Denis Ledoux's Blog, page 77

8 Tips for a Fast Start Writing Your Memoir

Ever wish you had the secret of generating a fast start writing your memoir—or most any other book?

To help you to get a fast start writing and to write your memoir more prolifically–and even bring it to a finish in the form of a published memoir–I offer these eight suggestions. They are tried and true tips that bear repeating and repeating.

1. Set up a regular writing time.

How long you write is perhaps not as important as how frequently you do so. Once you have set up a writing time, hono...

How to Write for A Larger Audience — 4 Tips

So, you want to write for a larger audience than family and friends!

While family and friends are a worthy readership for your memoir, it is possible to write for a larger audience. Here are four suggestions to enable your story to appeal to a broader public.

1) Write a story that is truly well-written and whose reading–the prose itself–will bring joy to your reader.

To do this, you will need to make effective use of a number of fiction writing techniques including images, metaphors, simile...

10 Tips to Boost The Quality of Your Memoir

Writers ask me what they can do the most easily to write better memoir. The following are my recommendations to boost the quality of your memoir.

1. First, make a Memory List.

A Memory List is a list of every important event, influence, and relationship in your life or in any particular era. It can be hundreds of items long! Why bother with this pre-writing task? Because it’s such a handy resource when you do write. Having a Memory List to refer to will help you focus on the highlights—the...

Write to the End: Complete Your Book Manuscript

A suggestion on how to complete your book manuscript

DL: As part of my virtual book tour, I made a stop on Monday March 30, 2015, at Cate Russell-Cole’s Octopus Ink blog. There are many features that are special about this blog and one of them is that Cate is located in Australia. So…the virtual book tour has become an international tour! Thanks, Cate.

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May I present a surprise blocking solution to complete your book manuscript: don’t write just now.

learn how to continue writing to the...

Show Up And Do the Work of Writing a Book

No one said it would be easy to show up and do the work of writing a book!

“Writing is hard,” you realize again as you look at your production for the day. “Perhaps I’m not cut out for this.”

To your dismay, you have been writing in snippets for many days now. In the mornings, when you show up at your laptop—later and later it seems, you must face, as does every writer, a demanding master: your daily writing. Why can’t writing be more fun? Why can’t it be—well, to tell the truth—less hard.

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Sweetheart, Are You Using Precise Words for Your Memoir?

Are precise words really important in a memoir?

Over the years, I have written energetically about the importance of using precise words instead of generic ones.

I was dropping someone off at the bus station (aka the Intermodal Transportation Center) when I overheard an exchange that convinced me once again of the necessity for precision in speech–and, by extension, in our memoir writing. It was proof that generic words really do miss the mark and lead to confusing messages.

A grandmother...

What Kind of Stalled Writer Are You- And What to Do About It

As part of my virtual book tour for the Memoir Writing Series, I made a stop at Kathy Pooler’s exceptional blog The Memoir Writer’s Journey. Do subscribe to it: it will serve you well as a tool to maintain the memoir conversation. This post is taken from Write to the End / Eight Strategies.

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The Stalled Writer

An unfinished manuscript haunts a stalled writer, sapping energy that ought to go into more writing. Over the years of editing and coaching, I’ve noticed that there seem to be two...

Which to Write: Memoir or Autobiographical Fiction?

DL: the following is an adaptation of a reply I made on LinkedIn to comments about writing an autobiographical fiction was pretty much the same as memoir. If you area on LinkedIn, I would love to have a connection with you if we are not connected.

Should I write memoir or autobiographical fiction?

I sometimes get asked this and I have to confess that my reaction is firm. I don’t believe particularly in an either/or possibility.

There is a clear difference—a chasm really—between the choice o...

Who Cares About My Memoir?

DL: I am on a virtual book tour for my Memoir Network Writing Series. This article appeared recently on the LinkedIn Pulse as a guest post.

Have you ever asked, “Who cares about my memoir?”

A perennial, and perhaps inherent, challenge every memoir writer faces is that of audience. Specifically, every writer is saddled with the incapacitating doubt that there is an audience for his/her memoir.

“Who will want to read my memoir? Who cares about my memoir?” asked enough times can bring your w...

Is a Memoir Hard to Write—Yes, but You Can Do It!

DL: As part of my virtual book tour for the Memoir Writing Series, I did a stop at Sonia Marsh’s blog. Below is a link to that post. Leave a comment and explore Sonia’s blog. You will find it full of interesting and useful posts.

A Memoir Can Be Hard to Write —But You Can Do It!

Sometimes at the beginning of a workshop or of coaching relationship, people ask whether writing a memoir going to be hard.
The short—but possibly intimidating—answer is: “Yes, a memoir can be hard to write! The lon...