Courgeous Truth Telling — A Revolutionary Act
One of the most transformative statements an individual can make is courageous truth telling and objectivity. In a world where we are constantly being bombarded with subtle—and not so subtle—messages about who we ought to be, it is a bold statement to take a stand for personal authenticity.
“The telling of your stories is a revolutionary act.” — Sam Keen, writer
At its best, this is what a memoir is — a statement that declares “this is who I am, who I think of myself as being.”
Lest you think that courageous truth telling is only about revealing scandals and unmasking sexual abuse, let me assure you that it is more often about smaller issues. The issues more within the realm of the everyday experience. Perhaps you were never ambitious of worldly success. This has embarrassed you but you would like to make a statement for another set of values other than financial success. Or, perhaps you have been attracted to people of your own gender and would like to bear witness to that but still fear repercussions. Or, perhaps you were a parent but, if the truth be told, you and your children might have been better off if you had not parented. As you can see, “courageous telling the truth” need not be earth shattering, but it is about incredibly essential features of ourselves. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
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Don’t Let Writer’s Block Stop You
Don’t let writer’s block stop you from producing a great memoir!
“What can I do about writer’s block?” I am asked regularly by stumped writers.
“Pretty much the same as plumber does with a plumber’s block,” I’ll respond.
People twitter at this reply. Perhaps it’s because they take my response for a joke and they’re anticipating a good punch line.
Do what you have to do if you don’t let writer’s block stop you.
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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.
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The Importance of Facts in Memoir Writing
The importance of facts in memoir writing The importance of facts in memoir writing such as dates, addresses, names, and relationships, are one of its special feature. Memoir writing cannot, without deleting from its value, omit dates and specific identification of locales, names of individuals and their relationships to one another. Memoir writing is factual writing: […]
Lightning Bug Words
Are You Using Lightning Bug Words? How do we write in lightning and not in lightning bugs? Using the right words when writing your memoir will illuminate and inform your readers.
Writing Time Wasters
I’m no more immune than anyone else to the plague of time wasters. Time wasters are habits we fall into that consume the time we have allotted (or could allot) to writing so that we end up not writing! Here are some of the most insidious that take up too much time and squander my […]
Don’t Wait To Write Your Story!
It is later than you think. In the years I have been helping people write memoirs, I have seen people die and people grow too old. The energy not only to write deeply but to write a memoir at all has been lost to them; their stories have been lost. We go through our days […]
Truth in Your Memoir – Three Tips For Including Safe “Guess-timates”
When writing a memoir or family history, you will inevitably come across bits of information that you want to include, but which you cannot verify…
Becoming an American—Why Not?
DL— Stories about immigration and citizenship form the backbone of our great American story as much today as in past times. My ancestors were among the millions who came here in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here is an excerpt about becoming an American from We Were Not Spoiled, the memoir of my mother Lucille Verreault Ledoux as told to me. For many more excerpts of my mother’s life, click here.
Joseph Verreault
My father had not come to the US to stay, but that’s what happened. After working here for a number of years first to support himself and then his growing family and eventually buying an apartment building that was his family’s home, it must have seemed obvious to him that this is where he would spend the rest of his life. So, why not give in to becoming an American citizen? Thinking this way, he was able to make the decision be an easy one. He was a practical man with a lot of responsibilities.
Becoming An American
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Write a memoir: practical how-to information to ace it.
Over the years, I have both worked with people to help them write a memoir and have heard from people who have done the work of writing theirs.
Often these people had never written anything before—not memoir, not fiction, not creative non-fiction. They did not think of themselves as writers. One day these people—as you are now doing—decided it was time to write a memoir. They set about to compose a lasting record of their personal and family stories in writing. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]