Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 67

How to Organize Your Memoir: Four Ways

Do You Wonder How Best to Organize Your Memoir?

Eventually, after you have written awhile, you will likely have amassed a number of vignettes, story segments, and stories. You will want to organize your memoir to make a statement, a bigger picture. How will you do it? Below are four ideas to organize your memoir.

Remember: These suggestions do not refer to the sequence in which the stories are written but rather to how they can be ordered after they have been written.

Here are four ways y...

Memoir Ghostwriting – How Much Does a Memoir Cost?

Memoir Ghostwriting

Working with a memoir ghostwriter is a viable option if you choose not to write your memoir yourself. Depending on the length of your memoir, it may take months and even years to complete your book. Understandably, people want to know how much memoir ghostwriting will cost. Here are a few considerations for you to ponder over as you assess how much a co-author might cost.

1. Asking “How much will it cost to have my memoir ghostwritten?” is like asking “How long will it t...

Memoir Ghostwriting – How Much Does It Cost?

Memoir Ghostwriting

Working with a memoir ghostwriter can be a costly undertaking. Depending on the length of your memoir, it may take months and even years to complete your book. Understandably, people want to know how much memoir ghostwriting will cost. Here are a few considerations for you to ponder over as you assess how much a co-author costs.

1. Asking “How much will it cost to have my memoir ghostwritten?” is like asking “How long will it take to cross the lake?”

Many factors will af...

November 30 Activity: Set a Timeline for Writing Your Memoir

November 30 activity: You need a timeline for writing your memoir.

The use of a timeline for writing your memoir will both speed up the writing process and assure that you complete your book.

It is possible, of course, to choose to write a memoir so that it takes you forever to complete it. You can write when you feel like it for as long as you feel like it and get it done whenever you get it done. Too often, that’s never.

Your book is very likely to remain in a computer file unless you set...

November 29: How to Write an Introduction for a Memoir

November 29 Activity: The introduction for a memoir can be pivotal.

Do not omit to write an Introduction to be placed before the first chapter of your book. The Introduction lets fly a hook to get the reader caught so s/he reads on. In a bookstore, the Introduction is often what the reader peruses. Online, the sample copy usually includes the Introduction.

When you write the Introduction for a memoir, be sure that the pages either pose a low-point (nadir) problem—how was I to extricate myse...

November 28 Activity: Create Suspense and Foreshadowing in A Memoir

November 28 Activity: Suspense and foreshadowing in a memoir are important.

In an earlier post, I had written about the importance of plot in your memoir. Plot is what happens in a story. For many readers, it is what keeps them a reading.

There are some fiction techniques—namely suspense and foreshadowing—that you can use in your memoir to keep the reader reading. Today’s post explores these techniques.

Suspense is the technique of suggesting that something important may or may not happen....

November 27 Activity: Add Direct Dialog in a Memoir

November 27 Activity: Direct dialog in a memoir adds the sound of a character.

There are two ways characters can speak in a story. One way is called direct dialogue. When you write she asked, “How are you doing today?” you are using direct dialogue. Direct dialogue requires quotation marks. When you use direct dialogue in a memoir you are saying this is actually what the speaker said. This is different from indirect dialog.

Indirect dialogue on the other hand is used when you are not sure...

November 26 Activity: Where Is the Hero’s Journey In Your Memoir?

November 26 Activity: Depict 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 25 Activity: Using Photos in Your Memoir

November 25 Activity: It is important to use photos in your memoir.

I have already written about how the memory is false, flattering, and faulty. I’ve also offered you one possibility for correcting this. That is the use of the memory list, the journal, and other artifacts.

Today, I would like to offer you another opportunity to assist those false, flattering, and faulty memories. That is the use of photos in your memoir.

This is not, of course, a new concept. Using photos in your memoir wi...

November 24 Activity: How To Find Stories Missing in Your Memoir

November 24 Activity: There may be stories missing in your memoir.

In some way, writing a memoir is like organizing an anthology of stories. In the method that I teach in my workshops, tele-classes, and coaching, writers write stories as stories come to them. I am not a great one for starting to write from the beginning and writing to the end. Instead, I encourage writers to write the stories they most feel impelled to write. The initial result is an often-chaotic collection of stories with...