Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 61
December 3, 2016
How to Write a Successful Memoir: Digging for Treasure
Today’s successful memoir writer is Jean Crichton. Jean attended the very first national workshop that I organizedin 2000. From that time, we developed a strong working relationship via coaching and editing. She was one of those writers who was an absolute pleasure to work with.
To read past interviews For the most recent interview with Peggy Kennedy, whom we firstpresentedto you on June 5, 2009, click here.Approaching Neverland, her memoir of a mentally-ill mother and a family that struggl...
November 26, 2016
November 26 Activity: Where Is the Hero’s Journey In Your Memoir?
Perhaps you have never thought of yourself as a hero—but in fact you are one. It is the energy of your hero’s journey that has impelled you to write a memoir. Every memoir tells the story of a hero’s journey. It is the story of how the main character (usually you) was beset by difficulties and has survived. In short, every memoir is necessarily a hero’s journey
Look at it this way: there is a problem that you have resolved and...
November 23, 2016
November 23 Activity: Listening to Your Memoir Yields Dividends
As writers, we have often experienced of writing what we feel has to be deathless prose. Later, perhaps a week or a month later, when we pick up our own manuscript again, we realize that our deathless prose is perhaps closer to deadly prose.
Having your story read out loud is a revealing experience. Whether it is someone else who is reading or you yourself, it seems that you become a much more objective audience for your story...
November 21, 2016
November 21 Activity: Learn to Use Visualization In Your Memoir
The memory list remains a powerful tool for memoir writing. Given the time to compile an extensive memory list, many of us can come up with many of the details of our lives. But, as good as the memory list is in propelling us through our past, it can come to a halt. What to do?
Use visualization in your memoir recall.
You can use visualization in your memoir to remember details that may be eluding you. Visualization (See Turni...
November 20, 2016
November 20 Activity: Practicing to Write In Quantity
The goal of today’s activity is to practice the habit of writing easily and in flow. A first step a memoir writer usually takes is to write quantity, to write much. Quality will come later—as it must.
When a construction crew builds a house, it does the rough framing first. It is only later that the finish work gets incorporated into the structure. The same is true of memoir writing. The first thing you need to do is write in quantity, i...
October 31, 2016
Tips for Successful Memoir Writing
Recently, someone asked me what are the biggest barriers memoir writers face to successful memoir writing. Three came to mind right away. Below, I write about them and offer suggestions for eliminating these barriers.
1. Writers often put off writing a good memoir in favor of struggling unsuccessfully to create a perfect one.This is insidious because no one says they are putting off writing a good memoir in favor of a perfect one. Instead they say, “I w...
October 28, 2016
The Spirit of Villarosa
Libby Atwater is a memoir writer and long supporter of The Memoir Network. It is our pleasure to share her excellent work with you.
The Spirit of Villarosa: A Father’s Extraordinary Adventures; A Son’s ChallengeBy Horace Dade Ashton and Marc Ashton with Libby J. Atwater
When Marc Ashton was kidnapped at gunpoint in Haiti, he fought to survive. Accosted by four armed thugs, Marc realized how life changes in moments. He made two promises: he would escape his captors, and he would tell his fa...
October 26, 2016
How to Write a Successful Memoir: It Can Happen to Any Family
Today’s writer is Cindy Doucettewhose book is It Can Happen to Any Family. Onyou on August 22, 2012, weprinteda testimonialwritten by a young person who was in the correctional system and who wroteofthe influence Cindy Doucette’s book had on her.
Our last interview was with author Peggy Kennedy. If you haven’t read it, click here.
Denis Ledoux: Can you tell our readers what your book is about and why you were impelled to write it? What was driving you to spend the time, energy and money to...
October 24, 2016
Shaping Your Theme
You imbue the whole of your story with your theme and it, in turn, influences the choice of every element in your story—even when you’re not aware of it. In fact, all writing carries a message from the writer, an index of the motivation of the artist. Theme can be as broad as “There are good guys and bad guys, and you can tell them apart” and as subtle as “I want to tell others what it was like to live at a certain time o...
October 17, 2016
How to Begin a Memoir
Many writers agonize about just where to start alife story, where to begin a memoir. There are, of course, many places where a story can be launched.
1. The place in the story at which you begin to write is almost never the place at which readers will begin to read your story.
A writer begins someplace because beginning someplace is the way it is done. It is only much later that the writer will know where to place this initial piece of writing— at the beginning or elsewhere in the memoir.
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