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memoir writing

Bin Laden’s Gone, But 9/11 Memoirs Live On

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Bin Laden’s Gone But 9/11 Memoirs Live On
You may think of history as a collection of hard facts, but much of our view of historical events is shaped by the memories of the people who lived them. As word of Bin Laden’s death spread, I thought about all of the people who might have written personal accounts of 9/11—everyone from decision makers like President George W. Bush to people who lost family members that day, first responders who survived and ordinary folks stunned by what had taken place. If you type “9/11 memoirs??? into the Google search engine, you’ll come up with about 80 pages of relevant links. Perhaps you’re including that day in your own memoirs.
When we write down how something momentous affected us, our collective memories create a narrative that future generations can access to get a feeling for the broad impact. A page at memoryarchive.org offers 200 snippets of memory inspired by 9/11. Reading one after another, you get a good idea of how people learned about what was going on that day and how they reacted.
No matter what you decide to include in your memoirs, your writing becomes part of the historical record. That’s another good reason to write and perhaps publish your life story, because then your voice contributes to the ever-changing description of the landscape of the time. Your life is unique, but your surroundings are common to many people’s stories. It’s how you manage them that makes you an interesting person.

You may think of history as a collection of hard facts, but much of our view of historical events is shaped by the memories of the people who lived them. As word of Bin Laden’s death spread, I thought about all of the people who might have written personal accounts of 9/11—everyone from decision makers like President George W. Bush to people who lost family members that day, first responders who survived and ordinary folks stunned by what had taken place. If you type “9/11 memoirs??? into the Google search engine, you’ll come up with about 80 pages of relevant links. Perhaps you’re including that day in your own memoirs.

When we write down how something momentous affected us, our collective memories create a narrative that future generations can access to get a feeling for the broad impact. A page at memoryarchive.org offers 200 snippets of memory inspired by 9/11. Reading one after another, you get a good idea of how people learned about what was going on that day and how they reacted.

No matter what you decide to include in your memoirs, your writing becomes part of the historical record. That’s another good reason to write and perhaps publish your life story, because then your voice contributes to the ever-changing description of the landscape of the time. Your life is unique, but your surroundings are common to many people’s stories. It’s how you manage them that makes you an interesting person.

Six-Word Memoirs: A Fun Fad

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Six-Word Memoirs: A Fun Fad
If you like “putting things in a nutshell,??? you’ll enjoy a trend now into its fifth year: the six-word memoir. Can you boil your life down to six words?
You can add your mini-mini-tome to the growing list at the website of the publication that launched this idea, Smith Magazine, or go to AARP Magazine, which also collects people’s six-word memoirs. Or leave it here in a comment below, and we’ll start our own collection! The concept was inspired by the master of brief writing, Ernest Hemingway who, according to legend, answered a challenged to craft a short story of only six words by writing, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.??? Several books have come out of this project, starting with Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure.
Want some examples? From the Smith Magazine site: “Pregnancy: nine months of unsolicited advice.??? “Patience. Memory storage. Both maxed out.??? “We’ve considered murder but never divorce.??? “Searched for happiness, but found contentment.??? “Memoirs editable. Wish life was, too.??? Now try it yourself, WriteMyMemoirs members, right here! Then when you return to your real memoir, you’ll appreciate the freedom of rambling on as long as you choose!

If you like “putting things in a nutshell,??? you’ll enjoy a trend now into its fifth year: the six-word memoir. Can you boil your life story down to six words?

You can add your mini-mini-tome to the growing list at the website of the publication that launched this idea, Smith Magazine, or go to AARP Magazine, which also collects people’s six-word memoirs. Or leave it here in a comment below, and we’ll start our own collection! The concept was inspired by the master of brief writing, Ernest Hemingway who, according to legend, answered a challenged to craft a short story of only six words by writing, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.??? Several books have come out of this project, starting with Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure.

Want some examples? From the Smith Magazine site: “Pregnancy: nine months of unsolicited advice.??? “Patience. Memory storage. Both maxed out.??? “We’ve considered murder but never divorce.??? “Searched for happiness, but found contentment.??? “Memoirs editable. Wish life was, too.??? Now try it yourself, WriteMyMemoirs members, right here! Then when you return to your real memoir, you’ll appreciate the freedom of rambling on as long as you choose!

Looking for Genealogy Help With Your Memoirs?

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Looking for Genealogy Help With Your Memoirs?
If you’ve decided to write your memoirs, you might wonder, “Where do I begin???? A really good place to start is with research. If you can’t name an ancestor farther back than Grandma, perhaps you would like to trace your genealogy through a few more generations.
I had no idea there were nearly 300,000 genealogy websites, but apparently there are and they’re all listed on Cyndi’s List. If it sounds like a daunting amount of work to go through so many sites, Cyndi’s List jump-starts your search by breaking the sites down to 180+ categories. Interested in passports? You’ll have your choice of 52 internet sites. Want to track down a member of the military? Check out any of 368 sites. Are your ancestors Australian? More than 1,200 sites can point you in the right direction.
The genealogist who owns the 15-year-old site, Cyndi Howell, also has written three books about going online to explore your ancestry. In her blogs, she emphasizes that the internet is a delivery system for traditional sources, not a new source in itself. It’s time-consuming, and you will be wise to keep a file on your computer with a few notes about the sites you’ve visited. Still, it brings all the libraries into your home and lets you sift through information without lifting a book. You never know what you’ll discover about your own family that will add richness to your memoirs!

If you’ve decided to write your memoirs, you might wonder, “Where do I begin???? A really good place to start is with research. If you can’t name an ancestor farther back than Grandma, perhaps you would like to trace your genealogy through a few more generations.

I had no idea there were nearly 300,000 genealogy websites, but apparently there are and they’re all listed on Cyndi’s List. If it sounds like a daunting task to go through so many sites, Cyndi’s List jump-starts your search by breaking the sites down to 180+ categories. Interested in passports? You’ll have your choice of 52 internet sites. Want to track down a member of the military? Check out any of 368 sites. Are your ancestors Australian? More than 1,200 sites can point you in the right direction.

The genealogist who owns the 15-year-old site, Cyndi Howell, also has written three books about going online to explore your ancestry. In her blogs, she emphasizes that the internet is a delivery system for traditional sources, not a new source in itself. It’s time-consuming, and you will be wise to keep a file on your computer with a few notes about the sites you’ve visited. Still, it brings all the libraries into your home and lets you sift through information without lifting a book. You never know what you’ll discover about your own family that will add richness to your memoirs!

Writing in Another Person’s Voice

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Writing in Another Person’s Voice
It’s easy to become part of interesting discussions on social networking sites and, of course, we always invite you to ask questions or contribute thoughts on our WriteMyMemoirs page on Facebook. Over on LinkedIn recently, on a page called “Women’s Memoirs,??? a member asked for advice about writing a memoir for her deceased brother. She wanted to write it in his voice and wondered how to go about doing that.
I understand the desire to do this for someone you’ve lost, but ultimately I don’t believe it’s fair unless it was discussed at length before the person’s death. It’s one thing to be the ghostwriter—please forgive the apt term in this case—when all you’re doing is putting down on paper what the person had intended to write himself if he hadn’t run out of time or been too weak or whatever kept him from completing his memoir. But it’s another thing to take it upon yourself to write in his voice just because you think he might have liked that or for your own satisfaction.
The special nature of a memoir is that it’s so much a piece of us. We each have a voice. When that voice is silenced, I don’t believe anyone else has a right to assume it. If you want to do that, then you should call your book “fiction??? or “fictionalized history.??? Otherwise, my advice to that man’s sister is to focus her own memoir on her memories of her brother. That’s fair.

It’s easy to become part of interesting discussions on social networking sites and, of course, we always invite you to ask questions or contribute thoughts on our WriteMyMemoirs page on Facebook. Over on LinkedIn recently, on a page called “Women’s Memoirs,??? a member asked for advice about writing a memoir for her deceased brother. She wanted to write it in his voice and wondered how to go about doing that.

I understand the desire to do this for someone you’ve lost, but ultimately I don’t believe it’s fair unless it was discussed at length before the person’s death. It’s one thing to be the ghostwriter—please forgive the apt term in this case—when all you’re doing is putting down on paper what the person had intended to write himself if he hadn’t run out of time or been too weak or whatever kept him from completing his memoir. But it’s another thing to take it upon yourself to write in his voice just because you think he might have liked that or for your own satisfaction.

The special nature of a memoir is that it’s so much a piece of us. We each have a voice. When that voice is silenced, I don’t believe anyone else has a right to assume it. If you want to do that, then you should call your book “fiction??? or “fictionalized history.??? Otherwise, my advice to that man’s sister is to focus her own memoir on her memories of her brother. That’s fair.

Oates Memoir Examines a Familiar Emotion: Grief

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Oates Memoir Examines a Familiar Emotion: Grief
I’ve enjoyed some fiction by prolific author Joyce Carol Oates, so I was interested to learn that she’s written a memoir that does not follow the traditional mold of telling her life story but, rather, covers primarily the mourning period that somewhat paralyzed her creativity after her husband’s death. The recently published book, A Widow’s Story: A Memoir, was featured this past Sunday in the New York Times Book Review.
As a memoir writer yourself, you may fear that you have nothing new to say about life on earth, that every observation already has found its way into print or onto the Internet. Oates is not the first woman in her late 60s to lose a husband to pneumonia at age 77. This is not a tragic tale; it’s an ordinary one. Yet every story is different. To be sure, Oates brings her considerable gifts as a writer to keep the reader engaged in her narrative, but the real hook is simply the uniqueness of every human experience, every personal relationship, every life.
You don’t have to blaze new ground with your memoir. While many people may share your history in one aspect or another, no one has built the same combination of experiences. You are sole owner of the episodes in your life, and your recollections further reveal your unique reactions. Someone else would have made other choices, acted in different ways. Your memoir will be something that no one else could have authored—only you.

blog81I’ve enjoyed some fiction by prolific author Joyce Carol Oates, so I was interested to learn that she’s written a memoir that does not follow the traditional mold of telling her life story but, rather, covers primarily the mourning period that somewhat paralyzed her creativity after her husband’s death. The recently published book, A Widow’s Story: A Memoir, was featured this past Sunday in the New York Times Book Review.

As a memoir writer yourself, you may fear that you have nothing new to say about life on earth, that every observation already has found its way into print or onto the Internet. Oates is not the first woman in her late 60s to lose a husband to pneumonia at age 77. This is not a tragic tale; it’s an ordinary one. Yet every story is different. To be sure, Oates brings her considerable gifts as a writer to keep the reader engaged in her narrative, but the real hook is simply the uniqueness of every human experience, every personal relationship, every life.

You don’t have to blaze new ground with your memoir. While many people may share your history in one aspect or another, no one has built the same combination of experiences. You are sole owner of the episodes in your life, and your recollections further reveal your unique reactions. Someone else would have made other choices, acted in different ways. Your memoir will be something that no one else could have authored—only you.

Controversial “Tiger Mother??? Demonstrates the Potential Impact of a Memoir

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Controversial “Tiger Mother??? Demonstrates the Potential Impact of a Memoir
By now you would think that every book on parenting has been published and no one could come up with anything new. Then Yale professor Amy Chua pens her memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and suddenly everyone’s talking about how to raise kids as if it were a brand new topic.
Currently perched at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller List, Tiger Mother examines, but largely champions, the traditional Chinese method of raising children. High expectations, top grades, gold medals in musical competitions—it’s all in there as you would expect. Chua is happy that she was brought up that way and tried to repeat the process with her two second-generation daughters, insisting that it generates self-esteem, independence and success.
This is Chua’s third book, so she already was an accomplished author. She reportedly received a six-figure advance and had a publishing company behind her to promote the book. Still, Chua says she’s surprised her memoir has touched off this firestorm of controversy. In the first week after The Wall Street Journal published an excerpt, more than 5,000 comments followed it. This demonstrates that when you have a compelling story to tell, you never know—it might just become a literary phenomenon.

Blog 80By now you would think that every book on parenting has been published and no one could come up with anything new. Then Yale professor Amy Chua pens her memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and suddenly everyone’s talking about how to raise kids as if it were a brand new topic.

Currently perched at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller List, Tiger Mother examines, and largely champions, the traditional Chinese method of raising children. High expectations, top grades, gold medals in musical competitions—it’s all in there as you would expect. Chua is grateful that she was brought up that way and tried to repeat the process with her two second-generation daughters, insisting that it generates self-esteem, independence and success.

This is Chua’s third book, so she already was an accomplished author. She reportedly received a six-figure advance and had a publishing company behind her to promote the book. Still, Chua says she’s surprised her memoir has touched off this firestorm of controversy. In the first week after The Wall Street Journal published an excerpt, more than 5,000 comments followed it. This demonstrates that when you have a compelling story to tell, you never know—it might just become a literary phenomenon.

Enter Your Memoir or Other Work in a Writing Contest!

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We had an email from a member who wanted to enter a chapter from her memoir in a short story contest and asked us whether we knew of any such contests. A little research turned up quite a few of these competitions, both with entry fees and without, so I thought I’d post them here on the blog in case others of you would like to see whether your work can earn you money and accolades. Check right away, because some of these deadlines are approaching.

  1. This page lists a bunch of contests: http://www.writers-editors.com/Writers/Contests/contests.htm
  2. Here’s another long list, and then you’ll have to google the name of each contest: http://www.suite101.com/content/first-quarter-2011-short-story-contests-and- awards-for-writers-a326426
  3. The Gemini Magazine contest: http://www.gemini-magazine.com/contest.html
  4. The Southeast Review contest:  http://southeastreview.org/contests.html
  5. Some international competitions: http://www.be-a-better-writer.com/creative-writing-contests.html

That should keep everyone busy! You can enter just a chapter from your memoirs or, of course, an entirely separate short story. Please let us know either here or on the WriteMyMemoirs Facebook page if you win something—or even if you enter! We would love to announce your success. And if you would like to publish your story into a small book to hand out, please keep in mind our very affordable publishing services.

Follow WriteMyMemoirs on Twitter!

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Follow WriteMyMemoirs on Twitter!
Yes, it’s true. A little birdie told us that WriteMyMemoirs has joined the twittersphere and will be tweeting to anyone who’s willing to listen to our 140 characters of wisdom. Like a lot of you, we’re still learning about all of this social media, so please have patience with us!
One goal, of course, is to get our name out there a little more. We’ll be linking to our own website pages and crowing about our services. However, we also will use Twitter to notify our “followers??? about any late-breaking news, contests we may run or observations about pertinent current events. To get into this game, just go to twitter.com, join with your own chosen tweet-worthy name, search for WriteMyMemoirs and press the “follow??? button. We’re also on Facebook, where you can do the same thing—except that you’ll be “friending??? instead of “following.???
For those of you who are internet-conversant enough to be writing your life story online here with us but who prefer not to venture further than that into the technological wilderness, we understand! When we have something significant to tell you, don’t worry—we’ll email our members with the information, blog about it and, if it’s of high importance, add the information to our home page. Please feel free to comment on the blog posts here, but with Facebook and Twitter the conversation can be truly and immediately interactive. You talk to us, and you can be sure that we’ll be tweeting back at

Yes, it’s true. A little birdie told us that WriteMyMemoirs has joined the twittersphere and will be tweeting to anyone who’s willing to listen to our 140 characters of wisdom. Like a lot of you, we’re still learning about all of this social media, so please have patience with us.

One goal, of course, is to get our name out there a little more. We’ll be linking to our own website pages and crowing about our services. However, we also will use Twitter to notify our “followers??? about any late-breaking news, contests we may run or observations about pertinent current events. To get into this game, just go to twitter.com, join with your own chosen tweet-worthy name, search for WriteMyMemoirs and press the “follow??? button. We’re also on Facebook, where you can do the same thing—except that you’ll be “friending??? instead of “following.???

For those of you who are internet-conversant enough to be writing your life story online here with us but who prefer not to venture farther than that into the technological wilderness, we understand! When we have something significant to tell you, don’t worry—we’ll email our members with the information, blog about it and, if it’s of high importance, add the information to our home page. Please feel free to comment on the blog posts here, but with Facebook and Twitter the conversation can be truly and immediately interactive. You talk to us, and you can be sure that we’ll be tweeting back at ya!

Cautionary Tale Reminds Everyone to “Sign Up Today!??? for WriteMyMemoirs

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Here at WriteMyMemoirs (WMM), we received a frustrating email recently from someone who could not find any record of memoirs that she had written. Two weeks earlier she had replaced her computer with a newer model. Her work had been saved to that computer’s hard drive, and now she had no access to it. She believed that she also had kept her story on some website or other. Her hope was that the website she’d joined was WMM, although trying to sign in was proving futile.

Our internal investigation showed that she never did sign up with us or write her story here. Perhaps her memoirs are floating out in cyberspace somewhere; who knows? We named our site Write My Memoirs for a reason: it’s easy to remember. Put even just “write memoirs??? into the Google search engine, and our site comes up on the first page. Clearly, the way this emailer found us now to write to us was that the site is so readily traceable and available.

Membership on WMM is free, writing your life story here is free and saving it to your account to keep it safe is also free. We know how much time, energy and commitment it takes to write every page of a memoir, and sometimes you cannot recreate what you have researched and written. We feel so bad for our emailer and urge you to please sign up today so that you do not repeat her mistake and lose your memoirs!

Choose the Right Title for Your Memoir

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Is there any such thing really as a “right title??? for your memoir? Maybe not, but before you go calling it My Life—or just Life, which is what Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards called his—at least give some thought to what differentiates your life story from every other one out there.

Maybe it’s your career. Let’s say you’re an accountant or bookkeeper. You could title your book It All Adds Up. Or, instead, you could refer to a cherished hobby. If you love working with your hands, for example, you could name your book Crafting a Life. Perhaps you identify most with being a parent. Then you might choose a title like A Dad’s Tale. If you prefer to focus on how your upbringing shaped your life, you could try something specific like Shy Daughter in a Show Biz Family.

Many of us have a favorite saying that we repeat often and can be reworked to serve as a handy title for an autobiography. For example, if you mention in your book that you’re constantly saying, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,??? you could call your book Still in the Kitchen as a way to show that you’re always willing to stand up for your beliefs. And then there are puns. Oh, the puns! Let’s save those for next time.

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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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