Publishing memoirs Archives - Write My Memoirs

Faith in Memoir

February 19, 2025December 24, 2024 by Rosanne Ullman

Front and back covers of "My Journey with God"

Religion and spirituality are big topics for self-reflection.

One of the first books I helped someone self-publish through Write My Memoirs falls into a category of a faith or spiritual memoir. Titled “My Journey With God,” it was more of an autobiography than a memoir, covering the author’s full, not terribly unusual, life. When I asked the author what motivated her to write the book, she said her way of publicly thanking God for a good life was to celebrate faith in memoir form. The book’s front and back cover appear above.

Gratitude in Memoir

This was a revelation for me. Of all the reasons to write a memoir, I had not considered that one. But I get it—it’s a type of gratitude journal. Some authors chronicle their faith journeys and perhaps lead readers along a similar path. There’s a whole Christian book publishing industry built around this concept, and those publishing companies can provide publishing opportunities for authors whose manuscripts may get rejected elsewhere.

In Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions, author Rachel Held Evans writes about straying from her Christian fundamentalist roots before recommitting to God with an approach that she found more adaptable to her life. In the recently released Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere, Samantha Guthrie of NBC’s “Today Show” uses personal essays of questioning and searching to open readers’ hearts and minds to a life exploring faith.

God as Redeemer

It makes sense that religion pops up often in memoirs, since it plays a role in many lives. Sometimes, it’s the memoir’s main topic or shares the limelight as the solution half of a problem/solution memoir. One of the earliest and best-known accounts, from 1948, is The Seven Storey Mountain: A Journey of Faith and Transformation, Exploring Vulnerability, Forgiveness, and the Quest for Spiritual Fulfillment in the Midst of a Turbulent World by Thomas Merton, who became a Trappist monk and guided readers toward spiritual reward. More recently, both Wired for God: Adventures of a Jewish Yogi by Dani Antman and Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God by Kaitlin B. Curtice discuss the intersection between religious roots and the yearning for broader spirituality.

The author’s story of redemption is a popular theme in memoirs, and here, too, religion can enter the discussion when the author talks about overcoming illness, abuse or other adversity. Lacey Buchanan’s Through the Eyes of Hope: Love More, Worry Less, and See God in the Midst of Your Adversity, published in 2017, credits God for the strength to face her life’s challenges. Her son was born with a rare medical condition.

Religious Exposés

Religion in memoir is not always presented with gratitude. One trend in memoir is exposing abuse disguised as, or excused through, religious devotion. The best-selling memoir Educated presents author Tara Westover’s experiences with her family’s variety of Mormonism in quite an unflattering light. The truth behind the facade presented by television’s religious Duggar family is revealed in Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar, Derick Dillard and Craig Borlase.

The Inner Circle Book One: My Seventeen Years in the Cult of the American Sikhs, a 2021 memoir by Peter MacDonald Blachly, similarly traces the author’s experiences inside a cult-like religious group. In Devout: A Memoir of Doubt by Anna Gazmarian, published earlier this year, the author does not condemn her evangelical Christian upbringing, but she shows how she struggled to retain her spirituality while diagnosed with bipolar disorder and dealing with a medical community that did not easily fit within her religion’s parameters.

Part of Life

When not the memoir’s primary focus, religion still can bring a valuable dimension to the story. In her 2003 memoir, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life, Queen Noor of Jordan writes about her life as an American who married Jordan’s King Hussein. She addresses family life, her views of historical events, and her humanitarian efforts, and she drops a lot of famous names of people she’s met. But for readers to fully understand her life, she also discusses her Muslim faith and the way she blended her American upbringing with her life as a member of a prominent Middle Eastern monarchy.

Happy Holidays to You, Readers!

If you’re incorporating faith into your memoir, this time of year gives you a good opportunity to get in close touch with your feelings. And whether or not you have faith in your memoir or in your life, I wish you the happiest of holiday seasons.

Interview with a Memoir Author

December 11, 2024 by Rosanne Ullman

Photo of book "Me and My Shadow: Memoirs of a Cancer Survivor"

John Walker Pattison speaks with Write My Memoirs

Always up for an interview with a memoir author, over Zoom recently I met with John Walker Pattison, author of Me and My Shadow: Memoirs of a Cancer Survivor. You can watch our exchange on my YouTube channel. John wrote about beating his own cancer when he was still a young man and then watching his daughter survive hers when she was just four years old. Motivated to help the next patient, John became an oncology nurse and participated hands-on in many cancer battles. Although British, Pattison found spirituality through visits to the Lakota Sioux in Montana. All of this felt unique enough to warrant a memoir.

Memoir Writing to Inspire Others

Non-famous people who decide to write a memoir tend to have lives that they see as out of the ordinary, often because of the unusual challenges they’ve faced. Many also hope to share lessons they learned from overcoming those challenges and, in that way, inspire readers or at least let them know they’re not alone.

John Pattison falls into this pattern of aiming to help readers with cancer feel less alone. It gives them hope, because not only did John survive against the odds, but his daughter Donna baffled the medical teams with her triumph over leukemia. At one point, the doctors doubted that Donna would survive the night. Decades later, she is still bringing joy to her dad.

An Individual Process

In my conversation with John, once we established his reasons for writing a memoir, I was interested in his process. I hear a lot about people who write in fits and starts, making great progress for a few months only to get stuck at a hurdle and languish until they realize one day that they haven’t looked at their work in more than a year.

Sometimes the roadblock has something to do with the writing itself, such as having second thoughts about revealing the author’s truth when that can be hurtful to family members, or maybe they need to research some facts before they can continue. But it also can just be a time constriction. If you get busy at work or your spouse becomes ill or a new grandchild monopolizes your focus, you may have trouble finding the time to finish your memoir.

John had none of those issues. He began writing after he retired, with time on his hands, and he finished his first draft in just six months. Then he wrote and rewrote many subsequent drafts after asking a lot of friends to read his manuscript and give him candid feedback.

Publishing a Memoir

When John felt satisfied that his draft was ready, he sent it to both agents and publishers with a specialty in memoir. Like many manuscripts from first-time authors, his did not find a home with any of them. But a hybrid publisher accepted the book and published it in 2022. Hybrid publishers charge authors a fee, and John says that his book sales have not yet matched what he spent, but he’s hopeful and patient.

Writing Changes a Life

John has mixed feelings about how writing his story affected him. While it was cathartic to have it written and see it in book form, he found it extremely painful to relive his ordeal, especially the experience of watching his daughter suffer from cancer treatment.

Still, once he wrote one book he was hooked. Since then John has published several children’s books, with one of his upcoming books accepted by a standard publisher. For a first-time memoir author to become a working writer is quite an achievement, and I wish John all the best in this post-retirement writing career.

Are You a Memoir Author Looking for a Theme?

February 7, 2024 by Rosanne Ullman

Memoir author looking for a theme depicted as a little girl with binoculars

Sometimes the hardest part of writing a memoir is identifying what it’s really about.

Most memoir authors fall into one of two groups. They either write their memoir to share a compelling episode in their life that comes with lessons for interested readers, or they want to chronicle their entire life for their children and grandchildren.

In both cases, there’s usually a theme. The theme is obvious in the case of authors rolling out a pivotal period of their life, but even with the older person writing a full autobiography, at least one theme tends to emerge—often the simple, relatable theme of starting out in humble surroundings and pushing through to forge a successful, happy life.

The Third Group of Memoir Authors

The third, probably smallest, category of memoir authors comprises people who are primarily writers by either profession or hobby. They enjoy sharing their thoughts and the process of writing. Driven to write, these authors at some point land upon the idea of writing a memoir. They believe, as we do at Write My Memoirs, that every life has interesting stories worth exploring and publishing. But they believe it just a little less than we do!

Some writers in this third group seek best-seller status or hope the book will inspire a screenplay. So while memoir authors in the second group, seeking only to document their lives, don’t really care whether a cohesive theme becomes apparent, this third group needs that theme for their work to be marketable.

Your “Ordinary” Life

If you identify with the third group, you may find your life’s theme to be an elusive target. Especially if you’re young, you may feel that there’s “no there there” yet to write about. I assure you, there is. But you don’t want to contrive some theme just to write a relevant book.

As with any memoir, the key is to be authentic. Maybe you grew up as the child of a single parent, but you had a large extended family that filled in and you never felt it was a hardship. Perhaps when you were a teenager you recovered from a terrible car accident, but you did recover fully and there wasn’t much drama around the collision—the other driver simply misjudged and crashed into you. Let’s say you’re an immigrant and moved to your current homeland ten years ago, but everything went pretty smoothly.

In all of those examples, you may think nothing unusual happened to you beyond the one pivotal event. So many people grow up in single-parent households, and yours was just one of them. Just about everyone has a car accident story; yours would not add to the literature. And you certainly wouldn’t be the first immigrant to share your tale.

Look Closer with a Little Positive Thinking

I just took you through a lot of negative thinking. So let’s flip that to the positive side.

No other person in the world is having exactly the day you’re having right now. Not your next-door neighbor, not your sibling, not your best friend. If your day is not identical to anyone else’s, how could your entire memoir duplicate another memoir?

Think of the experiences you have in common with other people as a strength of your memoir. This is what will get people to relate to your life. Then layer that with the singular you who faced those experiences. Your circumstances were different from other people’s situations even in a similar event, your personality is yours alone, and everything from your resources and support network to the sights/sounds, news headlines of the moment and your own reaction combines to shape any experience you’ve had into a unique narrative.

Now let’s say that you don’t even have that much—no tricky childhood, illness/accident nor major relocation. All you are is an everyday person with everyday experiences. I’d say look deeper. There’s something about your life that isn’t so “everyday.”

Lean Into Your Message

It’s pretty common for memoir authors in this third group to sit down and start writing with no real theme in mind. Then it happens, sometimes well after they’ve started, that they discover a thread running through the work. Maybe it’s very broad, such as the encounters of a person who makes friends easily, or the perspective on life from someone who has always had vivid nighttime dreams. Or maybe it’s just the opposite—an incident so seemingly minor that you don’t even remember it until you find yourself writing about how that one teacher or supervisor, or a comment by a stranger on the bus, set you on a life path that you never thought you’d be following.

See how that happens? Now you’re no longer a memoir author looking for a theme. You have one.

From that thread, you can drill down and identify a message. Really look inside yourself. What are you trying relate? What wisdom do you hope readers will take from your memoir? Complete this sentence: “I hope you read my memoir because you’ll learn _____.”

Have confidence that your story is different enough. The key is how you tell it.

It’s the Writing

I often use Educated by Tara Westover as an example for memoir authors who do not have a famous name. Raised in a religious cult-type environment, Tara has a compelling story to tell but not a unique one. Plenty of children grow up under the thumb of restrictive and even abusive parents, and many, like Tara, go out on their own and grow away from that limited world.

What made Westover’s book a best-seller for months and months was the writing. The summary on the book jacket may spark enough interest in the story to get someone to pick up the book, but excellent writing is what gets that book passed around and recommended over and over, generating sales. While staying on theme also is important, compelling writing will keep the reader invested even if, at times, you meander away from your theme.

So, really, the theme is not your biggest challenge. Writing isn’t that hard, but writing a tight narrative that keeps the reader turning pages takes some practice. If you’re in that third group, while you may have no obvious theme, you have what many author hopefuls lack—a love of writing. You don’t have to force yourself to sit down and bang out page after page. So keep at it. Write, edit and rewrite. Ask friends to read and give you input. Go back to your desk and write more. Your life has something to say.

Let’s Talk About Your Memoir Audiobook

December 13, 2023 by Rosanne Ullman

The questions start with why, how and who.

When you get to the point of publishing your memoir in traditional book form, you’ll probably give some thought to also developing a memoir audiobook to let readers decide whether they want to read your book themselves or listen as it’s read to them. People like options, and today many are choosing to acquire the content of a book through its audiobook.

Some nonfiction books are best digested through print. They include two types of books that are kind of polar opposites of each other—those that give you more information than you want, so you end up skimming sections or skipping entire chapters, and those you want to read so carefully that you go back to some parts to reread or take notes. Neither of those categories makes the book a great fit for an audiobook.

But your memoir falls into neither of those groups. Therefore, will your memoir make a good audiobook? Yes! Oh yes. Very much yes.

My deal with myself is that when I run, and only when I run, I get to listen to a memoir audiobook. That is largely my motivation for running. I focus mostly on celebrity memoirs, and thanks to my deal with myself I’ve not only been able to stay in relatively decent running shape, but I’ve also listened to a library’s worth of celebrity memoirs available on Audible. So I have a lot of opinions on audiobook memoirs.

Where to Start to Make an Audiobook Memoir

Of the many questions you may ask on this topic, the “how” question is probably the one holding you back from creating a memoir audiobook to accompany your print memoir. Making an audiobook is a complicated process. In addition, there’s no inexpensive way to do it. If your memoir is destined to be your only book, it doesn’t make sense for you to invest in the purchase of equipment and claw your way through the steep learning curve that creating the audiobook will entail. But hiring a whole company to do it for you will cost an even prettier penny.

If your book gets picked up by a publisher, you probably won’t have to worry too much about the audiobook, because the publisher will make the arrangements and absorb the expense. But even then you may have input into one critical decision—who supplies the narration. It doesn’t have to be you.

Scribe Media explains all the steps and choices that go into creating an audiobook for your memoir or for any book—here’s a link for you to read that yourself. Scribe Media sells services to create the audiobook for you, so keep that in mind. But I feel that the information they provide is worthwhile and gives you a realistic idea of how much each option will cost you—although to find out their prices, you’ll have to get deeper into the process.

Reasons for Not Narrating Your Own Memoir Audiobook

It was interesting to learn that for her new memoir’s narration, Britney Spears chose actor Michelle Williams to do the voice. Why would she do that? There are lots of reasons—a little about time investment but primarily about the quality of the finished product.

The average narrator will deliver three to four times the amount of usable narration. This means that if the book’s print word count is 90,000, the audiobook will take roughly seven hours when completed, and you’ll spend up to 28 hours to produce those seven usable hours. A professional actor might be able to cut that down, but either way at least the author doesn’t have to spend the time on the task.

Anyone can read, but reading aloud without error and with proper inflection is harder than you might think. I imagine it would get really frustrating to flub the same sentence multiple times or have trouble keeping up a consistent level of energy after a couple of hours of reading. It would make sense to schedule multiple sessions rather than doing the whole book in one sitting, but then each time you come back to it you have to regroup whatever team you’re using, get back into your narrator head space and start up again.

Voiceover and other types of actors are the perfect choice for delivering the audio for any book, even a memoir. A professional in any field is more experienced than a novice, hobbyist or enthusiastic amateur. The Britney Spears memoir provides a great point of reference, because even though Spears is a seasoned performer comfortable at the microphone, a singer is still not an actor. Voiceover is a specialty skill.

People who purchase an audiobook for a celebrity memoir may want to hear it read by the author because they are familiar with the author’s voice. When I listened to the memoirs of musicians Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Ricki Lee Jones and Dave Grohl, I loved hearing their voices even though they weren’t singing. With the audiobook for Minka Kelly’s Tell Me Everything, it felt as if I were spending time with Lyla from “Friday Night Lights.” But you are not a celebrity, and your voice is not recognizable by the masses. You may not even have a pleasant speaking voice. No one will mind if you put in a beautifully voiced pinch-hitter to knock your memoir out of the ballpark.

A Big Reason to Narrate Your Memoir Audiobook Yourself

The best-case scenario, of course, is if you’re both the author and a great actor—like Viola Davis, whose Finding Me: A Memoir audiobook is magnificent partly because she narrates it, bringing her award-winning acting talent to the task of reading her own words. No one could top the end result of that effort, because she delivers not only intuitive pacing and that fabulous, full-throated voice, but also the emotion that accompanies a life story that belongs to her and her alone.

For me, it’s that last part that matters. I’m partial to the author reading the work, because that’s what establishes my intimacy with the story I’m hearing. While I enjoyed the Keith Richards memoir, Life, I feel it lost something as delivered in Johnny Depp’s American accent rather than Richards’s authentic voice.

Author credit of Life lists a professional writer along with Richards. Similarly, Britney Spears reportedly had a ghostwriter. I have to wonder whether authors who don’t write the book themselves feel less connected to the work, making it easier for them to hand over the narration to a surrogate.

Less Professional Can Mean Less Canned

While voiceover artists will apply their own style to narrating your book, they still will all sound similar—maybe even a little dry. Professional is not quirky, and the quirky narrations are some of my favorites.

For example, Jennette McCurdy narrates her best-selling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, at such a quick pace that I was getting out of breath just listening to her. But that helped her memoir audiobook stand out. She just speaks fast, I guess. Or maybe she wanted to get the reading over with. Before long, I got accustomed to her pace.

I can’t imagine anyone but journalist Tina Brown narrating The Vanity Fair Diaries. Her educated, lofty, British delivery is just so perfect, not surprisingly since she wrote the words.

Then there are the comedians and comic actors. Would you want Bossypants read to you by anyone other than Tina Fey? Could some other narrator deliver any of Mindy Kaling’s autobiographical works? Harvey Fierstein is a hoot but also sentimental as he reads his memoir, I Was Better Last Night.

A real outlier here is Leslie Jones, who takes a unique approach to narrating her memoir, Leslie F*cking Jones. Instead of reading the words on the page, Jones uses her book as a guide to deliver what can only be described as a very long standup routine. Imagine that Leslie Jones begins to tell her story on stage, and after four hours leaves to use the restroom, then returns to the microphone and starts chapter two. It’s like that. She laughs throughout her own stories except for the times she cries as she shares episodes like her parents’ deaths. It’s completely charming.

You, too, may be able to make your voice sound charming or your delivery heartfelt or whatever mood defines your chapters. I suggest doing a sample few pages even if your equipment is not professional. Then play it for a few friends and also someone who doesn’t know you. Watch their reaction. Unless they cringe, practice until you’re confident that you can narrate your own memoir at least as well as a stranger can. And then just do it.

Build Buzz About Your Memoir by Publishing Articles and Comments Online

May 30, 2023 by Rosanne Ullman

Screen capture of author's online article

First-time memoir authors are likely to have no solid writing credentials, much less an agent or publisher. How do you get writing credentials? Write!

Bylines Validate You as a Writer

Even a handful of online articles with your byline can build credibility for you as a writer as you begin to market your memoir, which you can do before it’s ready for publication. Write about things you know, and research websites that invite people to submit essays. There are lots of advantages to doing this:

Typically, your byline will be accompanied by a short bio. Given even just two or three sentences, your bio can easily mention that you’re the author of an upcoming memoir. If you can be more specific with the memoir’s name and the exact date or just month of publication, even better.
If you want an agent to represent you, or if you send your memoir manuscript to a publisher, impress them by including links to articles that carry your byline. That shows them that some professional outlet thought your work was worthy of publication.
These links look good on your own book website or blog as well. They say: I’m a professionally published writer. You can trust that my memoir is a well-written book.
Many articles offer readers the ability to leave comments. Keep an eye on your article, and respond to comments. This establishes a conversation with the very people who are potential buyers of your memoir.
You may get a little money for your efforts. But while some online outlets will pay for your material, that shouldn’t be your main consideration.
Writers write, and they constantly get better and faster at writing. Now that you’re a memoir author, writing frequently on other projects will help your writing flow so that it’s easier to motivate yourself to sit down and work on your memoir.

What to Write About

Ideally, you’ll find a website to carry your article about something directly related to your memoir. From your memoir’s theme to anything your memoir covers—your work, specific issues in family life, the geography you describe—you can speak as an expert by virtue of the fact that you’re writing a memoir that includes information on that subject. You are an authentic voice in that community. Don’t diminish the right you’ve earned to be an authority and the contributions you can make with a good article.

To just get your name out there, you also can write about something completely unrelated to your memoir. This won’t necessarily reach the target market for your memoir, but it will provide the other benefits of giving you a byline, links to share and a bio paragraph.

Here’s an article I wrote about a hot pop-culture topic that was published on sixtyandme.com. You can see that it’s been generating comments, and it’s even popping up on searches. Am I using my own blog here to help promote it? You bet.

Comment on Other People’s Articles

Another way to establish a familiar name with potential readers is to comment on articles that address your memoir’s theme. Any knowledgeable, informative comment you post will add to the discussion and set you up as a valuable voice on that topic.

On your comments, you may be able to sneak in a plug for your memoir, especially if you say something vague such as: “I’m writing a memoir about my experience with this same type of childhood.” Or you may be able to direct people to your book’s website.

How This is Different from Social Media

It’s helpful to build an online presence through Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or whatever social media combination appeals to you. Articles are different, though, because they represent acceptance and a little bit of vetting by someone out there in the field. Anyone can tweet, but not everyone can submit an article and get it accepted for publication.

In addition, articles carry URLs that may stay there for years as you continue to send links to anyone interested in your writing. Social media is more about “follow me” and what’s coming next than what’s already out there. You don’t have to keep up with an article the way you do with a social account.

Good luck as you navigate all of this! Let us know if Write My Memoirs can help you with editing or self-publishing.

A Memoir Boosts Your Personal Brand—Even When You’re Already Famous

April 11, 2023 by Rosanne Ullman

So many of the famous people who have published well-written memoirs in the past five or ten years have gotten a boost not only in their bank accounts but in their “personal brand.” They become respected in a new way. One great example is actor Jennette McCurdy, who was only marginally well-known before her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, blew up the best-seller charts.

Memoirs Create Closeness

It’s not just that these celebrities are adding an impressive credential—book author—to their résumés. When a celebrity’s book is compelling and sells well, it’s typically because the content is raw, honest, and revealing. The writing tends to be courageous, showing the author’s vulnerability and sharing failures and other low points. This all helps the person’s star rise, because readers/fans feel closer to them.

You wouldn’t think someone as globally famous as Bruce Springsteen would gain much from writing a memoir, but his critically acclaimed book opened him up in a way that even his most personal lyrics never did. An artist down a rung or two on the fame ladder like Dave Grohl, whose memoir has also received high praise, expands people’s perceptions of him.

The latest memoir author to fall into that mid-level of celebrity is Molly Shannon, whose very recent memoir, Hello Molly!, tells of Shannon’s lifelong effects of trauma from losing her mother, sister and cousin in a car accident when she was a little girl. She also chronicles her rise to fame and dishes about lots of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) cast members, but it’s that early episode that draws you in and makes you feel that you really know her. Book sales may very well have helped her to snag a hosting spot on this past weekend’s SNL, which in turn got her a visit to “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.” One of the things Fallon pointed out was that Shannon’s book had just been made available in paperback.

You’ll Shine Up Your Personal Brand

Remember all of this as you write your own memoir. You’ll be a published author, so that’s an accomplishment in itself. But you’ll also establish a type of intimacy with every reader in a way that you cannot otherwise achieve—even in person. There’s just something about a candid, forthcoming memoir that goes deep into the heart. Write your memoir, and your personal brand will shine.

5 Things Memoir Authors Can Be Thankful For on Thanksgiving

November 22, 2022 by Rosanne Ullman

Two people wearing t-shirts saying "thankful"

You memoir authors work so hard to reach your goal of writing and publishing your life story. Write My Memoirs has identified five things you can be thankful for this Thanksgiving, whether you’re in the U.S. or elsewhere:

1. Your life. It’s pretty obvious, but your memoir is about a life, your life, and life is a gift. Whether you’re writing about a happy life or one full of trauma and grief, you have a life worth writing about.

2. Modern technology. From word processing software to photo editing to digital printing, today’s tech makes memoir creation easier, faster and more accurate than ever. Many of you are old enough to remember Wite-Out, erase tape and other inadequate methods of correcting errors. Cropping photos was done with red wax pencils. It wasn’t that long ago that authors would have to mail paper manuscripts to the printer. Without modern tech tools, you would have to hire professionals to complete every step instead of just sending a completed pdf to a self-publishing company like Write My Memoirs.

3. Supportive people. Most likely, at least one friend or family member is supporting your memoir goals. This support can keep you accountable, motivated and grateful.

4. Freedom to write. If you’re writing your memoir for publication, you have the freedom wherever you’re living to do that. We can’t take that freedom for granted. History shows that it’s fragile. Keep writing! Books contribute to freedom because they give the next generation information and perspective on what your life, living in freedom, has been like.

5. Health. Not all memoir authors would describe themselves as healthy. Perhaps you’re fighting an illness or living with a chronic condition. But you’re healthy enough to think through your life and, one way or another, get your story down.

At Write My Memoirs we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and all the turkey and trimmings you want. We’re thankful for you!

10 Ways Writing Your Memoir Boosts Your Self-Esteem

October 19, 2022October 11, 2022 by Rosanne Ullman

Like any goal, completing your memoir will bring you a sense of accomplishment. That’s not the only way it will make you feel good, but let’s start there in counting out the 10 benefits writing your memoir has in store for you.

The new adjectives you can use to refer to yourself will be:

Accomplished. Writing a memoir is an achievement! There’s nothing like working on a goal until you finish it to make you feel that you had time well spent. Go ahead and cross it off your list!
Industrious. Writing a memoir is a long process, and it’s hard work. It’s an extra task, apart from your day job, family responsibilities and ordinary routine. You got down to work and did it.
Persistent, also tenacious and persevering. So many people start Chapter 1 but never get to Chapter Last. You stuck with it.
Relieved. Even if you enjoyed the process, on some level you’re relieved that it’s over. And if writing your memoir was part of healing from trauma, then you’re very relieved that, finally, you can truly move on.
Magnanimous. Writing your life story for others to read and learn from is a generous act of giving back to your family, the community and, well, the universe.
Brilliant. You’re brilliant not in the meaning of super-intelligent, but in the brilliance of shining like a star. When you finish your memoir, you are a shining star, lighting the way for others and beaming with the glow of, again, accomplishment.
Talented, also artistic. Not everyone can sit down and write at all. You have the skill to get what’s in your head onto the screen/paper, and you’re not just reporting facts. A memoir is a work of art, showcasing your own writing flair.
Grateful. You probably weren’t sure you could do this, and maybe you worried whether you’d live long enough to see your book. Gratitude for the opportunity to write and publish is a common outcome.
Brave, also courageous, a synonym, but this point deserves two words even if they mean the same thing. It’s not easy to put yourself out there, display your triumphs and errors, your assets and weaknesses. Good for you.
Trendy. From celebrities and politicians right down to people with what can be considered ordinary lives (no life is ordinary, really), everyone is writing a memoir! You’re on trend now that you’ve written yours.

Would you like to claim all of those ten attributes? Plus an 11th – proud of yourself? Start writing—or continue writing—your memoir, and when you finish you will feel all of that.

More Services Coming to Write My Memoirs Authors

August 15, 2022 by Rosanne Ullman

We have some exciting announcements! You have always been able to write your memoir in your free account here on Write My Memoirs. That courtesy will remain! Keep your writing in your account, and access it from anywhere, anytime.

For many years we’ve also offered writing services to Write My Memoirs authors as well as to the general public. We’ll edit your work or ghostwrite your book for you, and you retain all rights, of course. When your manuscript is ready, we provide self-publishing services that include layout and simple cover design.

All of that will continue. So what’s new?

We want to make your dream of writing a memoir come true. Sometimes getting started is the hardest part, and that’s where we’ll soon be adding services. How should you begin Chapter One? Which stories should you include? Should you follow a chronological structure or jump around throughout your life?

These questions can trip you up, but we’re very familiar with the struggles memoir authors face and how to get over the hurdles. Some questions have easy answers, while others will take a conversation to help you make decisions. There is no best way to write a memoir, but there may be a best way for you to write yours. We’ll help you identify it.

We’ll supply motivation, too, not only by giving you specific assignments and checking in with you, but also by doing some editing and organizing as you proceed. Seeing your book come to life little by little motivates you to continue even when other demands are competing for your time.

Through our new packages, you’ll be able to select the “soup to nuts” option, just the “front end” of coaching or, as now, only the editing or the self-publishing. If you’re just sitting down now to write your memoir, we can have you holding your book in your hand one year from now.

If you want to get a head start, fill out our Contact Us form and let us know your vision for your book. We can’t wait to work with you, and we think that’s very exciting!

Writing a Memoir about a Traumatic Experience

July 17, 2022 by Rosanne Ullman

Bulletin board posted with types of trauma

Documenting trauma is a common motivation for writing a memoir. But to write this type of memoir, authors have to go through the event emotionally all over again. That’s a big hurdle. At Write My Memoirs, we want to help you conquer that challenge.

Roxane Gay, whose own memoir documents trauma, advises writers to be raw, honest and pretty explicit. She believes your depiction of your horrifying experience should fall short of traumatizing your reader but still provide enough graphic detail so that the reader may have to put down your book for an hour or even a day before finishing that part.

Be Gentle With Yourself When Writing About Trauma

Going over what happened to you is something you can’t force. Chances are that by the time you’re considering writing this memoir, months or years have already passed since the traumatic event occurred. You didn’t just sit down at your computer the next day. But maybe the time still isn’t right.

Ask yourself whether you’re ready to more or less relive the event. If you feel that you cannot handle it, there’s no harm in waiting longer, letting more time pass between the you that faced trauma and the you that is writing the book. It’s difficult to write about it.

Making Your Story Relatable

Clink and other experts make the distinction between a memoir you write as therapy and a memoir you write to sell. The former is for you, the latter for everyone else. If your goal is to get closure or work out your feelings of trauma, then include the content you need for your own wellbeing. If your goal is to help others, that’s a whole different book. In that case, you’re writing for them, not for you, and you should be more selective in your content as well as less indulgent in your writing voice. Of course, you can do both. Write the book for yourself, and use that as the foundation for crafting a different, more marketable memoir.

The way to write for others is to make your personal story relatable to a lot of people. Think about what they will want to take from your experience. That doesn’t mean you should make it a how-to guide on recovering from trauma. Tell the story as a dramatic, compelling, page-turning saga. Then it can be both a valuable book for your readers and a statement of your own triumph over, or acceptance of, your traumatic ordeal.