4 Memoir Writing Tips: Preparing to Share Your Personal Story
How to write a memoir is a question with many possible answers, but today I’m sharing a few memoir writing tips I’ve gathered since embarking on my own project a couple of years ago. Specifically, we’ll be exploring a few ways to prepare for the process and to ease into deeper writing that will come down the road.
Memoir Writing Tip #1: Build a Reading List
The concept of "reading with purpose" comes from DIY MFA, and you can use it to apply to your reading life generally as well as specific projects you're working on. In the case of a memoir, you can break out categories of books by this way: context, contemporary, and craft.
CONTEXT books are for your topic, like grief, healing, addiction, motherhood, what have you.
CONTEMPORARY books are memoirs written in the last 10-20 years that cover a similar topic to yours.
CRAFT books are about both the craft of memoir itself, as well as books of all genres written in the style or structure yours might be.
The point isn't to read everything all at once. After all, there's a fine line between research and procrastination, no? Start with a few, write a bit, circle back, etc. I love doing this because it helps offer a more fuller picture of the scope of my own project, as well as touch points for things I want to learn more about or address as the writing process evolves.
Memoir Writing Tip #2: Read Like a Writer
Building a reading list (see #1 above) supports this, but I believe in addition to focusing on the writing itself, it's wise to study memoir as a genre along the way. When you read, keep a post-it note on the inside flap or dedicate a few pages of a notebook to recording observations about structure, language, how an author described characters or played with time.
Memoir Writing Tip #3: Become a Memory Keeper
When your project is nothing more than an idea, it's a good time to start a notebook to capture all the memories that might come your way. One way to organize this process a bit more is to create three columns: one for the memory itself, a second for sensory details, and third for the date or year it occurred. This helps give you a place to start when you do some freewriting, and can help you organize the structure of your book later on.
Memoir Writing Tip #4: Write Longhand
You'll get to the computer eventually. This approach encourages my brain to work a little differently. I love writing on the computer, but it’s easier to start editing as I type. Keeping a journal offers a lot of freedom and removes some of the pressure you might feel, especially so early in the process. Grab one of your memories from the notebook you started keeping (see tip #3) and just start writing.
