Every ordinary life story is extraordinary!

Every ordinary life story is extraordinary!

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Busting Writers Block

What Makes a Memory?
CApturing Memories

 

What makes a memory?

People often come to Write My Memoirs thinking they need to write about the most meaningful, most dramatic or most life-changing moments in their life’s story, such as a major illness, a loss, immigration to a new country or a professional high point. But there are hundreds of moments in every life worth capturing in a memoir or autobiography. They are the ordinary activities of life, made fascinating by the passage of time and the way the world changes around us.

How you got to school or what you paid for coffee and a doughnut as a young person might not have seemed worth noting at the time, but today your grandchildren have a very different story to tell! The contrast between how you grew up and their lives today is really quite interesting. And imagine how those contrasts will increase in another generation! These are the sorts of details that bring a memoir to life and make it relevant to younger generations of readers. So don’t feel as if every chapter in your life’s story needs to be monumental – it just needs to be full of little stories and reminiscences that speak about you and the times you lived in.

Writers often need a “spark” to begin their journey down memory lane. Sometimes answering a simple question can get you thinking about a certain period in your life, and suddenly lots of memories you hadn’t thought of in ages are right at your fingertips. Now is the time to write them down. There’s no need to write a fully formed “chapter” right now – just jot down a few notes to store the memory for now. Fleshing out the chapter can come later.

Here are some questions to get your writing juices flowing. Read through the list, and if a question ignites a memory, take a note. Then keep reading and answering. We know you will end up with a list of many, many stories to tell. You’ll be writing a personal memoir before you know it!

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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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