Making Meaning of Your Memories
Practical tips and insights to uncover and write about the memories that have shaped your life.
Everyone who embarks on a journey to write their memoir inevitably hits a wall. You have a dream of telling a slice of your life story, but you meet resistanceâa too-full calendar, kids who need your full-time attention, a day job that saps your energy and leaves you too tired to write your tale. We...
Many people worry they don't have enough time to write a memoir. Life is busy and finding time to write can be challenging. However, writing a memoir doesn't have to be a full-time job. Even if you only have a few minutes each day, you can make progress by setting a daily writing goal and sticking t...
My index finger hovered over the âsendâ button for several seconds. I rechecked my document one more time. Was it good enough to ship off to my editor? This was the first draft of a small book project, and though I had given it my best, I wasnât confident it would be on par with what other writers s...
Several years ago, I trained for my first marathon. I wasnât a runner when I signed up for my first race, so I spent months following a training plan to literally get me up to speed.
I hated that plan. I hated the daily runs. I would curse under my breath at the start of every training run. But the...
Last year I was working on a memoir project with a client. Every couple of weeks weâd meet to discuss various aspects of their life related to the story they wanted to tell. Iâd record our sessions and have them transcribed so we could assemble all the pieces of their life into one full narrative. E...
The hardest part about writing a memoir is getting your first draft done. I know this because I spent about five years tinkering with my first draft. You start with energy and good intentions. You commit to writing every day. But as time goes on, you start to lose focus. What was I trying to write a...
Writing a memoir is hard work, especially if you're struggling to remember some of the most pivotal moments in your life. If youâre having a hard time accessing key memories and sensory details of past events, writing prompts can help unlock the past and deepen your memoir writing.
What Are Writing...
I took a beginning drawing class at a local art store at the start of the year. I love the idea of being able to sketch simple scenes, and Iâm a sucker for a fresh set of pencils. Our instructor taught us to create a value scale (a set of squares filled in with each of our pencils to show the variou...
I was sitting at a picnic table, eating food cart pierogies, minding my own business. I wasnât even thinking about my memoir. Suddenly, a thought intruded out of nowhere: What if people donât think the trauma I write about in my memoir is that big of a deal?
I put my fork down. Thatâs itâthe thing ...
Embarking on the journey of writing your memoir is a courageous and deeply personal endeavor. As we step into the new year, it's the perfect time to reflect on your experiences and commit to putting pen to paper. Setting specific and achievable writing goals will not only keep you on track but also ...
I never planned to write a memoir. Even though I had spent a good part of my career ghostwriting and editing other peopleâs stories, it never occurred to me that I might one day want to tell my own. I convinced myself that others' experiences were much more harrowing than anything that had ever happ...
Every November I host a 30-day Memoir Writing Challenge (National Memoir Writing MonthâNaMeWriMo) modeled after the longstanding National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). My challenge doesnât mandate writing 50,000 words as the crowning achievement of the challenge. Instead, I encourage each partici...
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