Writing a memoir involves remembering bits and pieces of your life and putting them down on paper. After all, a memoir covers a portion of your life—a few months, a year, a few years—that happened previously. And sometimes this period of time lies in your distant past. It may seem like remembering the conversations, the [...]
Many of this year’s Write Nonfiction in November participants are writing memoirs. I don’t find this surprising, since so many people want to find meaning in the events of their lives and to share that meaning with others. Additionally, writing about our lives can prove healing, and sometimes reading about someone else’s healing journey can [...]
Memoirist and creative nonfiction writers constantly ponder the question, “What is truth?” And they struggle with their truth vs. the truth of those about whom they write as well as the truth as they remember it—or believe it. How can you know the truth? One way is to learn from other memoirists and creative nonfiction [...]
Yesterday I was working with a client on focusing her memoir. To me the beginning middle and end of her story seemed so clear. The symbolism was all there, even in her title, and it carried all the way through. She couldn’t see it. That’s why I ask my clients to take the time to [...]
I’m almost done doing a developmental edit on a memoir. The feedback the writer had received from readers and agents was that the manuscript didn’t “flow.” I read the manuscript and sent it back to the writer with my suggestions, and she then sent it back to me corrected for a second read through. Wow! [...]
Yesterday’s post covered how to begin writing a book. Today, we discuss one particular type of book: memoir. So many people feel they have a personal story worth telling, and often those stories do, indeed, sell well in book stores. Readers will purchase books they resonate with emotionally. Memoir offers nonfiction writers a particularly challenging [...]
Although most writers know exactly what form their project will take, a few feel unsure. They may ask questions like: Is it a memoir? A how-to book? An e-book? Do I only have enough information for an article? Is my article actually an essay? For these people, the first few blog posts of Write Nonfiction [...]
One of my goals this year involves learning to write memoir. I know memoir is just another form of nonfiction, but it involves writing like a novelist. I use much of my life experience when I write personal essays, when I blog, and even when I write articles. I should be able to write memoir. [...]
If you sometimes wonder what the difference is between memoir and fiction, you aren’t alone. Often writers use their experiences as fodder for novels, and memoir, which is based on life experience, must read like fiction yet not be fictionalized. Occassionally, a writer crosses the line and gets in trouble–as we’ve seen in the not [...]
I’m a big proponent of using blogging as a way to build platform for nonfiction authors. I speak about this quite often to my clients, many of whom come to me with book proposals that have empty platform sections. When I speak before groups, in particular writer’s groups, I often get asked about how fiction [...]
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