You want to write a book about your life, or rather a specific period in your life — a memoir rather than an autobiography. You sit down at your computer or desk, crack your knuckles, and begin. Your journey has started and it’s very exciting, but also it can be scary. What if people don’t like it? Even worse, what if they don’t even read it? First off, every book, and I mean every book, has detractors – people who hate it or threw it across the room or couldn’t even slog through the first chapter (I’m looking at you, Grapes of Wrath). You want to write a good book, a book with a rich and engaging storyline, where every twist and turn is followed with bated breath by your readers.
But what does a good memoir look like? Well, for starters, it looks like any memoir you’ve read that you found interesting and engaging, so do take the time to read a few before beginning yours. And then once you do, keep these 6 nuggets of wisdom in mind, which answer the question: what does a good memoir look like?
1. It tells a snapshot of one theme of your life. Your memoir should focus on one moment or a particular series of moments around the theme you want to share with the reader. Don’t start at the beginning. Pick a particularly compelling story or moment in your life and then use the rest of the book to work your way back and fill in the blanks to get to that point in time.
2. It includes more than just your particular experience. Anything that enriches the telling of your story should be included, such as the geography or decoration of a room, any history that is required for context to your story, the details about the people you are meeting and interacting with, etc. In this way, you are giving the reader a complete picture in their minds of what you were seeing, smelling, hearing, and feeling so that they can be there in the room with you.
3. It uses powerful active language and it tells the truth – your truth from your perspective. Use words that pull on the readers’ imaginations, emotions, or that pack a punch (see what I did there? – it’s an idiom AND it’s active AND it is descriptive.) Use active verbs – instead of “I began to wonder,” use “I wondered.”
4. It shows the reader what you see, what you felt, what you heard, rather than tells the reader what you saw. Similar to number #2 above, you want the reader to visualize the scene and to do that you want to include vivid language and descriptions. (More on Showing, not telling to come in a later blog…)
5. Use fiction story writing techniques and elements to bring your story to life. Recreate the scenes you experienced with dialogue and description. Have a distinct story arc. You want the reader to feel like they are on a rollercoaster – the big long incline to the pinnacle of the story and then the hair-raising plunge to the depths of despair followed by a slow gentle slope back to some level of normal. You want it to be compelling for the reader, so the tensions and conflicts should be palpable.
6. Collapse your characters and events. You don’t want to include everyone in your memoir. You want to focus on the most essential people who are important to the telling of your story. By doing this, you not only keep the story telling on theme but you also keep the reader from getting confused with who is who and where they came from.
Go back to your favorite non-fiction books and look for the elements that kept you hooked – did they include personal stories? Were there examples that seemed out of place but then made complete sense once the explanation was fully revealed? Did it pull on your heartstrings? Use books you’ve read, and enjoyed, as a template for writing your own stories.
And then get crackin’ on it already!