Your Subject—Where Write With Passion Starts
“What to write about in a memoir?” is a basic question. The right answer—which I believe is writing with passion—will keep you writing and the wrong may lead you to believe that writing a memoir is too hard and not for you.
My answer to what to write about in a memoir is always to write about something important to you—not what you think is important to others.
Why are you writing? What is it that you hope to get from this effort of creating a memoir? You are about to devote a lot of time and energy to this task. Be sure it is for reasons that will keep you writing with passion. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
“What to write about in a memoir?” is a basic question. The right answer—which I believe is writing with passion—will keep you writing and the wrong may lead you to believe that writing a memoir is too hard and not for you.
My answer to what to write about in a memoir is always to write about something important to you—not what you think is important to others.
Why are you writing? What is it that you hope to get from this effort of creating a memoir? You are about to devote a lot of time and energy to this task. Be sure it is for reasons that will keep you writing with passion. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
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Writing Tips for Successful Writing
Recently, someone asked me what are the biggest barriers memoir writers face to being successful. Three came to mind right away…
Motivation Technique for Writing
All writers eventually need a motivation technique to spur them on to the finish line. They face the atrophy of motivation that seems to come with writing a long memoir over months and months and even over a period of time. Let’s face it: writing can be hard and discouraging. The most interesting of topics […]
Is a Memoir Hard to Write—Yes, but You Can Do It!
A Memoir Can Be Hard to Write —But You Can Do It! Sometimes at the beginning of a workshop or of coaching relationship, people ask whether writing a memoir going to be hard. The short—but possibly intimidating—answer is: yes! The longer and more encouraging answer is: Yes, but you can do it!
Is Your Memoir Worth the Time to Write?
“Worth the time to write?” I repeated—raising my voice into a question—when a man said Denis Ledouxto me at a conference where I was speaking that most people didn’t have a memoir that was worth their time to write. “Not only is every life worth writing about,” I countered, “but the writing of a memoir […]
How to Write A Book: A Chat With Author William Andrews Part 1
William Andrews about his experience writing his recent book, Daughters of the Dragon. Bill exemplifies a commitment to writing. It is the same commitment but in the memoir field that will see all of us succeed at our endeavors.
How to Write A Book: A Chat With Author William Andrews Part 2
During WW2, the Japanese enslaved thousands of women to serve as prostitutes. I recently had the opportunity to interview author William Andrews about his experience writing his recent novel, Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman’s Story. Last week, I published the first part of the interview and below I publish the second portion. If you have not read the first portion, it is a good idea to do so before reading the text below.
DL: You changed narrator in this book. You went from a third person to a first-person narrator. You went from a middle-aged male narrator to a young woman. Can you talk to us about why you did that? What were some of the challenges you had?
BA: Yes, both of these changes—from third person to first; from father to granddaughter—really helped the book. Let me start with the second—changing the character. I first wrote the frame of the book (the book is written in a framed narrative or a story within a story) with the father of the adopted daughter as the narrator. Why? Because I was him. It was easy for me. Then I realized that the granddaughter—the daughter of the comfort woman—had the most at stake in the story. By giving her the narrative, the frame had much more power, more emotion. It was more direct, more raw, more dramatic. It wasn’t nearly as easy to write, but it was way better.
As for switching from third to first person, that was a result of needing to give the narrative a better voice. Writers and agents and publishers and coaches talk about “voice” all the time, but it isn’t always clear what it is. Well, to me, it’s a simple concept, but not easy to do. Voice is the personality of the narrator. Think about it. If you could have your comedy told by either a boring person, or by Robin Williams, who would you choose? Then again, you might not want Robin Williams to narrate your romance since the personality or voice of the narration must match the story. To get the voices right in Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman’s Story, I changed the narration to first person. Once I did, the personality HAD to come through. The 20-year-old granddaughter said things like, “awesome” and “seriously?” and such. The 80-year-old Korean grandmother’s voice had to be deliberate and precise to match her personality. Structurally, it wasn’t all that hard to change, but really forced me to think about voice.
DL: Is there anything in particular that you would say that was the most difficult thing to do in this book? Was it research, plotting, point of view?
[Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
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Writing the right memoir
not writing the right memoir can constrict your writing. The person who has put down one memoir a number of weeks, or months or even years ago, may not be able to pick it up again because the energy that had initially informed it is gone. The memoir has become the wrong memoir to be […]
Guest Blogger: 5 Suggestions to Help You Stay Motivated
It’s 10:00 a.m. “What’s next? How can I fit writing time into my day?” I ask, checking my day’s agenda in my head. Don’t make a busy day’s schedule a reason to not stay motivated to write. I’ve been writing memoir for over 10 years and have concluded the following 5 suggestions to help you […]