I've often said jokingly to my students, "Writing a memoir is like taking your clothes off in public." True, but it doesn't go far enough. It's like taking your clothes off and reading your journal in public.
You're vulnerable when you write. When you think of others reading your work, it's easy to feel overwhelmed -- there are so many stories to choose from! Where to start? Which to choose? There's an endless chatter that many beginning writers find hard to deal with. You can't just silence the voices in your head -- the questions posed are important. They're the questions you need to answer. They go like this: "Today, which story can I write? It's not in order of my outline? Should I write a story, any story I can manage, or wait until my brain clears? Maybe I need to work on my outline some more." Etc. Etc.
For most people, their memoir is their first book. So, you are doing two things at once: You're taking off your clothes AND you're learning how to write a book. Yikes! Don't despair. Lots of people do it, but you need to try to keep balancing your feelings, your emotional temperature and your energy to learn the craft of writing and how a book is written. It's a long, slow boat to the end of the story, and you also need patience. Oh, and a sense of humor helps too!
Memoir is still a popular subject for those who want to explore their lives through story, and for readers. There seems to be a hunger to learn from our fellow humans how to manage life, how to live it better, how to create something worthwhile out of life experiences both for the writer and the reader.
If you are a writer, here are some tips that can help you to balance your skills
•Sketch out the outline -- this becomes a map for you to follow.
•Decide what your themes are for your book -- knowing your themes helps you to focus. A memoir is a piece of your life, not your whole life.
•Learn about scenes -- a scene happens in a certain place and time.
•More specifically: be aware that writing a scene brings you into the world you are painting on the page -- you are creating a whole world for your reader.
•Check to see if you have used sensual detail in your scenes -- touch, sound, description, character development, dialogue (not in all scenes), smell, textures -- so important to create that world.
•List the important scenes in your life, but preferably the important scenes that connect with the themes in your book. This helps you to focus on starting to weave your memoir.
•Find out how to connect scenes with reflection. You weave narration and reflection with your scenes.
•Learn what the narrator does to help keep your book flowing -- your narrator guides the reader through the book, through thoughts and reflections, and offers a message or takeaway for the reader.
Questions surrounding vulnerability that arise for most memoir writers:
•Do I have a right to tell others' stories? (Yes -- if it's your story that's the focus, and if you're fair.)
•How do I decide which stories are the most important? (See below.)
•Dare I share/tell the intimate or secret parts of my life? What might happen? (This is the challenge of memoir, this is what we're doing. Be brave -- write your first draft.)
•My stories are emotionally hard to get into. Should I stop writing? (Don't stop! Write for a short time, then take a break.)
•What about family -- these stories will upset them. (Your memoir is your story. Write a first draft that you don't show to anyone.)
•Some of my stories are very dark. Will I get depressed and stuck if I write them? (Write a dark story for only 10-15 minutes. Balance with a lighter story, or leave and do something fun.)
•I'm stuck. What should I do? (See below.)
•I'm writing mostly for healing, so can I just copy parts of my journal and call it a memoir? (Your memoir is made up of scenes and reflection. Don't just copy your journal.)
•Do I need scenes when my focus is spiritual or reflective? (You need scenes to bring the reader into your world, the world of body and mind. The reader needs to feel your experience.)
•Can I write in third person to protect myself, or use a pseudonym? (No. Write your first draft in your voice using real names. Don't share it. Just get through it. Then decide what to do.)
Here are some more important things to keep in mind when integrating craft and emotions:
1.You're writing your story, in a first draft, mostly for you -- but that doesn't mean that you should throw out craft to do it. In fact, you'll be very frustrated if you don't learn about scene writing, because in the end, you'll have a whole lot of pages that will be hard to follow and messy. You'll have to figure out where and when to use scenes anyway, if you want to publish your memoir eventually- - and most memoir writers want to publish.
2.You can still write your first draft as mostly a healing draft, but I have learned through working with memoir writers for over 15 years that if you write in scene, your work will be more powerful and more healing. Studies have backed this up too: story -- with scene, narration, and sensual details -- is a powerful transformational agent.
3.Find your important moments of meaning -- the true North of your memoir -- by listing turning points or moments that are important to you. Make a list, keep it up for a while, and then you'll have the spine of your memoir. Choose to write your scene from this list, and you can write in any order. Making an outline is helpful too though, because at some point, you'll want to put those scenes in some kind of order.
4.When in doubt about what to write, select a scene, a significant scene, and write it. The antidote to the left organizing brain is to drop into YOU and find a scene you feel connected to and write it. That scene, that moment.
5.We need to balance the organizing we need to do to write a book by making space to find ourselves, our voice and our reason for writing our story. It helps to close your eyes and visualize where you are, when, who's there with you in the scene and the smells, texture and sights of that moment. Write it without thinking of anything else. Stay present with it.
6.Your memoir is YOUR story about how you experienced the world -- with your memories and your thoughts about the moments you capture. You will be showing AND telling in your memoir, creating a world where you invite the reader to join you.
Most important: Keep writing!