Category: How-to
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Should You Use Flashbacks in Your Memoir?
Story reading is very different than memory, and so, a big part of the memoir writer’s job is to sort the raw material of memory back into the chronology of actual events. Gradually you will tease apart the causes and sequences of things, and present them in the most compelling possible manner. Good writers work…
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How Much Childhood Should I Include in My Memoir?
Even if your childhood doesn’t have sufficient drama to make it a story in its own right, you may have a sense that it is part of your “story that must be told.” If you keep coming back to that period of your life as an important aspect of the character you need to portray…
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How Should I Begin My Memoir?
When the reader opens the book, you must snare their attention and convince them they are going for an interesting ride. Within the first few paragraphs you need to introduce the protagonist and create a sense of interest and relationship as well as portents of disruption and development.
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Please Readers: What Do They Expect From Your Memoir?
At first, you might have a hard time imagining how to boil your own story down to such a catchy kernel. But it turns out that the kernel of your own memoir might be lurking beneath the surface, in the psychological drama that was taking place inside your mind and emotions. By searching through your…
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Parent’s Memoir Part 3b, Guide for Ghost Writer’s Interview
Over the years, you have learned to avoid topics your parents prefer not talking about. In order to get the story, you need to break these taboos. Consider James McBride’s memoir “Color of Water.” His mother had angrily told him to mind his own business whenever he asked her about his past. As she grew…
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Parent’s Memoir Part 3a, Guiding a Ghost Writer’s Interview
If your interviewee tends to speak in terms of ideas, summaries, and overviews, their memories won’t allow a reader inside their experience. To write compelling scenes, ask for more sensory information, dialog, and thought processes. “What did you see, hear, taste, touch and smell?” In addition to the senses, ask them about their introspective world.
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The Protagonist of a Memoir Must have a Goal and Obstacles
One of the fundamental elements in every story is the reader’s identification with the protagonist. This protagonist doesn’t just stand there. He or she wants something, and then moves toward it, while we readers turn pages to overcome the obstacles. In Andre Agassi’s “Open” the pressure to push against obstacles generates enormous tension that makes…
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Memoir Lessons: Mysteries of emerging consciousness
Jeremy was using his words to explain his actions, and that’s what memoir writers do, too. Your whole memoir is an attempt to describe how your life works, from inside your point of view.
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Four More Writing Lessons from Reading a Memoir
Consider one scene in which Beth Kephart uses a delicious strategy to tell about her earlier life while maintaining firm authorial control over the present. In the scene, a snowstorm traps her alone in the house with her son. She doesn’t want to leave him alone so she demands that he listen to a story.
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Use this memoir as a study guide: lessons 1 to 3
Her journey to help her son enter the game of life abounds with courage, psychological sleuthing, and love. It is a warm coming of age story of two people: Jeremy’s development into childhood, and his mother’s maturity as the shepherd of her son. I learned so much from reading the book that I think it…
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