DL: An outline or a Memory List? This is a perennial favorite with the search engines. I consider it to be a foundational post whose info can guide you to success. I hope you enjoy it.

A Memory List is far superior to an outline!

For some writers, there comes a moment in writing a memoir when the audacity of the undertaking hits them. Perhaps they think doorslammers like: “This can take forever.” “Writing a memoir will never pay for itself.” “I can’t afford to do this!” They reach for certainty. And that certainly if often a reversion to essay and report writing. They want an outline to assure the task gets done right. So, an outline or a Memory List?

The following is a comment to someone who asked in the Memoir Forum if she should create an outline and how to know when the page and chapters were the right length.

1. Do not write a memoir from an outline.

I do not write from an outline. Instead, I create a Memory List as outlined in Chapter 2 of Turning Memories Into Memoirs. The Memory List helps you to follow the promptings of the unconscious rather than the dictates of the conscious mind as happens with an outline. (An outline is great for an essay—”The Three Causes of the American Civil War”— but it is the death of an exploratory memoir.) So…

2. Create a Memory List not an outline.

The number of chapters, pages and words in your memoir is really irrelevant. Your memoir needs to be a long as it needs to be—or as short. Perhaps an outline promotes that sort of thinking where you are counting, but a Memory List does not seem to. If anything, a Memory List promotes a longer story as you want to explore more and more. Decide not to create an outline for your memoir.

Writing a memoir needs to be an organic process in which there will be a high tolerance for  dead ends and pages written that do not make it into the final book. This is OK. When you create an outline for your memoir, you are often writing in a controlled manner, using an inorganic process.

Remember: creating an outline for your memoir is not a best choice to write a successful memoir. Instead, get writing along the lines I have suggested and create a Memory List.

Good luck and come back to share your experience with us.

Whatever you do today, write on your memoir and stay in the memoir conversation.