This guidebook through the complex layers of writing a publishable memoir gives you all you need to begin a memoir and find your way through the labyrinth of memories and writing challenges that come with crafting a true story about your life. This is a good companion book to Linda’s other book on memoir writing, The Power of Memoir.
Myers three stages of memoir writing are:
Kick Starting Your Memoir
The Muddy Middle
Birthing Your Book
Journey of Memoir delivers skill sets and problem solving, with hundreds of exercises and thought provoking questions that a serious memoir writer needs to consider in today’s market. You will find information on how to write a great scene; the difference between freewriting and outlining and why you need both; timeline and turning point exercises to help you track your story; advice for how to conquer the inner critic, deal with legal and ethical issues, and whether to change names, compress time, or do composite characters. Finally, the workbook offers a social media marketing outline, as well as what you need to be thinking about early on when it comes to getting published. There are ample pages provided for sketching your ideas, building your plot, and troubleshooting your family critics. This unique workbook gives you the tools you need to begin, develop, and complete your memoir.
Linda Joy Myers is founder and president of the National Association of Memoir Writers and past president of the Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco. A national memoir speaker and coach, she’s the author of The Power of Memoir: How to Write Your Healing Story and the prizewinning memoir, Don’t Call Me Mother. She co-teaches the program “Write your Memoir in Six Months” with Brooke Warner, and offers teleseminars and workshops monthly. Read more about teleseminars and writing skills for memoir writers at namw.org.
