Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 32
August 22, 2019
Drug Addiction: An Excerpt From It Can Happen In Any Family.
Note: Cindy Doucette’s daughter, Candice, was sure she could defy the odds and survive as she continued her drug addiction. This excerpt from Chapter 3 of Cindy’s memoir is a mother’s lament:
The shock I had first experienced at hearing of Candice’s death had given way to overwhelming sadness. I had lost my daughter, my daughter in whom I had placed so many hopes when she was a baby and a little girl. Then with time, that sadness gave way to anger. How could Candice have chosen to ignore al...
August 18, 2019
A Life of Labor and Love – Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from Walter Linder’s memoir, A Life of Labor and Love, A Red Memoir.
“From A Blind Date to A Matchless Marriage”
When I reached my early twenties, I was convinced I was too shy to ever get married. Although I had gone out on dates with various women, nothing had clicked. At 24, I began seeing a young woman named Charlotte. We went out for about a year but I sensed something was not quite right — “Wally, I could never marry someone who doesn’t dance,” she said —...
August 15, 2019
Why You Should Not Nickel and Dime When Hiring a Ghostwriter
If you are hiring a ghostwriter, of course, one of the facets you are concerned with is how much it will cost to have your memoir written. Your concern is appropriate.
What if you had a few useful guidelines to help you determine if the costs you are being asked to pay are in line with current rates? Well, you do below…
1. Above all, do not bring a nickel and dime attitude to the process of having your memoir written.The process is not a mechanical...
August 12, 2019
Help to Write My Memoir: Here’s What a Top Editor Does for You
People often ask, “What sort of book editing input does a client receive from her/his Memoir Network editor?”
The answer, of course, varies according to the client. No two receive the same response. We always individualize.
You persist in asking, “Yes, yes, but what sort of manuscript input can I expect from a memoir editor that I begin to work with?”
“Ok, I get it—you want a sample communication.”
Here is one that went out to a new client who had sent us a ma...
August 8, 2019
Write Regularly for Great Results
Write regularly for best results. Success is built on daily habits. As has been bandied about and attributed to many different speakers, it is said that “you go to the office every day for 20 years, and before you know it, you are an overnight success.”
Well, we can apply that insight to writing a memoir. Write every day for a year or two and before you know it you have a book.
“But, how did you find the time?” you are asked.
“Well…”
In this video, Write Regularly for Great Results, we disc...
August 6, 2019
The Best Memoir Writing Coach: How to Choose the Right One
How do you choose the best memoir writing coach for you and your book? Your relationship with your memoir writing coach is likely to be a long one. There is no other way to make it effective. Coaching is like counseling in a way. Counseling requires an introductory, getting-to-know-you phase before both of you can move on to a productive phase. You can’t expect a counselor to help you with your core issues until the two of you have had some explorato...
August 5, 2019
Franco-American History and The Lachine Massacre
DL: The Lachine Massacre happened 330 years ago today—August 5, 2019. This account of the tragedy is excerpted from Here To Stay, a 250-page as-yet- unpublished account of my 17th century Canadian ancestors, is the second most visited post on thememoirnetwork.com site. Who would have guessed? I am re-posting it for those of you who have an historical bent of mind or who might wonder how does a memoir writer write about the distant past. In this post, I refer to my francophone ancestors as C...
July 30, 2019
A Memoir Coach or A Memoir Editor Gets You A Finished Memoir
We all wear many hats as we go through our days. In my case, I am a writer, a memoirist, a teacher, a memoir coach, a memoir editor, a co-author, a book publisher, and finally, a small business person. I wear those hats with pride and, I hope, some accomplishment.
Beyond these, I wear other hats as all of you do also. One is that of an athlete of sorts: there has been swimming, jogging, and weight lifting.
Pick me up by some feat of magic and plop me in any mall across North America and I...
July 25, 2019
Benefits of Reading the Memoir Writer’s Blog Archives
What are the benefits of reading the Memoir Writer’s Blog archives? Twice a week, I post a new article on the Memoir Writer’s Blog. It then appears in the Memoir Writing Blog Archives. I write about a variety of topics, and most of them are understandably not in sequence with what I have written just days before—or even the previous week.
I write in the Memoir Writer’s Blog as fancy takes me. Most readers want to learn in a just-in-time manner. What I w...
July 23, 2019
Memoir Editing Process–How Memoir Editing Works
When I begin the memoir editing process with clients, I tell them that a proper editing requires three “read-throughs.” It is impossible to give a manuscript all the attention it deserves in one reading.
Reading a manuscript without doing any specific editing and forming only a general impression has always seemed a good idea in theory, but I have not found a way to do so that is economical. I have therefore evolved this concept of read-throughs as a mem...
