Every ordinary life story is extraordinary!

Every ordinary life story is extraordinary!

A Look at Some Not Very Creative Memoir Titles

So many people just give up and call their memoirs something like “My Life.” Can’t we do better, people?
A Look at Some Not Very Creative Memoir Titles
How much thought are you putting into the title of your memoir? Did you mull over some ideas and wait until you were satisfied with your title before you wrote the first word of a chapter? Or did you begin writing and sort of table the decision until some wonderful title dawned on you? There’s a third option. Maybe you did what a lot of people have done—called the darn thing “My Life??? or “My Autobiography??? and didn’t give it another thought.
I am surprised at how many notable people have chosen that third option. Consider that Bill Clinton authored My Life, as did actor Burt Reynolds and dancer Isadora Duncan. Golda Meir added her own name, so it became My Life By Golda Meir by Golda Meir. Charlie Chaplin wrote My Autobiography, Jane Fonda settled on My Life So Far and a pair of former presidents mirrored each other with the equally unoriginal The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge and The Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt.
Really? Is this the best we can do, folks? Apparently having a great creative mind doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll apply it to crafting a memoir title, since we have Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1, among others. Musicians? Johnny Cash published Cash: An Autobiography; Eric Clapton echoed with Clapton: An Autobiography. Check back next week for some titles that make you laugh instead of groan.

How much thought are you putting into the title of your memoir? Did you mull over some ideas and wait until you were satisfied with your title before you wrote the first word of a chapter? Or did you begin writing and sort of table the decision until some wonderful title dawned on you? There’s a third option. Maybe you did what a lot of people have done—called the darn thing “My Life” or “My Autobiography” and didn’t give it another thought.

I am surprised at how many notable people have chosen that third option. Consider that Bill Clinton authored My Life, as did actor Burt Reynolds and dancer Isadora Duncan. Golda Meir added her own name, so it became My Life By Golda Meir by Golda Meir. Charlie Chaplin wrote My Autobiography, Jane Fonda settled on My Life So Far and a pair of former presidents mirrored each other with the equally unoriginal The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge and The Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt.

Really? Is this the best we can do, folks? Apparently having a great creative mind doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll apply it to crafting a memoir title, since we have Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1, among others. Musicians? Johnny Cash published Cash: An Autobiography; Eric Clapton echoed with Clapton: An Autobiography. Check back next week for some memoir titles that make you laugh instead of groan.

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Then just set up a chapter and start writing your memoir. Don’t worry about rules. There are no rules to writing your memoir; there are only trends. These trends are based on techniques and features identified in current top-selling memoirs. At best, they’re the flavor of the month. If you’re capturing your life in print for your family, for your own gratification or to inspire readers, rather than aiming to set off Hollywood screenplay bidding wars, these trends don’t even apply to you. You’ll write the memoir that suits you best, and it will be timeless, not trend-driven.There are no rules, but there are four steps:

1. Theme/framework
2. Writing
3. Editing/polishing
4. Self-publishing

You’ve researched this, too, and you’ve been shocked at the price for getting help with any one of those steps, much less all four. That’s because most memoir sites promise to commercialize your work. They’ll follow a formula based on current memoir trends, because they want to convince you that they can turn your memoir into a best-seller. These sites overwhelm you with unnecessary information not to help you, the memoir author, but to address Search Engine Optimization (SEO) algorithms so they can sell more.

That’s not what we do at Write My Memoirs. Our small community of coaches, writers and editors are every bit as skilled as any you’ll find, and we charge appropriately for their expertise and the time they’ll spend helping you craft a compelling, enjoyable read. But you won’t pay an upcharge for other websites’ commercialization, the marketing that follows, and the pages of intimidating “advice.” You can sell your book if you like—we have ISBNs available for you—but our organic process of capturing your story takes a noncommercial path.

If you want help with any or all of the four steps above, choose from our services or save money by selecting one of our packages. If you’d like to talk about what’s right for you, schedule a call. One year from now, you can be holding your published memoir in your hand. And at that point, it will be a big deal!

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