of your theme—in your memoir. Abandon too late, and you risk having too much in your memoir and turning your reader off.

Cut memoir text

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This post is about going deeper in a memoir, deeper even than you thought you could go when you started. This may be hard, but take a look at the contracts with life we make and the terrible disappointment that inevitably comes from making them. All of us at some time or other have made such a contract with life—in fact, we make them over and over again until we finally grow up and become present to the unfolding reality. (more…)

DL: “I Come Into the World” is an excerpt from my memoir French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood. The use of Canadien, the French version of Canadian, in this text as everywhere in the memoir is to distinguish an English-speaking Canadian from a French-speaking one without resorting to the term French Canadian. [When was the last time you read something like “Margaret Atwood, the English Canadian writer…?” Probably never. She’s always the “Canadian writer.” Marie-Claire Blais, who died earlier this year, was referred to in the New York Times as “…the French-Canadian writer.” What’s going on here?] ___ Excerpt (more…)

You’ve written your memoir, or are perhaps still writing. The art and craft of writing a memoir are foremost in the creation stage but there will come another stage afterwards that is to commit to market a memoir you have written.

I will share a process of reaching as large an audience as possible for the book you have worked so hard on. It’s not too early to be thinking of marketing.

I will mentor you on this very subject by sharing my process for my most recent memoir French Boy /A 1950s Franco-American Childhood. Since this is an independently published book, it is my responsibility to identify and then reach out to my potential audience. This is the audience that in some way can be said to have been waiting for my memoir—or your memoir.

Where is my audience—and yours, of course—to be found? What do they read, where do they post, where do they congregate?

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Setting Writing Goals That Work For You: Better Time Management

By Denis Ledoux

Regular Writing for Great Results

By Denis Ledoux

Success is built on daily habits. Write regularly every day for a year or two and before you know it you have a book. (more…)

Shaping Your Plot Line Is Important

By Denis Ledoux

What should you include in your memoir’s storyline for shaping your plot line? How do you structure your memoir’s story line? (more…)

Use Time Wisely to Write Your Memoir

By Denis Ledoux

Use time wisely to write your memoir. Writing is important and you have less time than you think you do. (more…)

When Writers Lose Interest,  It Might Actually Be Healthy

By Denis Ledoux

How to Cut Memoir Text

By Denis Ledoux

To ensure that your memoir is a tight one, it will probably be necessary to cut some of your text. Having finished my childhood memoir, French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood, of course, I have been thinking of all the things that I did not put into the memoir. Some of these omissions, I […]

Going Deeper in a Memoir: Look at “Life’s Failed Contracts”

By Denis Ledoux

Understanding “Life’s Failed Contracts” is necessary for going deeper in a memoir. This post is about going deeper in a memoir, deeper even than you thought you could go when you started. This may be hard, but take a look at the contracts with life we make and the terrible disappointment that inevitably comes from […]