Core Focus for Writing a Memoir
Is your family one of the many whose history is at risk for getting lost to future generations because no one has written it down? Here is a clear focus for writign a memoir Writing your lifestories—even just a few—is a great way to memorialize your family and to keep the experience of your life—and […]
Writing Your First Draft: Every Memoir Starts That Way!
Writing Your First Draft Give yourself permission to write a rough first draft. Write pages and pages in which you describe the who, the what, the where and the when of the story. Later, as you rework the piece, the why will be written in.
Show and not Tell: Don’t Tell Us About Your Characters—Show Them Walking Across the Page!
How many times have you heard “Show your story rather than tell it!” And, how many times have you gone right on and did a lot of telling! I know I have. “Showing” is one technique that will always improve your writing. I admit that there is some great writing that makes a precedent for […]
How to Write a Significant Memoir
That our memoir is insignificant is about the last thing we memoir writers ever want to read about our magnum opus. How do we write a significant memoir? What separates a significant memoir from an insignificant one? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not fame it’s not the scope of the arena of the action. […]
Is Theme in a Memoir The Driving Force?
How important is theme in a memoir? Theme in a memoir is absolutely important! Here’s is a distinction between a family-focused autobiography and a memoir that, I hope, will help you to appreciate the value and the role of theme in a memoir.
Hemingway’s “One True Sentence” Can Save Your Memoir
A “one true sentence” can save your memoir. I have found the “one true sentence” effective in focusing both my own memoir writing and in the writing of people I have coached and edited.
Your Life as a Myth Part 3
The following is the third installment of a three-part series on Your Life as a Myth, using myths and archetypes in memoir writing. In this first post of Your Life as a Myth, I wrote about both archetypal patterns in general and about the martyr archetype. In the second post, I wrote about the orphan […]
Your Life as a Myth Part 1
In your life as a myth, we discuss myths as the stories we create to express how we perceive the world and life. How we live our lives is determined by the myths we live by, but our lives also reveal our myths to ourselves and to the world. What are your myths? Look at […]
Don’t De-value Your Characters by Using Cliches and Stereotypes
Don’t devalue your characters by using cliches and stereotypes. This will undermine the unique and personal feel of your memoir. Cliches and stereotypes place people in categories. As short-hand ways of writing and speaking, they reflect ready-made thoughts and adversely affect the ways we relate to our families and friends as unique individuals.