Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 37

Sweetheart, Are You Using Precise Words for Your Memoir?

Are precise words really important in a memoir?

Over the years, I have written energetically about the importance of using precise words instead of generic ones.

I was dropping someone off at the bus station (aka the Intermodal Transportation Center) when I overheard an exchange that convinced me once again of the necessity for precision in speech–and, by extension, in our memoir writing. It was proof that generic words really do miss the mark and lead to confusing messages.

A grandmother...

Show Up And Do the Work of Writing a Book

No one said it would be easy to show up and do the work of writing a book!

“Writing is hard,” you realize again as you look at your production for the day. “Perhaps I’m not cut out for this.”

To your dismay, you have been writing in snippets for many days now. In the mornings, when you show up at your laptop—later and later it seems, you must face, as does every writer, a demanding master: your daily writing. Why can’t writing be more fun? Why can’t it be—well, to tell the truth—less hard?

...

You Can’t Write Without a First Draft

Writing Your First Draft

Give yourself permission to write a rough first draft. Write pages and pages in which you describe the who, the what, the where and the when of the story. Later, as you rework the piece, the why will be written in.

If you are one of those memoir writers who is not otherwise a writer and who will perhaps never write anything else, know that you need to be kind to yourself. In the Turning Memories Into Memoirs workshops, I am often surprised—and dismayed—at how demand...

Show Don’t Tell: Don’t Tell Us About Your Characters—Show Them Walking Across the Page!

Show Don’t Tell Rules!

How many times have you heard “Show your story rather than tell it!”

And, how many times have you gone right on and did a lot of telling! I know I have.

“Showing” is one technique that will always improve your writing. I admit that there is some great writing that makes a precedent for “tell,” but as a rule “show” is more effective.

Here are three “show don’t tell” ideas to improve your story—every time.

1. Your pen is your movie camera.

In a film, a director (that’s...

How to Write a Significant Memoir

DL: This is a piece I published on the LinkedIn blog Pulse. It addresses a major challenge many writer face—at least writers who want to have an audience beyond family and friends.

How to Write a Significant Memoir

That our memoir is insignificant is about the last thing we memoir writers ever want to read about our magnum opus. How do we write a significant memoir?

What separates a significant memoir from an insignificant one?

A memoir tells the story of a hero’s journey.

I’ll give you a h...

Coaching or Editing? Which Is Which? Which Is Best?

There’s often only a permeable line between coaching and editing. In practice, as I work with a writer, I find myself slipping from coaching to editing and back. That’s how close coaching and editing really are. Depending on the state of your manuscript, coaching or editing or both are called for.

Choosing coaching or editing–How it works

Generally, I read sections of a manuscript—say 20-30 pages—and return this edited portion to you [as an attachment—but snail mail works well too] with com...

Do not waffle in telling the truth

Telling the truth

“I have permission [as a memoir writer] not to waffle in my writing,” I was recently informed by a memoir writer.

“Not to waffle” somehow missed the point for me.

Certainly, the memoir writer has permission “not to waffle,” but there is more that is incumbent on the writer. S/he has the obligation not to waffle. As memoir writers, “not to waffle” means to tell our truth about what happened. This is a must. Over the years, I have been amazed at how I can pick up waffling an...

Info about November is Memoir Writing Month

The November is Memoir Writing Month program will be back on November 1, 2019. Meanwhile, why not go to our overview of writing resources? It will direct you to the programs and materials—many are free—you can most use at this time in your memoir-writing journey.Whatever you do today, write a bit on your memoir.

 

Welcome to November Is Memoir Writing Month.

 

November is an opportunity for you to dedicate — or rededicate — yourself to writing personal and family stories. We call the...

How Long Should It Take to Write a Memoir? Set a Deadline!

How Useful Is A Memoir Timeline?

Have you ever wondered, “How long should it take to write a memoir?”

One answer, of course, is that it takes as long as it takes. While so true, this answer is not useful to those writers who are trying to get their duckies in line—looking at where the time is in their schedules to write, knowing what support to ask from their life partners, etc.

I’ve come up with a calculation for those people who want some sense of how long writing a memoir might take. The...

Is Memoir Fiction?

Is memoir fiction?

I emphatically don’t agree that memoir is fiction. Although a memoir invariably uses fiction techniques—and we will look at one in this post, it must be an as-much-as-possible true accounting of an experience.

A strength of fiction is its ability—when it is done right—to place us in the story, to enable us to get out of our “present” and enter into the time of the story. The memoir writer has to aim for the same level of involvement.

In many cases, this involves removing...