Memoir Writing Preserves Family Memories

If you're planning to write a book length memoir, you'll need a focus. Memoirs are popular with the publishing industry but they need to be focused. Rambling autobiographies from childhood to old age aren't as popular. If you're not a famous person, who would care to read all about that, except maybe your grandkids?

A book length memoir needs a clear focus. What is there in your life that was the most devastating thing you've gone through? What affected you the most? How can you make your life an instructive object lesson for future generations?

Get a writer's notebook and start writing down ideas. Right now you're just brainstorming, and there's no need to hurry this part of your project. This will quite possibly be the most important part, because you need to angle your memoir so that people will want to pick up the book and read it.

When you write a book length memoir you'll need to decide what the chapters will be about. Just as you're focusing your memoir on one segment or issue of your life, you'll also want to focus each chapter on one time or issue that led up to your big crisis.

Yes, you need a crisis! Good memoirs these days are very much like novels. With novel writing, you need to start with an interesting situation that builds with vivid characters and intense subplots - until the story reaches a major crisis (also called a climax) near the end of the book. Then there's a denouement - the final chapter in which all things are put right. By that time the main character is a changed person. Hopefully, changed for the better!

Well, good memoirs pretty much have to do the same thing. They have to read like a novel while at the same time being as true to your memory as you can make them. You'll need to analyze your life to see what led up to that major crisis you're planning to tell people about. Then each component of the story should fit neatly into a chapter segment.

Again, this is a brainstorming process, and you should take your time with it. It will make it so much easier to write the actual memoir if you have a plan.

Write your chapter brainstormings and the final plan in your writer's notebook!

Once you get down to the actual writing, you need only worry about one chapter at a time. Write your first draft, then go back over it and add more - as much as you can remember.

If you have to fictionalize the dialogue, that's generally considered okay. After all, what memoir writer really remembers what someone said thirty years ago? It is better to tell an intriguing story that holds a reader's attention than it is to remember exactly what someone said, long ago. For most of us, that information is long gone - and perhaps only hypnotism could bring it back. If you don't have easy access to a hypnotist, then improvise! This is about your memories, not about having a perfect memory!

When you finish your chapter, and have gone over it several times to try to jog more information out of your sub-conscious, and have added some nice descriptions and conversations and philosophy, it is time to let it rest and get on with the next chapter.

Don't fret about anything at this stage. You're mainly trying to get the first draft down on paper, and jog your memory. You're not to be an editor or a perfectionist. Just do your best and above all, enjoy the process!

Okay, you're done writing all your chapters, so what do you do next?

Well, common writing wisdom is to let it rest. How long you let the project rest is up to you. For some, a few weeks or a month will do. Others take an entire year! Eventually you'll come back to the project and be mentally ready to look at it with fresh eyes and a prepared heart.

Read that memoir! Yes, read it through for the first time, from beginning to end. While you're doing this, keep your writer's notebook nearby so you can take notes on things you'd like to change or add. At this time you're looking at the overall picture.

Did the manuscript do what you set out to do? Does it tell the story of one very important series of events in your life? Is it clear, or murky? Will your reader enjoy the story as much as you do? How can you change it to make it better?

Someone has to revise and edit that memoir. Usually, the writer does it. If you can afford a professional editor, that's a great option! It would be great to have a second opinion on your project!

Another way to get a second opinion is to join a writer's critique group that will accept book-length memoir manuscripts. You will "pay" for your critiques by doing critiques for others. This can be a lot of fun and very, very helpful!

In any case, you will need to do several edits:

(1) The first read-through to get the overall picture of what you've created, and to decide on changes you might want to make.

(2) Make those changes, and read through it again. Make sure your words flow and that there's continuity in the story, and no plot holes.

(3) Get a critique either from a critique group or a professional editor.

(4) Be grateful for every critique you get even though they may make you fume inside. Each comment by a critiquer is a valuable "heads up" so you can slow down and analyze that section of your manuscript.

(5) Make all changes suggested, insofar as you believe they are truly needed. If you don't think they're needed, well, it is your manuscript and you need to follow your heart!

When your manuscript is as perfect as you want it to be, you'll be ready for publication. Start looking for an agent or a publisher. Agent Query is a great place to start. Publisher's Marketplace is another great site that can be a lot of help.

Some people decide to self-publish on a site like LuLu.Com. If you do this, be aware that you will have to do all the book promotion yourself, there won't be an advance, and in the future agents and publishers may be less inclined to work with you.

The decisions are yours!