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Before You Write Your Memoir: Exercises to Prepare

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Before You Write Your Memoir: Exercises to Help You
As part of her own memoir writing process, author Shirley Hershey Showalter has been keeping a blog. For one entry, Shirley had received permission from her friend, Professor Melanie Springer Mock, to post the syllabus for a university-level memoir-writing class that Mock was teaching at George Fox University in Oregon. I think you’ll find some of the assignments from this course relevant in helping an amateur writer craft a heartfelt memoir.
The first assignment Mock gives her students is to keep a journal. We’ve talked about that here at Write My Memoirs before. Mock calls journaling “the most democratic literary form,” because everyone has a life story from which to draw, and we all own our stories. Adding that journaling also is “perhaps the most fundamental form of life writing,” Mock expresses the hope that her students will enjoy the journaling process enough to continue with it after the course ends. To guide the students in productive journaling, the syllabus advises:
“A fruitful journal will include more than a summarization of weather and what you had for lunch, although you may write about that as well. Consider using your journal to record daily events, conversations and feelings; to examine your beliefs and thoughts, as well as your reaction to certain daily experiences; to experiment with different writing styles and ideas; and to draft pieces you are working on.” I think those are good suggestions. More assignments next time—check back here next week!

As part of her own memoir writing process, author Shirley Hershey Showalter has been keeping a blog. For one entry, Shirley received permission from her friend, Professor Melanie Springer Mock, to post the syllabus for a university-level memoir-writing class that Mock was teaching at George Fox University in Oregon. I think you’ll find some of the assignments from this course relevant in helping an amateur writer craft a heartfelt memoir.

The first assignment Mock gives her students is to keep a journal. We’ve talked about that here at Write My Memoirs before. Mock calls journaling “the most democratic literary form,” because everyone has a life story from which to draw, and we all own our stories. Adding that journaling also is “perhaps the most fundamental form of life writing,” Mock expresses the hope that her students will enjoy the journaling process enough to continue with it after the course ends. To guide the students in productive journaling, the syllabus advises:

“A fruitful journal will include more than a summarization of weather and what you had for lunch, although you may write about that as well. Consider using your journal to record daily events, conversations and feelings; to examine your beliefs and thoughts, as well as your reaction to certain daily experiences; to experiment with different writing styles and ideas; and to draft pieces you are working on.” I think those are good suggestions. More assignments next time—check back here next week!

Memoir Teacher for Hire

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Memoir Teacher for Hire
If you can get a group together and want to hold a memoir workshop, there’s a teacher who will come to you. His name is Thomas Larson; go to thomaslarson.com for details about him. Write My Memoirs has nothing to do with Thomas or his workshops. We neither vouch for him nor receive any type of commission from him. However, he’s a member of the faculty at Ashland University in Ohio and the author of The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative; he seems like the real deal to me. Perhaps you can ask your local library or high school to contact him at to********@*******al.net for pricing information.
He begins his workshop by exploring the differences between traditional autobiography and contemporary memoir. Then he gets to the nitty-gritty of helping participants figure out how to begin, where to focus, which episodes of your life will make interesting topics, how to “discover the emotional truth” of your story and the various literary elements that come into play. By the end of the workshop, you should have a draft of a chapter or section of your story.
“Many of us have lived fascinating lives whether inwardly or outwardly, during childhood long ago or as adults in the last decade,” Thomas writes on his website. He sums up the definition of a modern memoir as “a story that focuses on the meaning and intensity of a singular relationship in the author’s life—unresolved feelings for a parent, a child, a sibling, a friend; coming to terms with a loss, an illness, a death; remembering a significant phase like childhood or adolescence or a period like college in which the writer was challenged or changed.”

If you can get a group together and want to hold a memoir workshop, there’s a teacher who will come to you. His name is Thomas Larson; go to thomaslarson.com for details about him. Write My Memoirs has nothing to do with Thomas or his workshops. We neither vouch for him nor receive any type of commission from him. However, he’s a member of the faculty at Ashland University in Ohio and the author of The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative; he seems like the real deal to me. Perhaps you can ask your local library or high school to contact him at to********@*******al.net for pricing information.

He begins his workshop by exploring the differences between traditional autobiography and contemporary memoir. Then he gets to the nitty-gritty of helping participants figure out how to begin, where to focus, which episodes of your life will make interesting topics, how to “discover the emotional truth” of your story and the various literary elements that come into play. By the end of the workshop, you should have a draft of a chapter or section of your story.

“Many of us have lived fascinating lives whether inwardly or outwardly, during childhood long ago or as adults in the last decade,” Thomas writes on his website. He sums up the definition of a modern memoir as “a story that focuses on the meaning and intensity of a singular relationship in the author’s life—unresolved feelings for a parent, a child, a sibling, a friend; coming to terms with a loss, an illness, a death; remembering a significant phase like childhood or adolescence or a period like college in which the writer was challenged or changed.”

Are You Writing a Memoir or a Self-Help?

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Are You Writing a Memoir or a Self-Help?
Last week’s post about the relationship between a memoir and a self-help guide inspired me to look further into the differences between the two. I found a listing of “do’s and don’ts” for each genre at nonfictionbookeditor.com, although keep in mind that the advice addresses authors who would like to publish their work for mass distribution, whereas here at Write My Memoirs you may want to publish just a few copies for friends and relatives.
The author of that blog contends that readers are looking for either a targeted self-help with instructions and a call to action on how to overcome one of life’s hurdles or reach the next rung of some ladder, or they want to read an entertaining and perhaps uplifting account of someone’s life that may have lessons regarding a common personal struggle but will be too personal to apply broadly.
Confusion between the two genres occurs when the book focuses mainly on how a single problem has been overcome by the author. That is effective as neither a memoir nor a self-help, according to the NonfictionBookEditor blog. If you’re writing a self-help, you should research it beyond what you’ve learned from your own experience, because everyone’s situation will be a little different from yours. If you’re writing a memoir, you should not narrow your focus so much that it’s an account only of your single personal struggle without the greater context of other aspects of your life. I think that’s good advice.

Last week’s post about the relationship between a memoir and a self-help guide inspired me to look further into the differences between the two. I found a listing of “do’s and don’ts” for each genre at nonfictionbookeditor.com, although keep in mind that the advice addresses authors who would like to publish their work for mass distribution, whereas here at Write My Memoirs you may want to publish just a few copies for friends and relatives.

The author of that blog contends that readers are looking for either a targeted self-help with instructions and a call to action on how to overcome one of life’s hurdles or reach the next rung of some ladder, or they want to read an entertaining and perhaps uplifting account of someone’s life that may have lessons regarding a common personal struggle but will be too personal to apply broadly.

Confusion between the two genres occurs when the book focuses mainly on how a single problem has been overcome by the author. That is effective as neither a memoir nor a self-help, according to the NonfictionBookEditor blog. If you’re writing a self-help, you should research it beyond what you’ve learned from your own experience, because everyone’s situation will be a little different from yours. If you’re writing a memoir, you should not narrow your focus so much that it’s an account only of your single personal struggle without the greater context of other aspects of your life. I think that’s good advice.

Take a Scholarly Approach to Memoir Writing

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Take a Scholarly Approach to Memoir Writing
Most of our members here on WriteMyMemoirs are not professional writers and would not consider themselves serious students of writing or autobiography. But perhaps some of you do fall into the category of “writing scholar.” If you’d love learning more about biography and autobiography, I recommend looking into the International Auto/Biography Association (IABA), which meets annually for a scholarly convention that each year explores a different aspect of crafting a life story and is held in a selected fabulous global city.
On that website, you may notice an invitation to submit an abstract if you’re interested in serving on a panel at the annual convention of a different group, the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA). According to NeMLA, this panel “will address the narrative and socio-political relationships between contemporary memoir and self-help. Topics may include, but are not limited to: narrative analyses of popular self-help texts; the co-evolution of memoir and self-help; how the narrative of self-help embeds itself in memoir; revisiting trauma in a public forum.”
The NeMLA convention takes place March 21-24, 2013, but the deadline to submit an abstract is coming up on September 30. It would be great to have a WriteMyMemoirs member serve on the panel or just attend this event and report back to us. In any case, on the next blog let’s discuss the memoir/self-help connection. If NeMLA is creating an entire panel presentation on the topic, there must be a lot to talk about!

Most of our members here on WriteMyMemoirs are neither professional writers nor would consider themselves serious students of writing or autobiography. But perhaps some of you do fall into the category of “writing scholar.” If you’d love to learn more about biography and autobiography, I recommend looking into the International Auto/Biography Association (IABA), which meets annually for a scholarly convention that each year explores a different aspect of crafting a life story and is held in a selected fabulous global city.

On that website, you may notice an invitation to submit an abstract if you’re interested in serving on a panel at the annual convention of a different group, the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA). The topic is: Together after Oprah: Theorizing Contemporary Memoir via Self-Help Discourse. According to NeMLA, this panel “will address the narrative and socio-political relationships between contemporary memoir and self-help. Topics may include, but are not limited to: narrative analyses of popular self-help texts; the co-evolution of memoir and self-help; how the narrative of self-help embeds itself in memoir; revisiting trauma in a public forum.”

The NeMLA convention takes place March 21-24, 2013, but the deadline to submit an abstract is coming up on September 30. It would be great to have a WriteMyMemoirs member serve on the panel or just attend this event and report back to us. In any case, on the next blog let’s discuss the memoir/self-help connection. If NeMLA is creating an entire panel presentation on the topic, there must be a lot to talk about!

How Important Are Grammar Rules?

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How Important Are Grammar Rules?
If you’re writing a memoir, by definition you’re now a writer. For the first time since high school, you may be thinking about grammar. But is that really necessary?
My quick answer is that, yes, most of us could use a grammar refresher course. I found an audio course for $179 that you can take right from your computer on September 20. Click here to learn more. (We do not have any connection to that company; we neither receive a share of the profits nor have taken any courses there ourselves to recommend.)
This particular course aims to help you get rid of some bad writing habits like splitting infinitives, ending sentences with prepositions and using passive voice. Are those habits so evil? Not really. If anything, these rules are losing favor and become antiquated. But as a writer, you should be aware of them. You should recognize these “flaws” when you see them and limit them in your own writing. But I would not say you must eliminate them altogether. Take this sentence: “I want to always know where you’ll be.” While that demonstrates a split infinitive—always splits the infinitive to know—it’s probably the clearest and most efficient way of expressing that thought. However, it’s not the only way; there are lots of ways to say the same thing. Learning these rules will open your eyes to all of the options, and you can improve the impact of your writing if you avoid “breaking” these rules as much as possible.

If you’re writing a memoir, by definition you’re now a writer. For the first time since high school, you may be thinking about grammar. But is that really necessary?

My quick answer is that, yes, most of us could use a grammar refresher course. I found an audio course for $179 that you can take right from your computer on September 20. Click here to learn more. (We do not have any connection to that company; we neither receive a share of the profits nor have taken any courses there ourselves to recommend.)

This particular course aims to help you get rid of some bad writing habits like splitting infinitives, ending sentences with prepositions and using passive voice. Are those habits so evil? Not really. If anything, these rules are losing favor and become antiquated. But as a writer, you should be aware of them. You should recognize these “flaws” when you see them and limit them in your own writing. But I would not say you must eliminate them altogether. Take this sentence: “I want to always know where you’ll be.” While that demonstrates a split infinitive—always splits the infinitive to know—it’s probably the clearest and most efficient way of expressing that thought. However, it’s not the only way; there are lots of ways to say the same thing. Learning these rules will open your eyes to all of the options, and you can improve the impact of your writing if you avoid “breaking” these rules as much as possible.

Writing Your Memoir Dedication

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When you signed up for Write My Memoirs and began filling out your “interview” questionnaire to create a time line to guide your writing, you probably noticed an optional space to insert your Dedication. If you publish your memoir—and we hope you do!—as with any other book, you may want to include a dedication.
Typically, the dedication expresses gratitude to one or more loved ones for helping with the book or just for being in your life. But don’t feel that you must be typical. You can dedicate your book to your cat, your computer or yourself if you like. I’ve gathered up a few links to websites that may give you some ideas:
A dedication trivia quiz. See how much you know about authors and their book dedications! And don’t feel bad if you don’t do well. Most of the questions are difficult.
Celebrity dedications. Deeming that the dedication “is arguably the most personal part of a story,” the Daily Beast’s Kara Cutruzzula offers some of the odder dedications in celebrity memoirs. Read how celebs ranging from Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Stewart to Anne Heche and both Mr. and Mrs. Ozzy Osbourne dedicate their autobiographies.
Blogger favorites. The author of a blog called “Wanton Creations” shares some favorite book dedications.
Choose your dedication type. A blogger at WordServeWaterCooler and lists seven categories of book dedication, with examples of each: loving; curious; striving; funny; touching; sentimental; and predictable.
Enjoy, and let us know how you’re deciding what to write in your memoir dedication!

When you signed up for Write My Memoirs and began filling out your “interview” questionnaire to create a time line to guide your writing, you probably noticed an optional space to insert your Dedication. If you publish your memoir—and we hope you do!—as with any other book, you may want to include a dedication.

Typically, the dedication expresses gratitude to one or more loved ones for helping with the book or just for being in your life. But don’t feel that you must be typical. You can dedicate your book to your cat, your computer or yourself if you like. I’ve gathered up a few links to websites that may give you some ideas:

  • A dedication trivia quiz. Take this quiz to see how much you know about authors and their book dedications! And don’t feel bad if you don’t do well. Most of the questions are difficult.
  • Celebrity dedications. Deeming that the dedication “is arguably the most personal part of a story,” the Daily Beast’s Kara Cutruzzula offers some of the odder dedications in celebrity memoirs. Read how celebs ranging from Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Stewart to Anne Heche and both Mr. and Mrs. Ozzy Osbourne dedicate their autobiographies.
  • Blogger favorites. The author of a blog called “Wanton Creations” shares some favorite book dedications.
  • Choose your dedication type. A blogger at WordServeWaterCooler lists seven categories of book dedication, with examples of each: loving; curious; striving; funny; touching; sentimental; and predictable.

Enjoy, and let us know how you’re deciding what to write in your memoir dedication!

Helen Gurly Brown’s Legacy: “Writer’s Rules”

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Helen Gurly Brown’s Legacy: “Writer’s Rules”
Helen Gurly Brown’s recent death brought back memories of how Sex and the Single Girl, the book that made her famous, resonated with single women and inspired Brown to start Cosmopolitan magazine. But it’s a lesser known work that Brown authored—The Writer’s Rules: The Power Of Positive Prose: How To Create It And Get It Published—that has a few lessons for our members here at Write My Memoirs.
If you would like to spend an interesting half hour, check out the video interview of Helen Gurly Brown on the PBS program, The Open Mind, in which she discusses her “writer’s rules.” Although the book has many more, in the interview Helen shares five rules:
1. Don’t use the same word more than once in a sentence or even in a paragraph.
2. Use “it” and “that” sparingly and never to start a sentence.
3. Vary your sentence structure. Don’t become monotonous with, “I worked in a factory. I assembled parts. I enjoyed my work. I had hobbies, too.”
4. Stick to the subject. Don’t force the reader to go back and figure out what you’re talking about.
5. Avoid cliches. It’s lazy to rely on old sayings instead of creatively coming up with your own ways of expressing thoughts.
During the interview, Helen encouraged everyone who wanted to write to just get started! Keep a journal, she advised. Write love letters. Email your friends to tell them what you’ve been doing. She reminds viewers that she was 40 when her first book was published.
“Writing is not a chore,” she says in the interview. “It doesn’t take self-discipline. It’s really kind of an indulgence to write about yourself, to write your thoughts, to write your dreams.” That’s exactly what we think here at Write My Memoirs!

Helen Gurly Brown’s recent death brought back memories of how Sex and the Single Girl, the book that made her famous, resonated with single women and inspired Brown to start Cosmopolitan magazine. But it’s a lesser known work that Brown authored—The Writer’s Rules: The Power Of Positive Prose: How To Create It And Get It Published—that has a few lessons for our members here at Write My Memoirs.

If you would like to spend an interesting half hour, check out the video interview of Helen Gurly Brown on the PBS program, The Open Mind, in which she discusses her “writer’s rules.” Although the book has many more, in the interview Helen shares five rules:

  1. Don’t use the same word more than once in a sentence or even in a paragraph.
  2. Use “it” and “that” sparingly and never to start a sentence.
  3. Vary your sentence structure. Don’t become monotonous with, “I worked in a factory. I assembled parts. I enjoyed my work. I had hobbies, too.”
  4. Stick to the subject. Don’t force the reader to go back and figure out what you’re talking about.
  5. Avoid cliches. It’s lazy to rely on old sayings instead of creatively coming up with your own ways of expressing thoughts.

During the interview, Helen encourages everyone who wants to write to just get started! Keep a journal, she advises. Write love letters. Email your friends to tell them what you’ve been doing. She reminds viewers that she was 40 when her first book was published.

“Writing is not a chore,” she says in the interview. “It doesn’t take self-discipline. It’s really kind of an indulgence to write about yourself, to write your thoughts, to write your dreams.” That’s exactly what we think here at Write My Memoirs!

Join—or Start!—a Memoirs Writing Group

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Join—or Start!—a Memoirs Writing Group
Many goals are easier to achieve in a group setting, where support and encouragement are built in. People join Weight Watchers, take exercise classes and go to AA meetings in order to pursue a goal—and the same strategy can apply to memoir writing. Hook up with other memoir writers, and you’ll find the inspiration and motivation you may be having trouble developing on your own.
First, check your local senior center, the most likely organization to hold a formal memoirs writing class or informal group meeting. Even if your age doesn’t qualify you as a senior, they’re unlikely to turn you away—and this tends to be either free or very affordable. Libraries are another good bet; click here for an account of a longstanding memoirs class held at the public library in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
If you can’t find a memoirs group in your area, how hard would it be to start one? According to Cathy Fulton, it’s not difficult at all. She did it and then wrote a book about it: Facilitating a Lifewriting Group is Easy. Fulton found that weekly, two-hour meetings work best, with most of the time devoted to having the members read their stories and the rest asking questions or providing positive feedback. A discussion about a topic of choice and a 10-minute break fill up the remainder of the time.
If you join or form a memoir writing group, please email us to let us know! If you would ever want one of us to speak at your meeting, we would be happy to do that for nothing more than the reimbursement of travel costs from our Chicago location.
http://olos.ala.org/columns/?p=31
http://www.capturingmemories.com/starting.html
http://www.capturingmemories.com/resources_capmem.html

Many goals are easier to achieve in a group setting, where support and encouragement are built in. People join Weight Watchers, take exercise classes and go to AA meetings in order to pursue a goal—and the same strategy can apply to memoir writing. Hook up with other memoir writers, and you’ll find the inspiration and motivation you may be having trouble developing on your own.

First, check your local senior center, the most likely organization to hold a formal memoirs writing class or informal group meeting. Even if your age doesn’t qualify you as a senior, they’re unlikely to turn you away—and this tends to be either free or very affordable. Libraries are another good bet; click here for an account of a longstanding memoirs class held at the public library in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

If you can’t find a memoirs group in your area, how hard would it be to start one? According to Cathy Fulton, it’s not difficult at all. She did it and then wrote a book about it: Facilitating a Lifewriting Group is Easy. Fulton found that weekly, two-hour meetings work best, with most of the time devoted to having the members read their stories and the rest asking questions or providing positive feedback. A discussion about a topic of choice and a 10-minute break fill up the remainder of the time.

If you join or form a memoir writing group, please email us to let us know! If you would ever want one of us to speak at your meeting, we would be happy to do that for nothing more than the reimbursement of travel costs from our Chicago location.

Video Lists Top Ten Rules of Writing

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Video Lists Top Ten Rules of Writing
This week’s WriteMyMemoirs blog post started out as a post to discuss the writing rules noted in a YouTube video called Top Ten Writing Rules From Famous Writers, which was posted last year by Lyra Communications. Instead, I’m on a rant! These are the ten rules listed:
10. Stephen King: Write a draft; then let it rest.
9. Stephen King: Read a lot.
8. George Orwell: Never use a long word when a short one will do.
7. George Orwell: Never use the passive voice when you can use the active voice.
6. Pierre Berton: Know your audience.
5. Pierre Berton: Recycle and read the good stuff before you write.
4. Andrew Morton: Honor the miraculousness of the ordinary.
3. Stephen King: Good copy = Draft minus 10%.
2. Bob Cooper: Look at every word in a sentence, decide if all are really needed and, if not, kill them; be ruthless.
1. Al Kennedy: Writing doesn’t love you; it doesn’t care. Nevertheless, it can behave with remarkable generosity. Speak well of it, encourage others, pass it on.
I suppose those ideas are worthy of discussion—although I’m not sure they’d be my top ten—but I’m finding that I’d rather critique the video itself than the rules. I have a lot of problems with this video. First, there seems to be a “famous writer” shortage. Wouldn’t you be more interested in ten rules from ten different writers? Here, only six writers supply all ten rules. I also question how well these writers meet the title’s definition of “famous.” King and Orwell are the only famous writers, and that Cooper guy was the narrator’s professor; I don’t think that credential qualifies him. Also, speaking of Cooper, I had to reword his writing tip to make it grammatically correct! For the #1 writing tip, which is really not a tip but a plea, the narrator refers to the author as a “he” when really the person actually is a woman. The communications lesson from this video is not what the company intended but, rather, to make sure your information is accurate and compelling before you post on YouTube.

This week’s WriteMyMemoirs blog post started out as a discussion of the writing rules noted in a YouTube video called Top Ten Writing Rules From Famous Writers, which was posted last year by Lyra Communications. Instead, I’m on a rant! These are the ten rules listed:

10. Stephen King: Write a draft; then let it rest.

9. Stephen King: Read a lot.

8. George Orwell: Never use a long word when a short one will do.

7. George Orwell: Never use the passive voice when you can use the active voice.

6. Pierre Berton: Know your audience.

5. Pierre Berton: Recycle and read the good stuff before you write.

4. Andrew Morton: Honor the miraculousness of the ordinary.

3. Stephen King: Good copy = Draft minus 10%.

2. Bob Cooper: Look at every word in a sentence, decide if all are really needed and, if not, kill them;  be ruthless.

1. Al Kennedy: Writing doesn’t love you; it doesn’t care. Nevertheless, it can behave with remarkable generosity. Speak well of it, encourage others, pass it on.

I suppose those ideas are worthy of discussion—although I’m not sure they’d be my top ten—but I’m finding that I’d rather critique the video itself than the rules. I have a lot of problems with this video. First, there seems to be a “famous writer” shortage. Wouldn’t you be more interested in ten rules from ten different authors? Here, only six writers supply all ten rules. I also question how well these writers meet the title’s definition of “famous.” King and Orwell are the only famous writers, and that Cooper guy was the narrator’s professor; I don’t think that credential qualifies him. Also, speaking of Cooper, I had to reword his writing tip to make it grammatically correct! For the #1 writing tip, which is really not a tip but a plea, the narrator refers to the author as a “he” when the person actually is a woman. The communications lesson from this video is not what the company intended but, rather, to make sure your information is accurate and compelling before you post on YouTube.

Top Memoirs for Summer 2012

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Top Memoirs for Summer 2012
I love this—“When you finish a memoir there’s a sense of satisfaction no novel can give: you’ve been let in on a truth about another person, living or alive.” That observation comes from Forbes blogger Meghan Casserly, who has declared this to be the Summer of the Memoir. Combining Meghan’s Top 10 memoirs for women released this year with the five favorite 2012 celebrity autobiographies listed by The Telegraph blogger Mark Sanderson, here are 15 memoirs worth a read during the remaining summer days:
Mimi Alford, Once Upon A Secret: My Affair With President John F Kennedy and its Aftermath, recalling a youthful, not altogether voluntary, affair.
Harry Belafonte, My Song: A Memoir of Art, Race and Defiance, for more than just “Banana Boat” fans.
Monique Colver, An Uncommon Friendship, tracing the effects her husband’s mental illness had on their marriage.
Maggie Fergusson, Michael Morpurgo: War Child to War Horse, which sounds like a biography rather than an autobiography but that’s only because she sees herself as a combination of six “selfs.”
Gabrielle Hamilton, Blood, Bones & Butter, a sort of food memoir from the owner of Prune, a restaurant in NYC.
Diane Keaton, Then Again, a self-analysis with the help of her mother’s journal.
Carole King, A Natural Woman, from the “Tapestry” folk-rock queen.
Madeleine Albright, Prague Winter, focusing on the former secretary of state’s early years.
Louise Krug, Louise Amended, chronicling the struggle to recover from a brain hemorrhage.
Ann Lamott, Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son, on ushering her son into fatherhood when he was just 19.
Terry Leahy, Management in 10 Words, part memoir and part business advice from the former CEO of Tesco.
Jane Lynch, Happy Accidents, a humor-driven account of the actress’s road to stardom.
Anna Quindlen, Lots of Candles & Plenty of Cake, the latest navel gaze from the prolific NYTimes columnist.
Billy Bob Thornton, The Billy Bob Tapes, as told to Kinky Friedman.
Mitch Winehouse, Amy, My Daughter, about the late British rocker.

We love this—“When you finish a memoir there’s a sense of satisfaction no novel can give: you’ve been let in on a truth about another person.” That observation comes from Forbes blogger Meghan Casserly, who has declared this to be the Summer of the Memoir. Combining Meghan’s Top 10 memoirs for women released this year with 10 of our own WriteMyMemoir picks, here are 20 new(ish) memoirs worth a turn of the page during the remaining summer days:

  • Mimi Alford, Once Upon A Secret: My Affair With President John F Kennedy and its Aftermath, recalling a youthful, not altogether voluntary, affair.
  • Harry Belafonte, My Song: A Memoir of Art, Race and Defiance, for more than just “Banana Boat” fans.
  • Gail Caldwell, Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship, a year or two old but an uplifting tale of devotion.
  • Monique Colver, An Uncommon Friendship, tracing the effects her husband’s mental illness had on their marriage.
  • Andre Dubus III, Townie, offering insight into the two polar societies in which the author grew up.
  • William Foege, House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox, explaining the author’s role in wiping out the dreaded disease.
  • Gabrielle Hamilton, Blood, Bones & Butter, a sort of food memoir from the owner of Prune, a restaurant in NYC.
  • Diane Keaton, Then Again, self-analysis with the help of her mother’s journal.
  • Carole King, A Natural Woman, from the “Tapestry” folk-rock queen.
  • Madeleine Albright, Prague Winter, focusing on the former secretary of state’s early years.
  • Louise Krug, Louise Amended, chronicling the struggle to recover from a brain hemorrhage.
  • Ann Lamott, Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son, on ushering her son into fatherhood when he was just 19.
  • Jane Lynch, Happy Accidents, a humor-driven account of the actress’s road to stardom.
  • Garry Marshall, My Happy Days in Hollywood, the TV and film director’s account of his long career.
  • Caitlin Moran, How To Be A Woman, the British media personality’s look at her life through a modern-day feminist lens.
  • Sal Polisi and Steve Dougherty, The Sinatra Club: My Life Inside the New York Mafia, released just today, told by the mobster-turned-state’s-witness against John Gotti.
  • Anna Quindlen, Lots of Candles & Plenty of Cake, the latest navel gaze from the prolific NYTimes columnist.
  • Billy Bob Thornton, The Billy Bob Tapes, as told to Kinky Friedman.
  • Paul Wortman, Think Jung! How I Found Meaning in My Life, a self-published memoir by a guy whose letters frequently appear in the NYTimes.
  • Mitch Winehouse, Amy, My Daughter, about the late British rocker.

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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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