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Today is Monday, and it’s a great day to write a bit on your memoir! Your story is not formless; it is not an amoeba. A memoir needs form. You must give your memoir the backbone your readers want and need! Your memoir calls for structure to make as forceful a statement as it can make. Eventually, after you have written awhile, you will likely have amassed a number of vignettes, story segments, and stories and wonder about how to best organize them into a coherent and interesting memoir. You must make a statement and create a bigger picture of (more…)
Your friends and family love your memoir. Apparently, they are sure you are an outstanding writer, but you’re not so sure. Perhaps you wonder if you need a manuscript review. What they are telling you comes across more like support and opinion rather than as an evaluation. It’s understandable you have your doubts about the assessments you have received from family and friends. These are people you will be seeing again. They want you to think well of them. But, you are not looking for support and encouragement. An Objective Evaluation You are looking for an objective evaluation of your (more…)
Your commitment to writing your memoir must be ongoing. It’s easy, as most of us know, to start to write with a burst of energy, but over the months and perhaps years it takes to write a memoir, your energy almost invariably wanes—at least to some extent. Commit to staying the course What to do to get yourself enthused again? Today, I’m offering tactics you can implement to help sustain your motivation and see you to the end. Of course, there’s always willpower, but willpower is known to weaken gradually until it is ineffective. Learning how to get—and stay—motivated is easier. Motivation (more…)
Today is Monday, and it’s a great day to write a bit on your memoir! People tell me all the time that they are going “trying to write” their memoir. By and large, people who “try to write” get sidelined by so many good reasons. Really. You know how it is: work, family, fatigue.” In the end, they tried but didn’t have time. I urge you to set a writing time for yourself today rather than to “try to write” when you have time. Don’t wait: get started today to write—or continue to write—your memoir. “Trying” to write doesn’t get (more…)
Recently, we sent our  list of free resources. “Free” is great—in fact, we call it “superior”—but “free” can take you only so far. For more memoir-writing resources, explore the following. Your fee-based options to learn memoir writing: Our store: ~ The Memoir Store contains dozens of titles on the art and craft of memoir writing. Stock your ereader and / or bookshelves with quality memoir-writing titles. Your books have given me a foundation in writing. They’ve taught me what to expect and how to go about writing. Our programs & packages offer more memoir-writing reosurces: ~ The Writer’s Time / Management That Works (more…)
We can say emphatically that you can’t! Especially when you receive free memoir-writing resources. Our experience tells us that the higher your skill level, the more easily and the more deeply you will write. ~ Do you want to jumpstart your memoir? It’s stalled, and you don’t know how to get it going? ~ You have written large parts of your memoir, but you know it needs fixing. How to do that? ~ You’ve written your memoir, but you know it needs something more. If you knew what and how, you’d already have done it. Below are MANY free memoir-writing (more…)
Today is Monday, and it’s a great day to write a bit on your memoir! Look to doing pre-writing today. Your pre-writing lays out the ingredients of your memoir on the “kitchen counter” of your mind. Pre-writing is the process of gathering and ordering information before you begin to write. It includes memory Lists, genealogical research, Internet research, interviews, reviewing diaries and scrapbooks, etc. No memoir should be written without some or even significant pre-writing. What you do before writing is important. It’s like—and all comparisons break down at some point but bear with me—organizing all your cooking ingredients on (more…)
When learning to write memoir, it can feel awkward and uncomfortable as you learn the process, just like in learning to swim. We often see people who are not comfortable swimming flail about in the water, their heads reaching up high, desperately, to catch a breath of air. They usually execute strokes too fast. This awkward gesture soon tires them. Try as they might there is not enough air for them as they constrict their ribs, twist their heads, contort their jaws. Soon enough, considering that they had set out to enjoy the water, these people quit and return to (more…)

When learning to write memoir, it can feel awkward and uncomfortable as you learn the process, just like learning to swim. We often see people who are not comfortable swimming flail about in the water, their heads reaching up high, desperately, to catch a breath of air. This awkward gesture soon tires them. Try as they might there is not enough air for them as they constrict their ribs, twist their heads, contort their jaws. Soon enough, considering that they had set out to enjoy the water, these people quit and return to the shore. Swimming is over for the day. (more…)

manuscript review

Need a Manuscript Review?

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Friends and family love your memoir. They say you are an outstanding writer, but you’re not sure. Perhaps you need a manuscript review. See inside. (more…)

best memoir writing practice

A Best Memoir Writing Practice

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When learning to write memoir, it can feel awkward and uncomfortable as you learn the process, just like in learning to swim. We often see people who are not comfortable swimming flail about in the water, their heads reaching up high, desperately, to catch a breath of air. They usually execute strokes too fast. This […]

write memoir

Learning to Write Memoir Is Like Learning to Swim!

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We often see people who are not comfortable swimming flail about in the water, their heads reaching up high, desperately, to catch a breath of air. This awkward gesture soon tires them. Try as they might there is not enough air for them as they constrict their ribs, twist their heads, contort their jaws. Writing […]