Memoir is a journey story.
It's about something you know
after something you've been through.
Memoir is not autobiography.
Memoir: A Balance of Curated Recounting and Meaning-making Reflection
A memoir writer who has not taken the time to make meaning from their own challenges and outcomes has not found the heart of their memoir. And this requires personal reflection. It is meaning-making that is crucial to a quality memoir, and this meaning-making is the most difficult job to be done by a memoir writer.
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Understanding Memoir: It's Not What You Did, It's What You Did With It
I wrote this article for publication on The Brevity Blog website.
Memoir is not what most people think it is. It's reflection, reflection, reflection.
A memoir without a thought-provoking takeaway for the reader (a resolution, in writing terminology) is like a movie that ends with a cliff-hanger or a mystery novel that remains unsolved in the final chapter. What is the point? To think that a memoir doesn’t need a point is to miss the unique characteristic of memoir entirely.
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When There is No There There in Memoir
​This expression could be used to describe a challenge faced by many novice memoir writers: their memoir manuscript does not have a clear and obvious there. As a memoir writing coach, sussing out the central, core point of a memoir is the most crucial and yet the most difficult aspect of memoir writing.
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Memoir Theme vs. Memoir Plot
Theme is what a memoir is about. It is your argument. Your thesis.
Plot is what happens. Plot is how the theme is conveyed.​​​​
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