Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 73

Only Telling the Truth in Your Memoir Will Set You Free

This is a perennial question: can I make something up in my memoir? It would help with the drama / or the flow of the story / or salve someone’s feeling.

The short answer of course is, of course, you can make anything up that you want because it’s you story but why would you want to dilute your memoir by not telling the truth?

A memoir is the true account of a time or an experience in one’s life. Your adding fiction for the ease of the telling (or for whatever reason) is akin to lowering th...

Is Your Book Your Best Kept Secret?

So many memoir writers spend precious time crafting a meaningful and interesting memoir only to let it languish after publication. Post-publication is not the time to ignore your book.

If you are like many writers, you’d rather go on to writing your next book than spend time promoting and marketing your first book. But the reality is, if you don’t market your book, no one else will!

But where do you start? With so many options available for reaching readers across the globe, which are the b...

The Irreplaceable Memoir

People are driven to express themselves. Each of us has a story and an urge to tell it. In my estimation no other medium is as effective in revealing the self as the irreplaceable memoir.

Below are thoughts of various media for self-expression.

Flash Memoir

In a world of texting and Twitter, the urge to self-express is constricted but still vibrant. A new ‘literary genre’ called Flash Memoir has emerged: storytelling within the confines of six words. (It’s close relative is Flash Fiction!)...

What Kind of Person Does Well as a Memoir Network Affiliate?

What kind of person does well as a Memoir Network affiliate reseller?

Are you one of the following sorts of people? If so, you are probably a person who could earn well as a Memoir Network affiliate.

You are a memoir teacher in our community. You offer workshops to people who come from a commuting distance to your workshop site. You don’t have any products or on-line courses. Becoming an affiliate is a quick, super cheap way for you to acquire a line of products and services to resell to y...

2 Causes of Memoir Writer’s Block: Not Telling the Truth or Writing Unimportant Material

Many writers suffer from writer’s block, yet few understand—and much less resolve—its possible causes. There are a number of reasons that contribute to difficulty—especially blockage—in writing.

In memoir writing, the infamous “writer’s block” can result from avoidance—that is, you don’t want to deal with uncomfortable material and so you “block.” Perhaps you haven’t admitted to yourself the importance of your material or—as a way of avoiding the importance—you are not yet telling the trut...

Can Life Get Better in the Parsonage?

Life in Worcester for my family was a 1950’s middle-class existence. It is what I believe my father was striving for when he worked those years in Enfield, CT, after high school and before Bates, those years at Bates working at the telephone switchboard at Central Maine General Hospital, serving as kitchen and dining room help at President Clifton Daggett Gray’s house in exchange for board and a room on the third floor. Neither my father nor my mother were materialistic people and they did...

71 years ago today…

Today would have been my parents’ 71st wedding anniversary. They.are both gone now—my mother having passed on May 5th of this year. I included a eulogy in a previous blog post.

For this post, I am providing you with a link to the blog archives where I

My mother’s book has found its audience.

have posted many excerpted stories from her book We Were Not Spoiled, which I wrote with her and published in November of 2013.

In honor of her memory, I would like to offer you a free copy of her book...

New free books in My Memoir Education area

There are two new free books added to the My Memoir Education area. If you have not been to the downloads section lately, check it out and download these free books.

1. Memoir Writing 101 : 10 Steps to Crafting a Compelling Memoir

This book’s ten action steps can help you write a memoir or improve the one you are working on. While this is a basic text, we believe it can correct any memoir writing course and get you to a finished product more quickly. Easy but very useful read.

2. The Nice-N...

6 Benefits of A Long Distance Writing Program

Looks like a long distance writing program—because it is one.

The Write Your First Memoir Draft Course has been designed to bring you all the best of an academic external degree program. Many of us have looked into these programs or at least have seen them advertised in writers’ magazines like Poets & Writers and the Writer’s Digest and wished we could afford the time and/or the money to attend.

An external, long distance writing program provides a way for an aspiring writer who is not a yo...

Distance Learning: A Precious Opportunity

Distance learning is an alternative

For most emerging writers, enrolling in an adult-learning program is an exciting experience. At long last, for a period of time that is long enough to make a difference, you give yourself the opportunity to immerse yourself in learning the “best practices” of the writing craft that you has been so wanting to learn for a long time.

An adult-learning program which will help you to master writing might be a university course, a local workshop, a one-on-one r...