Writing Memoir—It’s a “We” Program

By Elizabeth Jannuzzi

The other day I was trying to be a good student—something I never was when I was in school—and I was completing my homework for a writing course. At the start of this year, I enrolled in a five-month program to learn how to seek representation for my debut memoir about my recovery from alcoholism. I was working on the summary of the book for the query letter when I plummeted deep into a pit of self-doubt.

“Why am I doing this?” I asked myself with my head in my han...