Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 68
November 24, 2015
November 24 – How To Find 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...
November 23, 2015
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 23 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 22, 2015
November 22 Activity: The Power of Using Specific Words in A Memoir
For some reason, many writers feel that adjectives give details to their story. They think of them as specific words. This may be true of some adjectives such as American or red. The same is not true of most adjectives. Some people think that an adjective here and there adds depth to a memoir. Alas, this is often not so. Many adjectives are really flabby words that pretend to say something but actually don’t add up to much...
November 21, 2015
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 Turn...
November 21- 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 Turn...
November 20, 2015
Memoir Leads to Exploring the Past
Writing a memoir is like opening a window into your life. It can also help clear the fog on windows of the past. Writing my own story in my memoir Nothing LikeNormal (published by Black Opal Press on November 14) caused me to wonder about the tales of my parents and ancestors and what they could tell me about my own life.
My maternal lineWhile my father’s genealogy had been thoroughly researched by his brother and sister, I knew there was very little recorded about my ma...
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...
November 20: 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...
November 19, 2015
November 19 Activity: Memoir Writers Need to be Memoir Readers
Every writer should be a reader. I find it astounding to learn that someone who is writing a book is comfortable saying s/he is not a reader. In the same way that, if you wanted to play a sport or an instrument, you would want to observe how master practitioners of a sport or of a musical instrument do so. In the same way, I find it unacceptable that someone who is writing a memoir would not want to be reading a memoir as s/he w...
