Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 7

So You Wonder How Memoir Editing Works

You ask how memoir editing works. This is an important and reasonable question.

In this post, I will take you through a typical process. (The process explained here is one an inexperienced writer would take. An experienced writer can expect to shorten the process.)

How Memoir Editing Works

When I begin the memoir editing process with clients, I tell them that proper editing generally requires three “read-throughs.” Unless the manuscript is already at a high level of organization and poli...

What Is Developmental Editing and Why You Need It for Your Self-Published Memoir

What is developmental editing and do you need it? If the big New York publishing houses NEVER publish a manuscript without extensive editing, why would you as a self-publisher?

A professional memoir editor can quickly and effectively help you tweak your lifestory so that you get to say more clearly and dynamically what you have been trying to say. You can’t write your best memoir without developmental editing—it’s game-changing.

Editors come in many stripes: some ...

Similes and Metaphors: A Deeper Emotional Dive

Since memoirs appeal to the heart rather than to the mind of the reader—one might say, it is developmentally important to create a reading experience that addresses the reader’s emotions. One effective way of doing this is to use images. The images I want to present today are similes and metaphors.

While we’ve all studied these in high school and/or college, I have new thoughts this week as to how they apply to memoir writing.

A simile is a comparison that uses like or as.

When you say,...

Your writing is your work–Schedule first your time for writing

To make time for writing, you have to be serious about the principle that your writing is your work. You must act on it and take it as seriously as your paying job.

This is low-hanging fruit for time management: honor your writing schedule!

You do not show up at your work when you feel like it—nor do you write only when the feeling comes over you!

If you are working as a nurse or a therapist or a business office administrator or whatnot, you do not show up at your work when you feel like...

Setting Writing Goals That Work For You: Better Time Management

I have a goal for this post. I want to help you to develop and articulate your writing goals for the next three months—that is, 90 days. You can start your three months today, at the beginning of the next week or at the first day of the next month, but don’t put off setting writing goals. It is a prime tim management skill.

Three months is taken from the business model which uses quarters—three months—to implement plans. It is a useful way to set goals for three months. Three mo...

Regular Writing for Great Results

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 ‘overnight success’ insight to writing a memoir. Write every day for a year or two, and before you know it, you have a book.

“But, how do I find the time?” you ask.

“Well, you already have the time,” I reply.

In this video, I discuss building good ...

Shaping Your Plot Line Is Important

You want your memoir to be interesting and meaningful, but what should you include in your storyline to make it interesting and meaningful? In short, ways of shaping your plot line.

 “Interesting” and “meaningful” doesn’t happen by itself. You have to make it happen.

How do you structure the increase in tension so necessary in a plot so as to lead to a climax, a turning point, and an ending?

Your storyline is a significant contributor to creating an “interesting and meaningful” memoir.

I...

Use Time Wisely to Write Your Memoir

Here, I share two ideas about how to use time wisely to write your memoir. Time has many permutations and I would like to take you on a coaching journey. We’ll make a couple of stops to help you hone your ability to use time wisely. I hope you enjoy reading these ideas and let them inform your writing.

1. My first stop is with clock time and how we relate to that. Writing requires a commitment of time.

Have you wondered what distinguishes one writer who perseveres and completes a memoir ...

When Writers Lose Interest, It Might Actually Be Healthy

It’s common for a writer to find that she has written much about a period of her life that is now uninteresting to her. Though she wrote with enthusiasm, intending to include this material in her memoir, it doesn’t seem to merit inclusion now. She may be despondent. “I worked so hard! Now I want to leave this out! Is this going to happen with everything I write?” Why do writers lose interest in parts of their memoir.

I’ve heard clients express this frustration and I’ve also experience...

How to Cut Memoir Text

To ensure that your memoir is a tight one, it will probably be necessary to cut some of your text.

Having finished my childhood memoir, French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood, of course, I have been thinking of all the things that I did not put into the memoir. Some of these omissions, I would say, were interesting and might have contributed to my story’s theme and plot line. However, the memoir had reached 350 pages, and I knew it was imperative to limit any further lengthening ...