It is always appropriate to ask ourselves what we would like to accomplish in the coming months.

 May you write many pages of your memoirs this year—and even bring them to a finish in the form of a published memoir!

Here are seven suggestions to help you succeed.… Read full post »

This may sound like a trick question but it's not. In fact, it is a very serious question that will determine-or at least greatly influence-the tone and the theme of your narrative.

"But, I'm writing my memoirs!" you might answer.

Yes, of course. You! But, which you!

We've… Read full post »

In writing a lifestory, it is important to pay attention to three aspects: action, character, and setting. These will enhance your story every time. To neglect these elements is to risk having your story fall flat. This month, we will concentrate on action.… Read full post »

I'm no more immune than anyone else to the plague of time wasters. Time wasters are habits we fall into that consume the time we have allotted (or could allot) to writing so that we end up not writing! Here are some of the most insidious that take up too much… Read full post »

There are ways to rework your stories so that you can minimize “telling” and maximize “showing.” The biggest “telling” offense is perhaps the overuse of descriptive adjectives and adverbs.

Adjectives and adverbs often “tell” the reader what to feel or… Read full post »

More than Names and Dates

 Imagine having a copy of your great-grandmother's journal to tell you about her daily life on the farm in 1880. Or a first-hand account by your grandfather of the long journey from the old country.

Now listen to your grandchildren, years from now,… Read full post »

"Inch by inch, it's a cinch. Yard by yard, it's hard."

All week, I have been writing in snippets. In the mornings after my coffee and journal writing, when I sit down at my laptop, I face, as does every writer, a demanding master: writing for the day.

Oh,… Read full post »

Don't let Oprah spring a question on you that you wish you didn't have to answer!

Is this the future you want? You've done a whole lot of writing and now you have published your book. You are very proud of your effort -- not the least of which has… Read full post »

Many—and perhaps most—people write too fast. I don’t mean that they end up with a text characterized by sloppy handwriting and spelling problems. No, what I mean is that they push through the process of writing their stories much too quickly. The result is they end up with only a pa… Read full post »

Facts, such as dates, addresses, names, and relationships are a special feature of lifewriting.

1) Lifewriting cannot, without deleting from its value, omit dates and specific identification of locales, names of individuals and their relationships to one another.

A lifestory without these facts is l… Read full post »

Following a few basic steps, anyone can succeed at writing interesting and meaningful lifestories. Gathering information from relatives— interviewing—is one of these basic steps you can master.

As a lifewriter, you must always double check the information you already have, and seek new m… Read full post »

Worth the time to write?" I repeated--raising my voice into a question--when a man said to me recently that most people didn't have a memoir that was worth their time to write. 

"Not only is every life worth writing about," I countered, "but the writing of memoir is a healing and… Read full post »

"I believe one has to stop holding back for fear of alienating some imaginary reader or real relative or friend and come out with personal truth. If we are to understand the human condition and if we are to accept ourselves in all the complexity, self-doubt.... we have to know all… Read full post »

Granted everyone has stories to tell, but can ordinary people learn the skills and techniques necessary to write meaningful and interesting autobiography?

Yes! Anyone who wants to can learn the tasks necessary to write a memoir to bequeath with pride to their children and grandchildren. Every ste… Read full post »

Nothing can rightly be called a first unless there is a second. First grade implies second grade; first class implies second class; first book implies (we hope) second book.

That ís why first drafts are called first drafts. A writer must expect to write a second draft,… Read full post »

Facts, such as dates, addresses, names, and relationships are a special feature of lifewriting.

1) Lifewriting cannot, without deleting from its value, omit dates and specific identification of locales, names of individuals and their relationships to one another.

Facts help us to evaluate. That… Read full post »

"What are you waiting for? Why are you avoiding the real work? What will it take for you to go deeper?"

--Phil Cousineau in Stoking the Creative Fires

The Phil Cousineau quote above ought to be for all of us a stirring call to continue--or to begin if that… Read full post »

When a writer talks too much and too revealingly about a story s/he wishes to write—especially at the early stage before the writing has taken enough shape—the energy to get the story written is can be scattered and even lost.

People everywhere have an urge to make their… Read full post »

"Each poem clarifies something. But then you've got to do it again. You can't get 'clarified' to stay so: let you not think that. In a way, it's like nothing more than blowing smoke rings. Making little poems encourages a man to see that there is shapeliness in the world. A… Read full post »

What makes a real memoir writer? Is it someone who has published a book? Is it someone who works full-time at it? Is it someone whose only income comes from writing? Is it someone who wears jackets with patches on the elbows and smokes a pipe, or someone who spends hours… Read full post »

The old adage "Show your story rather than tell it!" is as true as ever. It is one technique that will always improve your writing. I admit that there is some great writing that makes a precedent for "tell," but as a rule "show" is more effective. Consider this.