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It is important to spend some time shaping your theme as the theme is the message—the why—of your writing.

You imbue the whole of your story with your theme, and it, in turn, influences the choice of every element in your story—even when you’re not aware of it. In fact, all writing carries a message from the writer, an index of the motivation of the artist. Theme can be as broad as “There are good guys and bad guys, and you can tell them apart” and as subtle as “I want to tell others what it was like to live at a certain time of my life.”
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Successful Memoir Writing: 3 Tips Recently, someone asked me what are the biggest barriers memoir writers face to successful memoir writing. Three came to mind right away. Below, I write about them and offer suggestions for eliminating these barriers. 1. Writers often put off writing a good memoir in favor of struggling unsuccessfully to create a perfect one. This is insidious because no one says they are putting off writing a good memoir in favor of a perfect one. Instead they say, “I want my story to be meaningful” or “I want to be sure I have something to say” (more…)
Facts are important in memoir writing. The inclusion of dates, addresses, names, and relationships, are one of its special features. Memoir writing cannot, without deleting from its value, omit dates and specific identification of locales, names of individuals and their relationships to one another. Memoir writing is factual writing: hence the importance of facts. A memoir without these facts is like a map without route numbers. Whether I know the people in the stories or not, I always want to be able to move easily in the complicated terrain of relationships and the sequence of events so that I might, (more…)
Are You Using Lightning Bug Words? A lightning bug is a small, friendly flicker in our backyards, not enough light to illuminate even the smallest corner. On the other hand, lightning dazzles the eye. The sky is split open. Sometimes it makes our hair stand on end. In this piece, we look at the difference between lightning words and lightning bug words. The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.”  — Mark Twain Mark Twain uses the lightning/lightning bug comparison to talk about the importance of finding the (more…)

Writing Time Wasters Do Not Elude Me

I’m no more immune than anyone else to the plague of time wasters. Time wasters are habits we fall into that consume the time we have allotted (or could allot) to writing so that we end up not writing! Here are some of the most insidious that take up too much time and squander my writing energy. Better time management is possible.

1. Checking on e-mail before I begin to write for the day. (more…)

Is there a best place to begin writing your memoir? It’s a quandary: where do you begin writing your memoir? Many people may say: from the beginning. But, I don’t think that is the best place to start composing. The answer is actually quite simple: Start writing your memoir from anywhere in the story. Start from where you feel like writing about on any given day and keep writing as long as you wish to do so. Then, if the topic ceases to interest you and you would like to write about something else, go ahead and do so. Write about (more…)

Why are we afraid of revealing ourselves in a memoir? While writing our stories, all of us, at one time or another, come against the fear of revealing too much of ourselves. The fear is founded—it’s not always a friendly world out there. And…

As we reveal too much about ourselves, we may be revealing too much about someone else.

But, excessive revealing is generally not the problem most memoir writers face. Revealing too little is a much more frequent problem for writers I coach or edit.

Often revealing ourselves in a memoir too little can come about because:

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It’s time to add depth to your memoir. One question that I get over and over again from writers is “How do I add depth to my memoir? I feel like I am skimming the surface.” Here are links to five information-packed blog posts that are sure to make you think more deeply about your writing—and help you in the important task of re-writing your stories and vignettes so that they form a more coherent and meaningful whole. Telling the Hard Truth in Your Memoir – Are You Holding Back The post will challenge you to be more open about (more…)
Write your story now! “What are you waiting for? Why are you avoiding the real work? What will it take for you to go deeper?” —Phil Cousineau in Stoking the Creative Fires The Phil Cousineau quote above ought to be for all of us a stirring call to continue—or to begin if that is where we are at—the work of writing a depth memoir we may have procrastinated about for so long. It is later than you think. In the years I have been doing this work, I have seen writers die and writers grow too old. The energy not (more…)
shaping theme

Shaping Your Theme

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You imbue the whole of your story with your theme and it, in turn, influences the choice of every element in your story—even when you’re not aware of it. Consciously shaping your theme can make your memoir. (more…)

Don't let writer's blok stop you

Facts Are Important in Memoir Writing

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Facts are important in memoir writing. The inclusion of dates, addresses, names, and relationships, are one of its special features. Memoir writing cannot, without deleting from its value, omit dates and specific identification of locales, names of individuals and their relationships to one another. Memoir writing is factual writing: hence the importance of facts. A […]

lightning bug words in memoir

Lightning Bug Words

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Are You Using Lightning Bug Words? How do we write in lightning and not in lightning bugs? Using the right words when writing your memoir will illuminate and inform your readers. (more…)

Writing time wasters to aviod

Writing Time Wasters

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I’m no more immune than anyone else to the plague of time wasters. Time wasters are habits we fall into that consume the time we have allotted (or could allot) to writing so that we end up not writing! Here are some of the most insidious that take up too much time and squander my […]

Begin Writing Your Memoir

Where Do You Begin Writing Your Memoir?

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Is there a best place to start writing your memoir? It’s a quandary: where do you start writing your memoir? Many people may say: from the beginning. But, I don’t think that is the best place to start composing. The answer is actually quite simple. (more…)

the best memoir writing book

Add Depth To Your Memoir

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It’s time to add depth to your memoir. Here are links to five information-packed articles that are sure to make you think more deeply about your writing—and help you in the important task of re-writing your stories and vignettes so that they form a more coherent and meaningful whole. (more…)

write your story

Don’t Wait To Write Your Story!

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It is later than you think. In the years I have been helping people write memoirs, I have seen people die and people grow too old. The energy not only to write deeply but to write a memoir at all has been lost to them; their stories have been lost. We go through our days […]