Whether as a coach or as an editor, when I have engaged with writers, I have often found similar presenting problems— I don’t have time, I never had a good grammar education, I have so many stories to tell I don’t know which one to start with. Frequently, these “reasons” writers present for not writing are symptoms of underlying issues. They tell me the writer has probably gotten stuck avoiding the inner work of writing. Let’s look at what “outer work” is first. Outer work is about techniques and schedules. It’s about such external features as the space you write (more…)

Martha Blowen, my partner in life and in work, died on August 18, 2008, from metastasized breast cancer. The following is from collated excerpts of cancer diary entries we both kept at the time. (Before she passed away, she gave me permission to share her entries.) The memoir is called My Eye Fell Into the Soup, after a dream in which one of her eyes fell into a cauldron. She later interpreted this to mean she was not paying attention to her health. (This is written about elsewhere.) As with most people, I suppose, the cancer diagnosis was a shock. In (more…)

Do you ever wish you had the key to memoir writing success? Let me offer you one key that, I believe, every writer needs to make use of. Memoir writing 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 insight to writing a memoir. Write every day for a year or two and before you know it, you have a book. An overnight (more…)

In this post, Martha writes about telling the children about cancer and her thoughts on being a mother.

[This is an excerpt from My Eye Fell Into the Soup, an account about cancer. The book is written in journal form—alternating between my entries and Martha’s. For more in the My Eye Fell Into the Soup series, Click Here]

November 12, 2006, Sunday

Martha wrote:

My days since Thursday have been about sleeping and talking and crying. Just four days ago, everything I thought about my life was different. How life seems changed even though it is not actually different in its essence from what it was on Wednesday. I had cancer then, too, but I did not know it consciously. I have always prided myself on being intuitive and having my intuition inform me. But, that somehow did not work in this case. Now Denis and I are conscious. And that changes everything. (more…)

You can write a memoir! When you are facing a challenging undertaking, it is wise to seek help. If you were attempting to run a marathon, you would study up on the endeavor and be sure you are doing things right. Perhaps you would join a running club or a website that offers you a programmed course. You would talk to others who have run marathons and perhaps hire a trainer. How about if you undertake to write a memoir? While some people do succeed at writing an interesting and meaningful memoir on their own, the fact is most people need (more…)

You Can Evoke Emotions in Your Readers. Here’s How. Instilling your memoir with enough emotion to stir up a response from your readers is do-able. It is undeniably one of the most important results an author must set out to achieve. A memoir seeks to move a reader and without evoking emotions, a memoir cannot move a reader. The beauty of writing is, of course, that you have a great freedom of approach, but there are some basic tips and techniques that, if well implemented, will make it much easier to breathe some emotions into your memoir. The subject of (more…)

For other posts in the My Eye Fell Into the Soup series, Click Here. Wanting to Run Away From Cancer November 10, 2006 Denis: So very hard. Terror. Wanting to run away—but there’s no “where” to run to. Some of the office work must continue. It seems like such an irrelevant thing to do, but there are deadlines our clients have invested in, deadlines that keep revenues coming. If Martha’s cancer crisis lasts for a long time, we will need the income. I have made a list of a few things that must get done, and in the early morning, (more…)

In a previous article, I highlighted four business memoirs that I helped bring to life. Each book was a significant one not only because of its subject matter but also because of its length. Each business memoir ranged from 300 to 400 pages, making them into hefty accounts of lives well lived. How do you go about writing your business memoir? In this post, I would like to show you the process of writing your business memoir with a co-writer/ghostwriter. It’s probably safe to say most people who are gifted at business are generally not as gifted in writing. There (more…)

Over the years, I have had the pleasure to collaborate on a number of memoirs which highlight the lives of men and women who have attained a significant result in their work life. Why would somebody want to write a business memoir? People write business memoirs for some of the same reasons people write any other kind of memoir. People want to honor the world from which they sprang. Sylvester Myers, a black man from West Virginia, wrote From Coal Fields to Oilfields and Beyond because he wanted to give witness to how a black man came from modest background (more…)