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Every ordinary life story is extraordinary!

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Every ordinary life story is extraordinary!

Rosanne Ullman

Rosanne Ullman owns Write My Memoirs (writemymemoirs.com) to help people write and self-publish their life stories and co-owns Home Memoir (homememoir.com) to help people capture, in a coffee-table book, the love they have for their home. For 20 years, Rosanne taught grammar at a local adult education program, New Trier eXtention, and that well-received course is the basis for the Write My Memoirs Grammar and Writing Course. Rosanne has a long freelance career writing for and about various industries, particularly the professional beauty industry. Her observations about life appear frequently on various blog sites and include regular contributions to Sixty and Me (sixtyandme.com) and Boomer Cafe (boomercafe.com). Rosanne also is the author of the children’s picture book The Case of the Disappearing Kisses. She holds a Master’s degree in Journalism (MSJ) from Northwestern University’s famed Medill School of Journalism.

Will Your High School Writing Class Help You in Writing Memoirs?

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For many people who sit down to write memoirs, the last time they had an important writing assignment was back in high school. So you may find yourself struggling to recapture lessons you learned in English class when you were just a teen. Even if you attended college and wrote papers for courses there, you may have trouble recalling the writing principles you learned that many years ago.

So let me refresh your memory. Typically, young students learn to write in a formula that requires each paragraph to start with a “topic sentence??? followed by three sentences that support that topic. The next step is to shape that topic sentence so that it doubles as a transition from your last paragraph’s topic to the new topic.

This construction is adequate for new writers, and the grammar you learned will serve you well. But to develop any sophistication in your writing, sooner or later you’ll have to abandon strict adherence to any formula. Once you do that and allow your instincts to guide you, you’ll discover your own writing style. Your paragraphs will be more varied and, therefore, more interesting to read. Your sentences will flow harmoniously, losing the staccato feel that characterizes formulaic writing. This assignment you’ve given yourself—writing your memoirs—comes from the heart of an adult who’s had a lifetime of experiences, so don’t fall back too much on what you learned in high school.

Mark Mother’s Day With Memoirs-Related Gift

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Moms are a huge part of our life story, and Mother’s Day, coming up this Sunday, tends to make us nostalgic about growing up with mom raising us. If you’re far away, you’ll probably send your mother a card, gift or flowers. If you live locally, you’re likely to invite her for dinner or take her out to dinner. WriteMyMemoirs would love to be part of your Mother’s Day celebration.

Your mother is probably just as nostalgic as you are, if not more. Why not show her how to sign up and join WriteMyMemoirs? Then show her how to start writing her memoirs, and after that she should find it easy to continue the process on her own. It’s special to give her the gift of your time to sit with her and show her how to navigate the website, and it’s even more special to tell her that you appreciate the effort she’ll make in writing down her personal history. I assure you that you’ll learn a lot about your mother from her memoirs.

Another approach would be to share with her your own goal of writing your memoirs. You could devote a chapter to your parents, or you could even dedicate your book to your mom. If, like me, your mother has passed on, a dedication is a great way to honor her. And if you’re the mom now? Completing your memoirs for your children to read will make a wonderful gift back to them!

What If You Want to Write a Non-Memoir?

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Sometimes people ask me if it’s okay to use their WriteMyMemoirs account to write something other than a memoir. They may have in mind a short story, novel, essay, poem, biography of someone else, political commentary, history or random non-fiction book. So is it okay? Yes, it’s fine!

Our helpful hints on this site mostly address the particulars of recalling one’s life story, but some involve writing in general. For example, we mention some good habits to form in order to stay motivated to reach your writing goal. These apply to all types of writing. You want to be able to stick with a piece and see it through to the end.

You also can begin your work here by journaling—recording events that strike you in some way. I refer to a journal as a “diary for grownups.??? Having it online means you can write from wherever you are and keep it all in one place. As a collection, your journal entries may even become chapters in a type of memoir, perhaps focusing more on the current segment of your life than on tracing your entire life’s span. So please feel free to keep your writing safe here in our little writers’ haven, memoir or not. No matter what type of writing you’re doing, we’re happy to have you!

When Writing Memoirs, Don’t Let Verb Tenses Make You Tense!

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I’d like to discuss verb tense because it confuses many people, and I don’t want it tripping you up as you write your memoirs. Most likely, you’re writing your autobiography in the past tense: “I was born…went to school…accepted a job.??? As much as you can keep it that simple, you should be fine. But sometimes you want to express a more complicated time sequence. Past perfect and past perfect progressive are two other tenses you may find yourself needing.

The past perfect tense conveys action that took place before another action that also happened in the past. You form it with the word “had.??? An example: “I had intended to go to college, but when the war started I decided to sign up instead.??? You intended to go to college before you changed your mind, so you need the “had intended??? construction.

The past perfect progressive tense is similar but uses the “…ing??? form of the verb preceded by “had been.??? Example: “I had been enjoying my time at home raising my children, but when the youngest entered high school I thought it was time to go back to earning a paycheck.??? Again, this indicates a past action that preceded another past action, but the difference is that it was an ongoing action—in this case, the act of enjoying. From time to time I will give you these grammar tips, and I hope this helps you as you write your memoirs.

Google Can Be a Resource for Memoir Writers

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In a blog last month, I suggested various websites to help you in any research you need to support your memoirs and check facts against your memory. Along those lines, I’d like to refer you to an article by Simon Mackie on webworkerdaily.com that offers tips on using Google for easy research. For memoir writers, A very relevant suggestion from this article is to use Google to research a specific topic within a time frame. “Say, for example, you want to look for information about Olympic events that took place in the 1950s,??? Mackie writes. “You could use this search: Olympics 1950..1960.???

I use many of Mackie’s “top ten??? myself. One way I constantly use Google is to check spelling. Start inserting a word or name, and it will finish what you’ve started and suggest topics with that term—spelled correctly. It’s so quick! I look for phone numbers by putting in the name of the company or person with the area code, and Google finishes the number for me. Currency conversions and finding out what time it is anywhere in the world are other handy Google applications.

This article points out that Google has a calculator, which I didn’t know. Just type in your math problem and push enter, and your answer will appear. If you find more ways to use Google and other common websites as you write your life story, we’d appreciate your sharing your insights with all the members of WriteMyMemoirs. Just reply to the blog right here!

Fellow Blogger Challenges People to Read Memoirs This Year

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Reading other people’s memoirs is a great way to get acquainted with the autobiography genre. Frequently here on our blog, I encourage all of you considering, or already in the process of, writing your memoirs to pick up autobiographies written both recently and long ago. Now another blogger has set forth a challenge to read at least four memoirs in 2010. She writes for her own site, The Betty and Boo Chronicles.

To participate, all you have to do is sign up with the site and list the book(s) you’re reading. You can start by going either to the first link above or click here to access a follow-up entry. The blogger, Melissa, says she purposely set the bar low—four memoirs is not burdensome—so that people could easily join the challenge.

Melissa writes: “I’m so thrilled by all the enthusiasm for The Memorable Memoir Reading Challenge! Thank you all for joining. I had no idea what to expect from my first hosted challenge, and I have to say, this is a lot of fun. I’m adding so many great-sounding memoirs to my want-to-read list and discovering a bunch of new (to me) blogs. Hopefully you’re doing the same and liking what you’re finding here.???

Use the WriteMyMemoirs Site in a Classroom or Other Group Setting

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Across the United States and probably the world, courses are offered regularly to help people write memoirs. High school and college English classes also sometimes assign a project that involves autobiography writing. Less formally, groups get together to encourage each other in this endeavor and read the work aloud for a critique from group members.

To get students/participants started, some of these classes and groups use WriteMyMemoirs for online assistance. It helps to keep everyone focused and, of course, the work never gets lost and everyone can access it from any Internet-connected computer. There are no excuses like, “My dog ate my homework???! With so many ideas on the site, the writers stay motivated and easily come up with topics for their chapters.

If you’re participating in a group of this type or taking a writing class, we’d love for you to suggest WriteMyMemoirs as a group sign-up activity. The assignment doesn’t even have to be memoirs, really, since our site is just as handy for writing novels, short stories, essays and journalistic pieces. If your class or group does sign up with us, please drop us a line! We’d enjoy knowing how you’re progressing and perhaps here on the blog we could share your thoughts on the process.

As a Second Language for Memoir Writing, English Is Challenging!

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Many of the inquiries we receive about help writing memoirs comes from our members who did not grow up speaking English. If you want to write your life story in English but are not a native speaker, it’s not easy to get this language exactly right. You can make yourself understood when you’re speaking it, but to write it properly the level of mastery must be higher.

As an editor, I receive a lot of press releases, and it’s frequently apparent that either the writer or translator is a non-native speaker. As an example, a recent press release that came my way read, “The progressive approach to education, as well as their own down to earth personality’s make for a perfect cocktail to share excitement!??? I can tell what this means, but the choice of words is not natural-sounding, and the grammar is not entirely correct. I would rework this sentence to say, “The instructors’ progressive approach to education combines perfectly with their down-to-earth personalities to generate excitement!???

At WriteMyMemoirs, we encourage you to craft your memoirs however you please—in English or in any language you like—and we believe that you have a valuable story to tell no matter how extensive your knowledge of English grammar. If you do want help with the language, however, please email us or watch the site for our editing services coming soon.

Find Write My Memoirs on Facebook!

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Since we hope to reach everyone who needs help and motivation with the somewhat daunting task of writing a memoir, WriteMyMemoirs has just joined Facebook! We are a “fan page,??? which means you become our fans rather than our friends. In Facebook land, there’s a distinction.

What it means to our members is that you can easily talk to us and talk to each other. Post something on our wall! We will use that space to alert everyone when a new blog entry has been posted here on writemymemoirs.com, and we’ll keep up with other things relevant to writing an autobiography.

If you are not very familiar with Facebook, you might want to give it a try. Social networking sites like Facebook can be a great way to stay connected with friends and family members, particularly younger people. You can share photos, everyday thoughts and links to other Internet websites. As time goes on, perhaps our little memoir community will grow and we’ll have some good discussions going about writing, memories and life in general. See you over there!

Internet Makes Fact-Checking Your Memoirs Easy

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When you’re writing your life story, you want to avoid factual errors, but no one’s memory is reliable and comprehensive enough to fill in every detail. Dates, the exact names of places, the correct spelling of people’s names, the precise distance between cities—these are the types of specifics that you’ll want to get right.

I’m old enough to remember what research used to entail. You’d have to pretty much camp out at your local library for weeks, taking notes and photocopying, in order to research even a small book. Today, from the comfort of home, you can download or copy and paste information right into your computer. There’s just no comparison in terms of efficiency and degree of access.

While it’s usually productive to start with Google and Wikipedia, I can suggest a few other sites that also will help you to fill in the blanks as you write your memoirs:

  • Internet Public Library—it’s just like going through the library stacks except there’s no heavy lifting.
  • Google Archives—creates an automatic time line of historical events involving any topic you choose.
  • MelissaData—lists sites that help you pinpoint locations and find statistical information.
  • Gary Price’s List of Lists—helps you to identify the “top 10??? or “top 100??? of many topics.

Your memoirs are a piece of history! Give them their due by taking the time to research the time period and get your facts straight.

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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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