Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 53

Commitment vs. Interest

There’s a big difference between your commitment to writing your memoir and being interested.

“But I do want to write my memoir,” I can hear some hypothetical person insisting.

No, this is not about wanting to write a memoir, not about trying to write one, not about being interested in writing…

What I am writing about is a commitment to writing your memoir and bringing it successful completion.

There’s a significant distinction between “being interested in writing” and “being committed to w...

Memoir Writing Needs Inner Work as well as Outer Work

Whether as a coach or as an editor, when I have engaged with writers, I have often found similar presenting problems—

I don’t have time, I never had a good grammar education, I have so many stories to tell I don’t know which one to start with.

Frequently, these “reasons” writers present for not writing are symptoms of underlying issues. They tell me the writer has probably gotten stuck avoiding the inner work of writing.

Let’s look at what “outer work” is first.

Outer work is about techn...

Family Celebrates Thanksgiving with Sadness

Martha Blowen, my partner in life and in work, died on August 18, 2008, from metastasized breast cancer. The following is from collated excerpts of journals we both kept at the time.  (Before she passed away, she gave me permission to share her entries.)

The memoir is called My Eye Fell Into the Soup, after a dream in which one of her eyes fell into a cauldron. She later interpreted this to mean she was not paying attention to her health. (This is written about elsewhere.) As with most peop...

Memoir Writing Motivation

Processing life through writing

I have the motivation to write every day because I simply cannot stay away—it is how I process life. Writing helps me understand what has happened and how I feel about it. My father’s Norwegian stoicism and our family’s isolation caused by his alcoholism prevented much communication with anybody, in or out of the family. I turned to writing in order to “talk” to someone. I wrote letters to any relatives and pen pals who would write back, and who I felt were m...

Don’t Only Describe Your Characters–Show Them!

The old adage “Show, don’t tell!” is as true as ever. It 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.

1. Your pen is your movie camera.

In a film, a director ( that’s you!) doesn’t have an actor go on screen to tell the audience that someone is angry. Instead, he shows the character in a scene where anger is in action.

In writing, this means you do not say, “Naomi...

What would support for writing your memoir look like for you?

Writing your memoir is not easy.

While some people  succeed at writing an interesting and meaningful memoir on their own, the fact is many people need both more technical expertise than they now have and more emotional support for the long effort they are undertaking. Many find the task of writing a memoir—however urgent and compelling—to be somewhat daunting and, if the truth be told, rather tedious over the months of solitary writing it takes to tell the story they want to tell and then r...

Writing Your Memoir Regularly is Key to Success

Success is built on daily writing 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 bit of humor as an insight on writing your memoir. Write every day for a year or two or three, and, before you know it, you have a book—you’re an “overnight success.”

“How did you find the time?” you are asked.

Time is always with us and it is...

A Key to Memoir Writing Success

Do you ever wish you had the key to memoir writing success? Let me offer you one key that, I believe, every writer needs to make use of.

Memoir writing 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 b...

Speaking to the Children About Cancer

For more in the My Eye Fell Into the Soup series, Click Here.

 

Speaking to the Children About Cancer

November 12, Sunday

Martha:

My days since Thursday have been about sleeping and talking and crying. Just four days ago, everything I thought about my life was different. How life seems changed even though it is not actually different in its essence from what it was on Wednesday. I had cancer then, too, but I did not know it consciously. I have always prided myself on being intuitive and hav...

A Memoir is a Marathon. Can you do it?

You can write a memoir!

When you are facing a challenging undertaking, it is wise to seek help. If you were attempting to run a marathon, you would study up on the endeavor and be sure you are doing things right. Perhaps you would join a running club or a website that offers you a programmed course. You would talk to others who have run marathons and perhaps hire a trainer.

How about if you undertake to write a memoir? While some people do succeed at writing an interesting and meaningful me...