Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 4

Sit in on this Virtual Memoir Tour

Today, I am urging you to sit back and enjoy this virtual memoir tour in which I read an excerpt read from my memoir French Boy/A 1950s Franco-American Childhood.

Here’s some necessary background: I did not learn English until I went to grade school. My brother had preceded me in school where he had learned to speak English.

While this excerpt can be thought of as a cute story, I included it in my memoir because it supports the necessity of bilingual education. This sound pedagogy is too...

Monday Focus: Don’t ignore the setting(s) of your story.

Today’s focus reminds you that your stories take place in some context. This is the setting of your story.

There are two general sorts of settings.

the physical setting that is tangiblethe abstract setting that consists of family, culture, and the era, etc. This setting tends to be ethereal.

Some of the writers I have worked with failed to appreciate that they grew up in a setting that is different from the one in which other people may have been raised. Perhaps you grew up in a subur...

Three Pillars of Starting a Memoir Right Everytime.

DL: this post—Three Pillars of Starting a Memoir Right—introduced a YouTube video which turned out to be the most popular of all my videos. Today, I would like to share both this post and the video. If you haven’t done so already, please share the post and the video and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

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Writing a memoir requires a lot of time and energy—but you can do it. You can succeed in writing a memoir. Many people just like you have succeeded in doing so already. Today...

Monday Focus: No stick characters allowed!

Don’t worry. This memoir-writing task does not call for drawing skills as you eschew creating memoir stick characters.

The term “stick character” refers to a drawing of a person by someone with no talent who draws lines for arms and legs. Stick Characters don’t entice the reader much and they don’t do justice to your people. You will do better without stick characters burdening your memoir. Develop your characters fully. Your characters are, after all, the people in your life. They are/w...

Pacing Your Memoir Requires Planning

In almost everything you do in life or in writing, pacing ranks right up there in importance. The tortoise knew how to pace himself and won the race.

The hare, on the other hand, needed to view this post before setting out on the race which he eventually lost despite the gift of speed nature had given him!

Pacing your memoir is generally an acquired habit.

Pacing requires some planning and getting used to. The tortoise understood this and took off at a slow but steady pace.

Long-distance...

Monday Focus: What’s happening in your memoir?

Today is Monday, and it’s a great day to write a bit on your memoir!

Keep the reader interested by using plotting whenever you can, but you don’t need to go gaga about plot—just include enough. Remember: you are not writing a thriller.

Exactly what makes an action interesting is evidently subjective. What might interest an older, retired woman dedicated to promoting social action is likely to be utterly boring to the teenage boy who spends all his free time—and some time when he sho...

Monday Focus: Theme is the soul of your story.

Understanding “theme” and its role in your memoir is another core task that will both simplify and clarify your message—i.e., your theme. Your theme is perhaps what has motivated you to start your memoir project. There is likely something you want to say about life—your life. Your theme can also be called your message. The theme can be lofty (strive for virtue) or it can be trite (life is hard). Theme drives your story and colors your narrative. 

Everyone writes with some hope of gett...

Another memoir finished: what was the writing process?

It was 2016, and I was in what I thought of as the very last days of the memoir writing process and polishing A Sugary Frosting / A Memoir of a Girlhood Spent in a Parsonage, the early lifestory of my deceased spouse, Martha Blowen. It was a time to make sure I had written what I wanted to write and to check grammar and spelling before it went out to a copy editor.

I had promised Martha that I would write her stories so that our grandchildren would know something about her. In May 2015, ...

Monday Focus: Your memoir is not an amoeba: a memoir needs form.

Today is Monday, and it’s a great day to write a bit on your memoir!

Your story is not formless; it is not an amoeba. A memoir needs form. You must give your memoir the backbone your readers want and need! Your memoir calls for structure to make as forceful a statement as it can make.

Eventually, after you have written awhile, you will likely have amassed a number of vignettes, story segments, and stories and wonder about how to best organize them into a coherent and interesting memoir....

Need a Manuscript Review?

Your friends and family love your memoir. Apparently, they are sure you are an outstanding writer, but you’re not so sure. Perhaps you wonder if you need a manuscript review.

What they are telling you comes across more like support and opinion rather than as an evaluation.

It’s understandable you have your doubts about the assessments you have received from family and friends. These are people you will be seeing again. They want you to think well of them. But, you are not looking for sup...