Writing A Memoir Is Harder Than You Think

by Marylee MacDonald in For Memoir Writers

Writing a memoir is harder than you think. Even people who have lived interesting lives find it difficult to turn those lives into readable, compelling stories. That’s why many celebrities hire ghost writers or journalists to co-author their memoirs. This guest post is written by Ronald E. Yates, former Dean of the School of Journalism […]

Writing the Memoir (Part 1) | by Ronald E. Yates

by Ronald E. Yates in For Memoir Writers

I’m welcoming back Ronald E. Yates, author of Finding Billy Battles and The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles, and The Lost Years of Billy Battles. November 1, 2016 by Ronald E. Yates This week I am focusing on memoirs–or more accurately, what they are and how to write them. I have written about this in […]

Mindmap Your Memoir | Part II

by Marylee MacDonald in Apps & Software, For Memoir Writers

If you create a mindmap to brainstorm scenes and episodes that might go into your memoir, you’ll move yourself one step closer to your goal. While mindmaps can help fiction authors, having a roadmap for your journey down Memory Lane can bring focus to what might otherwise turn into a rambling tale.   A mindmap […]

Mindmapping Your Memoir | Part 1

by Marylee MacDonald in Apps & Software, For Memoir Writers

Mindmapping software can help writers untangle the knots in a memoir’s storyline. A mindmap is a brainstorming tool that can help you in the following scenarios: before writing your first draft, or when revising. When you’re writing your first draft, you can use mindmaps to play around with focus. Even on your first pass through […]

Writing Your Memoir | A Step-by-Step Guide

by Marylee MacDonald in For Beginning Writers, For Memoir Writers

Writing a memoir will force you to dig deep in the archives of your soul. When you recall the past and try to figure out just what it is that’s compelling you write a memoir, you’ll find yourself looking through old photos, postcards, letters, and newspaper clippings. Writing a memoir can be as overwhelming as […]

Writing A Memoir | 5 Common Misconceptions

by Marylee MacDonald in For Beginning Writers, For Memoir Writers

So you’ve always dreamed of writing a memoir. Where should you start, and how can you get a handle on the big and small turning points, traumas, and people that constitute your life? Several subscribers to this blog are writing memoirs, and I want to help them get started (or finished). Are You Confused? Writing […]

Photographs and Letters: Mining the Past

by Marylee MacDonald in For Beginning Writers, For Readers

Who’s going to want all those photographs of our grandparents and great-grandparents? What will our children, raised in the Instagram age, make of the stiff postures and posed portraits, the sepia tones and formal attire? And yet we know these images are important. We know in our hearts that the lives buried in these studio […]