Memoir Writing

The Timeline

The important thing to keep in mind is that you will never get your memoir written unless you start! Start anywhere but START!

I find it easiest when teaching writing classes to begin with lists, progress to sentences then paragraphs, and finally put it all together. I suggest that you do the same. Make list after list after list – this way you will never have a reason to cry Writer’s Block because your list of writing ideas is right on hand.

We will begin with the…TIMELINE

The backbone of your lifestories is your Timeline. This is an extended chart of the relationships and events that have shaped your life. These are the people and events that have made you the person you are today.

EVENTS IN YOUR LIFE: Here are a few to get you started: • an illness or a death in the family • the arrival of a sibling • the ethnic group you grew up in • the religious group you grew up in • a certain relationship with a peer • a failure or success at school • a decision you made to do or not do something • an external event such as a fire, flood, tornado, auto accident • marriage • children • career choices • spiritual experiences • divorce

This is but a few of the major events that turn a person’s life to one direction or the other. The list you make may be many pages long or relatively short. This depends on the individual. You may add to this list as you remember things. Include everything you can think of that had any impact on your life.

ASSIGNMENT: Make a timeline of your life.

childhood...teen years...young adult...middle age...senior years

birth..1-12..13-18..19-30..30-50..50-70..70-100

Mark pivotal points on the timeline as reference points in your writing.

Find your BEFORE/AFTER moment. What is the point – that dividing line – when something so pivotal happened that it changed you forever? You may have more than one of them.

It is easier to begin than you think! Start with one story at a time.

Make a schedule to write at least one page every day and stick to it!

Remember to include your feelings about the event! Many men forget to do this!

If you only write one page per day, you will have 365 pages in one year!

Use vivid detail and, for now, ignore spelling and grammar.

If you worry about getting every sentence perfect, you will never finish your writing! You can check facts later.

Don’t worry if you forgot someone’s name or a particular date - just get the story written!!! You can go back later!

If you don’t feel up to the task of writing your own memoirs, you can hire a professional to do it for you. A personal historian will come to your home and interview you on several occasions, using a tape recorder. They have specific questions to spark your memory. Then he/she will prepare the written manuscript for you, using your own words!

Personal historians, also called memorists, charge anywhere from $100 to $20,000, depending on how extensive your memoirs are. Whichever way you decide to go, be sure to get started right away!

Check out The Association of Personal Historians for a memorist near you. www.personalhistorians.org

Some Thoughts on Publishing

Publishing should never be your main goal when writing anything. Focusing on getting published means that your narrative will never get written. It brings that inner critic to the foreground and he or she will harass the heck out of you!

When you are finished writing however, you may begin thinking about publishing your Memoirs. There are many places to do this. Unless you are famous or have an advanced degree in writing, you can pretty much forget about getting picked up by Random House. 99.9% of the average Memoir writers are going to have to self-publish. Very rarely – but it does happen – a book will be so successful that a major house will take notice and pick it up.

Self-Publication

There are many, many places out there offering help with self-publication. You can pay for the printing and these places will list your book on their website and market it for you. In my experience though, the marketing they do is extremely limited. You should be prepared to do the bulk of the marketing on your own.

Lulu, Inc.

The best venue that I have found is: Lulu, Inc. www.lulu.com. You can upload your book in MS Word format and in a matter of minutes, Lulu will transform your manuscript into a PDF file and make it available for sale on their website. They receive a very small commission. You set the price of your book to whatever you want. If you want to make money on the book, set the price higher. You can also make your book available for immediate download (in PDF form). You generally will set the book at a much lower cost for this. Again, you set your royalty and Lulu takes a small commission. The only downside is laying out the manuscript yourself in MS Word (or Quark, Pagemaker, etc.). If you need help doing this, contact me at kazsilvestri@yahoo.com

With the publication of Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, the art of Lifewriting has become a huge topic of interest to the American public. The July 2002 issue of Writer’s Digest is almost wholly devoted to Lifewriting and the publishers of Writer’s Digest have even issued a separate magazine to cover the how-to’s of writing memoirs and journaling.

In 1999 I began teaching memoir and journaling classes in Palm Beach County. I also work as a Personal Historian, taping clients memoirs and transcribing them to book form.

A few of the topics I explore with readers are:

Why should we write our memoirs?

Basic Writing Rules for Memoirs

Dealing with Painful Issues, Truth, and Personal Myths

Items to include in your memoir

Interviewing Friends and Family Members

Research

Putting it all Together

Re-writes

Publishing Your Memoirs

Getting professional assistance

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We all think that we are not famous enough to write our memoirs but this is a misconception! Each and every person who has ever lived has a zillion stories inside of them just screaming to be told!

Even if the only person who ever reads your stories is you - you will be leaving behind a valuable legacy for your descendants!

What would you do if you came upon a manuscript written by your great grandmother in the late 1800's?? Wouldn't you be thrilled beyond words to hear what life was like then? Wouldn't you be excited to find that people then loved, lost, and lived much as you do today?? How did they handle it? How did everyday life make them feel??

Why should YOU write your memoirs? "People today are rootless and aching for connections to the past", says Lettice Stuart, a Texas personal historian who records the memoirs of everyday people.

The process of documenting your life often brings family members together. And, as their life tale unfolds they will find themselves gaining new insights into events that took place, perhaps even bringing about healing to the past.

In addition, it is the act of writing, not the words themselves that produce a healing in the writer. Therefore, one need not be a scholar or novelist to reap the benefits of lifewriting.

If you are interested in hearing more about setting up a workshop in your community, I would be happy to visit with you and discuss it further.