Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 21

November 19: Memoir Writers Need to be Memoir Readers

To write better, memoir writers need to be memoir readers.  Do you read other memoirs? Do you think it helps to study how they wrote their memoir in order for you to improve your own writing? To be a better writer, you must immerse yourself in the memoir genre, particularly in the area you are writing.

Read memoirs as part of your writing

As you read, practice reading as a writer. (Remember: memoir writers need to be memoir readers.) How does the author lead into the story? How is the char...

November 18: Time to Include Feelings in Your Memoir

When you include feelings in your memoir, your reader’s interest is heightened and they are drawn into the story.

Make a list of different words to describe the feelings that you will want to highlight in your memoir.  Put these words in your memory list both to draw from as you write and to keep you focused.

Express feelings using the senses

In the last exercises, I have asked you to explore the sense details of your life. This is not to slight feelings that have characterized various per...

November 17: Gather Details For a Better Memoir

It’s important to gather details for a better memoir and use them effectively to draw your readers in. The use of vivid sensory details helps your reader not only “see” but engage all of their senses to be fully immersed in the story.

Gather details for a better memoir and use them effectively

While most of us have many vivid memories of other times in our lives, it remains true that we have forgotten many sense details of our experience. These sense details are often elements that draw th...

November 16: The Bigger Picture in A Memoir

The bigger picture in a memoir is essential for your reader (and you!) to better understand the period of your life you are writing about. A memoir that is set in the historical context of your time, even with just a few references to events, broadens your personal story into a larger story for your readers.

Writing in the bigger picture in a memoir

Many writers write their memoirs as if all there is in life is their own experience and perhaps the experience of immediate family. But, every...

November 15: Setting as A Character in Your Memoir

Writing the setting as a character of your memoir will tell us a lot about you and the people who were in your life. Many fiction writers give setting the prime role of character in their novels. As a memoir writer, you can also think of setting as a character in your memoir.

Setting is a character

Today you will work at creating feeling in your description of your setting.  I mean for you to use details that conjure feelings for the reader. Use details in the setting that will make reader...

November 14: Travel to the Setting of Your Memoir

What you will do today is travel to the place that figures in your story. This is the setting of your memoir. If you can do so physically, that is great.

If however, you need to travel to the setting of your memoir in your mind – because it is too far away or because somehow it no longer exists, you can always get there in your imagination.

Go where the action was

What you will do today is travel to the place that figures in your story. This is the setting of your memoir. If you can do so ...

November 13: Writing A Memoir Is Like Making A Movie

Writing a memoir is like making a movie, and in many ways, a good memoir writer treats the story the way a filmmaker treats a movie. Too often, as we write memoir, we tell the reader what is happening in the story rather than show it. Fortunately, a  filmmaker does not have this luxury—or is it curse?—of telling. The only way the filmmaker can let us know what is happening is to show something on the screen—whether that is a setting, an action or a feature of characterization such as a fro...

November 12: Use Sense Details in Your Memoir

Use sense details in your stories to engage and hook your readers.  A successful memoir needs sensory details to bring your story “to life” and make the reader feel as if it is unfolding in front of him.

Use Sense Details to Bring Readers Into the Story

The difference between a memoir and a personal essay has largely to do with how each affects us differently. A memoir is one heart speaking to another while a personal essay is one mind speaking to another.

A memoir engages our sympathy and...

November 11: How to Write About a Conflict in Your Memoir

Write about a conflict in your memoir to engage your reader. There needs to be action in your story. There needs to be something happening. One way to explore plot is to explore action.

When you use action in writing your story, it is called plot. Something must happen in your story to retain the interest of your reader.

Write about a conflict—start in the middle of things

Listen to how a child tells a story. It is all action. Nuances of character and setting are immaterial to the child. I...

November 10: Writing Plot Into a Memoir

Writing plot into a memoir is something people are surprised to learn a memoir needs. For some writers, this technique of writing plot into a memoir screams of twisting the memoir into a fiction piece. But, all of us need to be kept reading by some mechanism. This mechanism is often called plot. A plot is an action. Plot is the something that happens in a memoir. Today, we explore how to create a plot that is true to the memoir, faithful to the facts.

What is plot?

Structure your stories a...