Don’t Give Your Memoir Gold Away

People want their stories told.

People everywhere have an urge to make their stories public—in any format that will satisfy the impulse. Because in human development, speech comes first and writing later, the impulse to make a story public is almost certainly to be initially to speak and only subsequently to write it. Talking over a cup of tea may be just as satisfying a release for the tension inherent in needing to tell a story as shaping a memorable written lifestory—or poem or novel. B...