Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 74

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...

Stay in the Memoir Conversation: Be Part of a Writing Community

Show me your friends and I will show you your future

There’s a saying—or there should be if there isn’t—that goes somewhat like that. Isn’t that why we feel reassured when we see our children hanging out with “nice” kids—children who are respectful and serious about school, who benefit from healthy pastimes and find ways to enjoy themselves that is not injurious to themselves or to others? Why? Of course, when we see our children with such friends, we know they are learning, or having reinf...

How to Solve a Wrong Narrator Problem

Do you have a wrong narrator problem?

(This is a note I created as I struggle with choosing the narrator’s voice for a memoir on my early life. This memoir has been stalled by simply not having the right voice. I had a wrong narrator problem. I offer this rumination as a sample of the sort of writing you can place in a writer’s journal and of the sort of issue you must resolve.)

Many narrator possibilities

Whom to choose to narrate of the story of those years when I yearned to become myself...