Critique of Traditional Writing Rules, Part 6: Kill Your Darlings
Should you “kill your darlings” and delete some of your favorite passages? We say no to that!
Should you “kill your darlings” and delete some of your favorite passages? We say no to that!
When writing a memoir, you can take breaks from writing every day. But you do need to write regularly.
Be fearless in writing your first draft. It can be bad.
In most cases, you should try to obey the “show, don’t tell” rule of writing, but here’s how to break the rule when you must.
Should memoir writers attempt a snappy first sentence to hook readers on page 1?
In your memoir, should you obey the conventional rule to write what you know?
Consider joining National Association of Memoir Writers and take part in an upcoming teleseminar.
The top three winning entries in the Redwood Writers 2013 Memoir Contest offer insight into writing a memoir.
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!