Tips on Publishing a Memoir
Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler
Author’s Note: For the month of October I will be re-blogging previous posts as I take a break from blogging. This post was originally posted on June 2, 2014. At the time, I was getting ready to publish my first memoir, Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse. It remains relevant today as I get ready to publish my second memoir, Just the Way He Walked: A Mother’s Story of Hope and Healing. I’ll check in from time to time in case you wish to leave any comments.
Tips on Publishing a Memoir
“If you have a dream, don’t just sit there. Gather courage to believe that you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to make it a reality.”
―
Roopleen
When I think of what has brought me from the desire to write a book to publishing a memoir, I think of the 3 P’s:
Purpose-driven Passion:
The desire to find a story then share it with the world requires every bit of stamina, focus and commitment one can muster. Once I found my story of getting into and out of two emotionally abusive marriages, I was able to make a firm commitment (to myself) to get my story out there. I became connected to my purpose for writing and sharing a message of hope, resilience and courage for those who found themselves in similar circumstances. It is possible to climb out of the abyss of poor decisions and to move on to live life on your own terms. That connection to purpose fueled my passion and kept me moving toward publication. The passion helped me work my way around my self-doubt, my hesitancy to re-live the pain of poor decisions and my concern about what others would think or say. Five years worth of starts and stops and many edits later, I found my story taking shape. Passion for my story drove it forward.
Patience:
Ah, yes. I would never tell anyone they could write their memoir in six weeks or six months or even six years. I know Augusten Burroughs cranked out his memoir Running with Scissors in two weeks. There are always exceptions, and he is clearly one of them. I have found that it truly is a process and a journey, determined solely by the person who is writing the story. The story I started out writing is not the story I ended up publishing. That holds true for my current work-in-progress memoir. I didn’t even find that story until I had written reams of vignettes over a three-year period, experimented with voice, tense and structure, received substantive feedback from beta readers and professional editors, and killed many of “my darlings” that did not add to the narrative. And I’ll admit, there were times I truly wondered if I would ever really end up publishing the story. I could not rush it. But, if I was patient and committed to writing, I found my story developed nicely and was getting groomed for publication. I had to be patient and let it find its own time.
All I needed to do was write from my heart and the story that needed to be told revealed itself to me.
Perseverance:
Amen to this one. Once I had devoted the time and energy to my memoir, I knew I did not want to give up on it. I had already put in years of work, to say nothing of the emotional upheaval of facing past mistakes and gleaning lessons learned for both myself and my readers. It began to shape itself into a story with a beginning, middle and an end. It had a message and a purpose. I couldn’t let it down. I had to persevere through the doubts, past my inner critic, through the learning curves, some steeper than others, and onward.
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Passion for my story and its purpose, patience to let it unfold as it is meant to and perseverance to power through all the obstacles and challenges of publishing in the 21st century all helped me reach this milestone.
How about you? I’d love to hear what has powered you to reach your goal of publishing. Please leave your comments below~
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Next Week:
Monday, 10/8/18:
” Characterization in Memoir”
Wednesday, 10/10/18:
“Author Spotlight: Mary Maurice, A WOW Blog Tour.”
Mary is the author of a novel, The Suicide Letters of Jack Monroe.
