Hi aspiring writers! Writing coach
Stefanie Newell and this is The Life Of
A Writer channel. Today's video How To
write A Memoir. In this video I'm gonna
be sharing with you five tips that will
help you to turn your life experiences
into a book that you can be proud of. If
you want to learn how to connect with
readers and sell more books make sure to
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Tuesda. As many of you know I coach
first-time nonfiction writers and a lot
of my clients are memoir writers and
memoir writers deal with very personal
issues such as adoption, health
conditions and domestic violence and
sexual assault and so because of that I
have taken a special interest in doing a
series around writing a memoir because I
know that so many of you need
information on how to move forward so in
this video my goal is to provide for you
a logical way to write your memoir so
that it benefits your readers. So let's
get into tip number one. So tip number
one is to be clear on why exactly you're
writing a memoir. Now of course this is
going to be different for every single
person because you know it's dependent
on the personal experiences that you're
going to be sharing. But the reason why I
feel this is such an important tip it's
because you're going to be rehashing and
reliving all of these experiences all
over again whether they're negative
experiences or positive experiences you
need to remember at the root why you
want to write this memoir. Now for most
people it's a simple answer they feel
that someone can benefit from hearing
their story and that's sufficient. But I
want you to explore why you're writing
it because there's gonna be some times
especially if you're writing a memoir
and it has negative experiences in it
you're gonna be reliving all of those
different experiences and you're gonna
feel like why am I doing this? So I want
you to have that at the forefront of
your mind so that you know from the
start of writing your manuscript exactly
why you're writing a memoir. So tip
number two is to figure out the theme
for your book. So for some people there
will be one theme for your book while
other people may have multiple themes
for their book and there's no right or
wrong way. So for example let's say you
experienced a financial crisis in your
life
that may be the entire theme for your
book and there's nothing wrong with one
theme for your book. As a matter of fact
one theme makes it easier to find your
target audience. So a suggestion that I
like to give if you have or you find
that you're going to have multiple
themes throughout your book where
possible make sure that those themes
connect with each other. And the reason
why you want to make sure that those
themes connect is because again we're
going to be trying to find a target
audience of people that can relate to
this subject matter and if you're all
over the place with this theme and that
theme and this theme and they don't
connect it makes it harder for you to
narrow in on a target audience that will
appreciate your book. Jump down in the
comment section and share with me the
themes for your memoir. Tip number three
is to remember your book doesn't have to
be linear. So before we get into a
conversation about what that means
exactly I want to give a little
definition of what a memoir is because
for a lot of first-time writers they get
confused on the difference between a
memoir and an autobiography. So a memoir
is going to cover specific events that
have happened in your life and that's
kind of the reason why I said in tip
number two to think about the themes
because you're going to be covering
specific events that happen whereas an
autobiography usually which is done on a
celebrity or political figure or
something of that nature it covers their
entire life. So that's gonna be really
important to remember. So the reason why
I'm saying you don't have to write
linear, for a lot of first-time writers
they're gonna find that to be
comfortable, you know this is what
happened in 2018 this is what happened
in 2019 and this is what is happening
present day. And if that feels the most
comfortable for you by all means write
in that manner. The point of this tip is
to tell you that that is not the only
way to write a memoir now the one thing
that is important to remember is that
we're trying to write a memoir that
engages our target audience we want them
to know that this is the right memoir
for them so that they can walk away from
this book having learned more about you
and also being to being able to assess
how you know it can help him benefit
them as the reader. So you have to
have a strong introduction. So for some
people telling your story in a linear
manner will make sense. For other people
depending on what your experiences are
that you're sharing you might might want
to start at current day, you might want to
start with the tragic event that
happened you might want to start with
the positive experience that happened, it
really just depends. So I want to make
sure that you guys are clear on one it
doesn't have to be written in one
specific way. It doesn't have to be this
happened this year this happened the
following year and this is happening now.
Tip number four be transparent. So one of
the things that a lot of my clients
struggle with is wondering how writing a
memoir is going to affect other people
around them our lives intertwine with
other people so one of the things that
my clients struggle with is how will
other people feel about me writing and
sharing my experiences. So the first
thing that I want to say to you is that
you are well within your right to share
your personal story no one can take that
away from you. However, you just might want to
take some care in how you share those
different experiences. So for some of my
clients they decide to actually go to
the person that they're going to be
sharing let them know that I'm going to
be sharing my story. I'm going to be
sharing my story from my perspective not
to hurt you not to be disrespectful in
any way but I'm sharing it from my
vantage point. This is how I saw things
as happening and there's nothing
wrong with doing that. Other people will
decide to just write it whether they get
consent or not and you know I
don't guess there's anything wrong with
that so long as somebody doesn't
come back with some kind of legal
ramifications. I don't get into the
legal side because that is not my area
of expertise
but I will put down in the description
box a link to an article that talks
about the legal ramifications of
including other people in your books.
Another way that people go about
handling it is by basically changing the
name and all of the identifying factors
so that people can't figure out exactly
who you're talking about.
Another option is to go with a pen
name and then no one will ever be able
to piece back who you are, but the most
important thing going back to being
transparent is remember you are not
obligated to write a memoir. This is
something that you chose to do. So you're
not obligated to share all of your
different personal experiences, but the
experiences that you do choose to share
be as authentic and transparent as
possible because that's going to be
relayed to your reader. They're going to
appreciate your sharing it in that way
because they'll be able to connect with
your story. But tip number five is also
very important create an outline. The
reason why creating an outline is
important is because again going back to
tip number two we talked about themes
and we're thinking about the themes that
we want to talk about we won't don't
want to steer too far away from what
those themes are for our books. So by
writing an outline and seeing visually
on paper exactly the experiences that
you want to talk about putting them in a
logical order so that it makes sense for
the readers whether that's linear or not
you want to create an outline so that
when you get ready to sit down to your
computer you know exactly what it is
that you want to write. While writing a
memoir is definitely a difficult process
because for some people like I said
you're talking about you know negative
experiences that you have and again not
all memoirs and negative experiences but
from my experience working with my
clients a lot of the memoirs are... you
want to be clear on what it is that
you're talking about. So maybe one day
you're going to sit down to your
computer and you're not in the mindset
to discuss X Y or Z you can skip over
that chapter because you know exactly
the order in which you need to write it.
So an outline is going to be important
because listen you know your life you
just need it to be in a logical order so
that you know exactly what it is that
you need to write as soon as you sit
down to your computer and this is gonna
be so helpful because for most
first-time authors one of the things
that they struggle with is what do I
write? But if you know and you have an
outline and you know the exact order
that you're going to put it in and you
have an outline that is perfect for your
target
audience its going to be much easier to
write your memoir.
