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begin a memoir

How to Begin a Memoir

Many writers agonize about just where to start a life story, where to begin a memoir. There are, of course, many places where a story can be launched.

1. The place in the story at which you begin a memoir writing manuscript is almost never the place at which readers will begin to read your story in its book form.

A writer begins someplace because beginning someplace is the way it is done. It is only much later that the writer will know where to place this initial piece of writing — at the beginning or elsewhere in the memoir.

2. The first paragraphs in a story may be only a warm up and not worth preserving.

The real beginning of your story can sometimes occur in a later paragraph. Move the paragraph that ought to serve as your lead to the beginning of your story and consign your warm-up paragraphs where they belong — in the wastebasket! You’ll be glad you didn’t hide your true lead under unnecessary false starts.

3. Once you know the crisis point of your story, the place where the action is at its most intense, where a turn around has to occur, you then know what in your memoir has to be built up to.

Sometimes people know this crisis before they begin to write; sometimes they have to write a while before they know what it is. Either way, knowing the crisis will be essential. Choose scenes that lead up to the crisis. The first of these scenes is perhaps your beginning.

4. To begin a memoir, choose a moment that is the zenith or the nadir of your story for the opening chapter.

The last sentence in the introductory chapter is something like: “How did I get to this point — zenith or nadir?” Chapter Two and the rest of the book then answer this question.

In conclusion

Good luck writing as you begin your memoir. Let me know what your experience has been.

If you are looking for printed material to add to your library, visit our bookstore or Smashwords.

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memoir writer's blog archives

Benefits of Reading the Memoir Writer’s Blog Archives

Two new articles each week

What are the benefits of reading the Memoir Writer’s Blog archives? Twice a week, I post a new article on the Memoir Writer’s Blog. It then appears in the Memoir Writing Blog Archives. I write about a variety of topics, and most of them are understandably not in sequence with what I have written just days before—or even the previous week.

I write in the Memoir Writer’s Blog as the fancy takes me. Most readers want to learn in a just-in-time manner.  What I write today may very well be the very topic you need to keep going even if you had not known that before reading the post on The Memoir Writer’s Blog. That’s why you need to keep checking the memoir writer’s blog archives.

What writing topics are in the archives?

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The Memoir Network

How to Start Writing a Memoir: What’s Your Focus?

DL: I are pleased today to introduce an Australian writer and memoir professional to readers of The Memoir Writer’s blog with this post: How to Start Writing  a Memoir: What’s Your Focus? This post was previously published on Alan’s website which is full of informative articles for the memoir writer.

At first glance, writing memoir might appear to be easier than writing fiction. After all, it’s your life and you know the story, yes? It’s not as if you have to make anything up. Not like fiction writers who have to think the whole lot up: plot, characters, everything.

But writing about your own life is rarely simple and never easy. Some writers suggest that memoir is harder to do well than fiction.

Before we go on, it’s probably useful to define what a memoir is and isn’t. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]

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