Every ordinary life story is extraordinary!

Every ordinary life story is extraordinary!

How Dick Cheney’s Memoirs Are Like Yours

Like every memoir writer, former VP Dick Cheney doesn’t apologize and tries to make his book compelling.
How Dick Cheney’s Memoirs Are Like Yours
I’ve been reading advance reviews of Dick Cheney’s memoirs, due for release today, and in some ways your memoirs are probably no different from those of the former U.S. vice president. Sure, you’re unlikely to be interviewed on TV to talk about your book, but let’s examine the similarities.
The early reviewers report that Cheney devotes a lot more pages to justifying his actions than to apologizing for them. And who wouldn’t? I doubt that you are writing your memoirs as a way to express a bunch of mea culpas. Typically, memoir authors take this opportunity to explain actions or provide previously unpublicized details and background, but in a way that encourages the reader to agree with the wisdom of those actions or decisions. This may involve criticizing others who disagreed with you at the time, but throwing someone under the bus is a small price to pay for getting your side of the story out there or patting yourself on the back a little.
If you’re writing a compelling book, Cheney’s memoir is like your memoirs in another way, too: it follows a series of episodes. Conflict, challenges, forks in the road that could lead in different directions—all of that keeps the reader interested. You’d be wise to consider that as you write. You don’t have to “make heads explode,??? as Cheney predicts his book will do, but a few sparks couldn’t hurt.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/178083-cheney-pushes-new-memoir

I’ve been reading advance reviews of Dick Cheney’s memoirs, due for release today, and in some ways your memoirs are probably no different from those of the former U.S. vice president. Sure, you’re unlikely to be interviewed on TV to talk about your book, but let’s examine the similarities.

The early reviewers report that Cheney devotes a lot more pages to justifying his actions than to apologizing for them. And who wouldn’t? I doubt that you are writing your memoirs as a way to express a bunch of mea culpas. Typically, memoir authors take this opportunity to explain actions or provide previously unpublicized details and background, but in a way that encourages the reader to agree with the wisdom of those actions or decisions. This may involve criticizing others who disagreed with you at the time, but throwing someone under the bus is a small price to pay for getting your side of the story out there or patting yourself on the back a little.

If you’re writing a compelling book, Cheney’s memoir is like your memoirs in another way, too: it follows a series of episodes. Conflict, challenges, forks in the road that could lead in different directions—all of that keeps the reader interested. You’d be wise to consider that as you write. You don’t have to “make heads explode,??? as Cheney predicts his book will do, but a few sparks couldn’t hurt.

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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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