You can become good at writing!
To create a successful workshop business of helping people to write their memoir, you must become adept with the memoir genre itself. You must learn to write better memoir yourself. Being a good fiction writer or a poet or an essayist is not enough. You must have read many memoirs and have written in the […]
Pacing Your Memoir Requires Planning
In almost everything you do in life or in writing, pacing ranks right up there in importance. The tortoise knew how to pace himself and won the race. The hare, on the other hand, needed to view this post before setting out on the race which he eventually lost despite the gift of speed nature […]
Your writing is your work–Schedule first your time for writing
To make time for writing, you have to be serious about the principle that your writing is your work. You must act on it and take it as seriously as your paying job.
When Writers Lose Interest, It Might Actually Be Healthy
It’s common for a writer to find that she has written much about a period of her life that is now uninteresting to her. Though she wrote with enthusiasm, intending to include this material in her memoir, it doesn’t seem to merit inclusion now. She may be despondent. “I worked so hard! Now I want […]
Similes and Metaphors: Don’t Let Them Scare You!
Don’t be afraid of similes and metaphors. “I don’t quite know how to describe what I’m feeling,” you might say during your writing as you grope for a way to describe in words this emotion that is beyond words.
How to Begin a Memoir
Many writers agonize about just where to start a memoir. There are, of course, many places where a story can commence.
The Personal Memoir: Keep the “Me” in your MEmoir
Editor’s Note: The Personal Memoir: Keep the “Me” in your MEmoir was originally published on Bookbaby Blog and is used with the permission of the author. This piece was originally published on this blog in 20017. Comments are still being accepted. Without the “me” in your memoir – the fragile and imperfect person who lived the […]
Whom Are You Writing For?
“Whom are you writing for?” is the question I always ask writers as we start to work together to generate a memoir. “I want my children and grandchildren to know me,” some writers answer, “and I want to place my life in a greater context.Other memoirists will say, “I’m hoping to have readers beyond my […]
Three Ways an Inauthentic Memoir Theme Will Trip You Up
As you articulate your theme, ask yourself if this theme is really yours–does it reflect your present understanding of your story and of life itself?