How to Write an Intriguing Memoir image Copyright © 2014 Joan Y. Edwards“How to Write an Intriguing Memoir” by Joan Y. Edwards
A memoir is not an autobiography. It’s a story about related capsules of time in your life related to a theme you choose to relate.
Three Things a Captivating Memoir Must Do:
- Captivate
- Have a Subject/Theme with Universal Emotional Appeal of Your Readers
- Relate to Your Own Personal Experience about Things that May Happen to Anyone
Choose an experience and the best words to show the experience through your eyes, ears, touch, taste, smell, and emotions of the heart. The small details that make you remember an event are the very things that intrigue a reader and helps him relate to your experience. What touches your heart with great emotion either the highly positive or the lowly negative will also touch the hearts of your readers.
The rich and famous are not the only ones who are writing memoirs. Jeff Goins states in his “3 Rules to Write a World-Changing Memoir” that many “normal” people are writing memoirs, too. Since that’s the case he asks, “So what’s to stop you and me from joining them?”
Victoria Costello asks a great questions in 10 Secrets of Successful Memoir Writers: “Don’t the most successful memoirs deal with the most relatable, and therefore universal topics? Think about it…birth, death, loss…loss of one’s mind, child, home, and rebounding from failure.”
Abigail Thomas suggests many two topics/themes in How to Write Your Own Memoir. Here are two of my favorites from her list:
- Physical characteristic you are proud to inherit or pass on
- When you knew you were in trouble.
A great way to learn how to write a memoir is to read a few of the best-selling memoirs. The work of the masters will show you how to tweak your memoir to touch the hearts of your readers.
- Adam Glassman Oprah.com. O’s Memoir Feast
What if you don’t know how to start writing your memoir? Are there other methods to get your told? Ryan Van Cleave in Memoir Writing for Dummies, Chapter One, Memoir Writing for Dummies Cheat Sheet, reminds you that instead of writing down your memoir first, you could record it with a voice recorder, a video camera, or use a ghost writer.
Think back on your life and visualize the parts of your life that filled you with hate, love, joy, fear, surprise, forgiveness, love, and frustration. Brainstorm ideas. Let them simmer in your mind for a while. Jot them down or record them.
If you’re thinking, “I’m not famous enough. I’m not interesting. I lead a boring life.” Think of it in a different way. It is my belief that everyone has an interesting story to tell. I believe you have a story that the world would like to read. As the Seattle Seahawks, say, “Why not you?”
I wish you success in writing your memoir. Please write and tell me what you think an intriguing memoir must do.
P.S. Rox-San one of my readers, not to be mixed up with Roxanne, another of my readers, requested that I write a post about how to write a memoir. I did this for her and because I didn’t really know what the difference between an autobiography and a memoir was, myself. Rox-San this one’s for you.
Here are resources to inspire you to write your memoir.
- Abigail Thomas. Oprah.com. “How to Write Your Own Memoir”
- Adam Glassman Oprah.com. O’s Memoir Feast
- Janet Reid, Literary Agent. Querying Memoir
- Victoria Costello. Huffington Post. “10 Secrets of Successful Memoir Writers:”
- Victoria Costello. The Complete Idiots Guide to Writing a Memoir
- Ryan Van Cleave. Memoir Writing for Dummies
- Ryan Van Cleave. Memoir Writing for Dummies. Chapter One) “Memoir Writing for Dummies Cheat Sheet”
- William Zinsser, The American Scholar, “How to Write a Memoir:”
Do something fun today.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
Copyright © 2014 Joan Y. Edwards