“Where you stand depends on where you sit,” because the information you have will differ from what others have and what you have at stake will differ also. The memoir is particularly subjective.
MEMOIRS:
PART OF THE TRUTH, HOW YOU SAW IT
A memoir is a story about your life, as you saw it, as you understood it. It is less formal than an autobiography or a biography. It tells the truth, not necessarily all the truth. Reasons for writing a memoir include:
1.
Self-understanding: Some facts will speak for themselves. Some
will need interpretation. Some will reveal what was unclear to you then. Some
will give you more insight into yourself and those who influenced you.
2.
Explanations to others: Your audience can be your spouse, your
family, your friends, neighbors, colleagues, even the world. You had reasons
for the choices you made. Explain them. You learned from the outcomes. Share
those lessons. You may want to take credit or accept blame. Do so.
3.
History: You will not be available forever to tell the stories that
deserve to be told. Your memoir lives on. You may choose to add some leaves and
blossoms to the bare branches of your family tree. An occasional knot-hole or
broken limb may deserve mentioning and explanation. A bad apple may fail to
make the grade.
4. Thanks. You want to thank publicly and at length those who have
enriched your life. Our memoir thanked those who have saved my wife’s life and
helped keep her alive.
1
Money? Writing a memoir is
buying a ticket to a lottery. You need to WHIP up an audience:
-
Write well;
- have a
Hook;
- offer Insight;
- promote
via a Platform.
I gave away more copies of my Ting
and I memoir than I sold, despite having some fine reviews at amazon.com.
A downside to memoir-writing
is the loss of privacy entailed. In her book Writing the Memoir, Judith Barrington described the conflict the
memoirist faces in choosing between privacy and openness:
As
soon as I started to write about my own life, I understood that to speak honestly
about family and community is to step way out of line, to risk accusations of
betrayal, and to shoulder the burden of being the one who blows the whistle on
the myths that families and communities create to protect themselves from
painful truths. This threat was like a great shadow lurking at the corner of my
vision, as it is for anyone who approaches this task, even before the writing
leads them into sticky territory.
I was
molded into a pursuer of truth by my times. Active in the early feminist
movement and shaped by the consciousness-raising that insisted on scrupulously
examined lives, I was challenged in my 20s to take a second look, and then a
third and fourth one, at the facts of my life….
By
demanding our “loyalty” in the form of silence, some of the people we are
closest to have coerced us into collaborating with lies and myths. We cannot,
however, respond to this coercion by rushing angrily into print. We must
examine our responsibility as writers to those we write about, even while
holding fast to our truths.
You
will be praised by some and resented by some.
British author Victoria Twead (2013)
penned a very favorably reviewed 40-page work, How to Write a Bestselling Memoir: Three Steps To Success. Her
three steps are: write, publish, and
promote.
Write:
· She
recommends using a pen name, rather
than your own, unless you are a celebrity. If your book becomes popular, you
may not want the attention on yourself and your family. Then again, you may find
it useful.
·
Short, punchy titles sell better than long ones. Your
subtitle can explain the possibly puzzling title. She cites Eat, Pray, Love, an exceptionally
successful memoir. Include a keyword or two, to help your reader find you on
the Internet.
· Map
out your timeline on a big sheet of paper and start filling in details. You may
have the book itself start at a dramatic part of your life rather than your
youth. Plan where you will finish, too.
·
First chapter is
most important, as those who sample the book will start there.
·
Last chapter will
leave final impressions with those who might write reviews.
·
Chapter lengths: a matter of taste, but about 2500 words (10
pages) suits her well.
·
Tell the truth, not
all of it. Change names as seems wise. Alert the reader to that.
·
Make every word count.
·
Keep paragraphs short.
Use cliff-hangers to keep readers
intrigued. Describe event, but leave consequences for
later chapter, with some recap.
·
Dialogue “is
the perfect tool to build characters and develop them.” It is “easy to read and
increases the pace.” Unfortunately, you rarely know it with accuracy in
retrospect. Final punctuation occurs within the quotation marks, and each new
speaker gets new paragraph.
·
Vocabulary should
be varied. Use synonyms. Twead favors using a thesaurus, but other authors have
maintained that if the word is not in your usual vocabulary, eschew it. “Never
try to be too clever by using unfamiliar words.” Be alert to too much
repetition.
·
Proofreading
requires great care. Print out the material. Go line by line with a ruler. Get
friends and family to help proof, if you can. Pay a pro if need be. “I am
always horrified by the number of typos that are found by the professional when
I thought I’d checked every word meticulously….typos still appear in even the
most professional, traditionally published books.” Life goes on. Some are
appalled.
·
Size matters: Twead
finds 50,000 to 100,000 words best, in terms of reader acceptance. “…between
75,000 and 95,000 words is probably ideal.”
Publishing:
·
Traditional: The
publishing house pays you, takes the risk, calls the shots, edits, proofreads,
promotes a bit. You book may make it into bookstores. To get there, you will
need an agent, query letters, the whole rigmarole, which she describes. Readers
of my book, WYBWM, are not likely to
take this route.
·
Self-publishing: You do the work, get most of the profits, if
any.
·
Vanity press: Also
known as “subsidy” press, they will do much of the work, publish almost anything,
and promote it minimally. Twead dislikes them intensely. I have been happy with
Outskirts Press.
·
Independent press:
Unlike subsidy or vanity press, they do not charge the author and are
selective. Twead likes her Ant Press.
·
Front cover: Want
a stunning one: colored background, large font, and simple design,
professional. Twead gives technical details for ebook and paperback book
covers.
·
Back cover: Your blurb, or teaser, is crucial, the hook
to catch the reader. Write in third person, set scene, create curiosity. Add
praise from others, if you have some. Awards? Bio?
·
Front matter: I
cover this elsewhere.
·
Text format:
Details for those who are self-publishing.
50
Promotion tips: Includes distribute free review copies early,
have a website, start a blog, Facebook, answer comments from others, Tweet on
Twitter, join Google+, participate in forums, Shelfari, Goodreads,
Librarything, giveaways, visit local bookstores and see if they will let you hold
a signing, contact local papers and radio stations, collect email addresses,
start a newsletter, get business cards, write articles and press releases, make
a two-minute video, tailor your email signature, create flyers and bookmarks,
offer to speak, donate books to local libraries and charitable groups, sell at
flea markets, rent a billboard, print on favors like mugs, and “…the very best
way to sell books is to write another.”
Victoria Twead’s book sells for $4 as Amazon Kindle ebook and $8 as a paperback.
###
Excerpted from my recent opus, Write Your Book with Me, pubished by Outskirts Press and available from online booksellers like amazon.com and bn.com. See also my coruscating writing-coaching-editing web site http://WriteYourBookwithMe.com.
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