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    How to Craft a Memoir - 12 Basic Steps for the First-Time and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer
    How to Craft a Memoir - 12 Basic Steps for the First-Time and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer
    How to Craft a Memoir - 12 Basic Steps for the First-Time and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer
    Ebook141 pages1 hour

    How to Craft a Memoir - 12 Basic Steps for the First-Time and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer

    By Denis Ledoux

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    About this ebook

    HOW TO CRAFT A MEMOIR - 12 BASIC STEPS FOR THE FIRST-TIME AND (PERHAPS) ONLY-TIME WRITER

    THE MEMOIR NETWORK WRITING BOOKS SERIES

    1.21 Must-Do Memoir-Writing Steps / Best Practices to Write Quickly and Well. This brief overview orients you to the many do-able tasks necessary to create an interesting and meaningful memoir. Consider 21 Best Memoir-Writing Tips a checklist with explanatory paragraphs! This is a FREE series lead book.
    2.Craft A Memoir / 12 Basic Steps for the First-time and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer The newbie will find many suggestions and techniques to facilitate his/her entry into memoir writing as well as a path to completing the memoir.
    3.Memory List Question Book / 100s of Not-a-Prompt Questions. Memory Lists are your magic bullet. Recall more details, dates, people, and events than you now think possible Gone the isolated or irrelevant writing produced by prompts. Questions appropriate for all skill levels.
    4.Start Your Memoir Right shows you how to stop asking if you should write your memoir, find inspiration to begin, and practice techniques of the art of memoir writing. You can be successful. Appropriate for all skill levels.
    5.Organize Your Memoir / Find Your Structure answers the perennial question: How do I put all my stories and my manuscript pieces together? This book is a guide. Appropriate for all skill levels.
    6.Don't Let Writer's Block Stop You shows you how writer's block CAN teach you to push beyond stuck. Banish writer’s block forever. Appropriate for all skill levels.
    7.Write to the End / Eight Strategies to Thrive as a Writer will help you to complete your writing projects and reach the audiences you deserve. Appropriate for all skill levels.
    And, there is our classic, Turning Memories Into Memoirs/A Handbook for Writing Lifestories, the trusted granddaddy among memoir-writing books, is an overview to create a really well crafted and meaningful story. Along with the above books, it is a best investment in your success.
    When on Amazon or Smashwords:

    Scroll to the top of this page and select the "buy" button. The financial investment is small, and the writing rewards are great.

    1200 Words

    1.21 Must-Do Memoir-Writing Steps / Best Practices to Write Quickly and Well. This brief overview orients you to the many tasks necessary to create an interesting and meaningful memoir. FREE.
    2.Craft A Memoir / 12 Basic Steps for the First-time and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer The newbie will find suggestions and techniques to facilitate memoir writing and complete your memoir.
    3.Memory List Question Book / 100s of Not-a-Prompt Questions. Memory Lists are your magic bullet. Recall more details, dates, people, and events than you think possible.
    4.Start Your Memoir Right shows you how to stop asking if you should write your memoir, find inspiration to begin, and practice techniques of the art of memoir writing.
    5.Organize Your Memoir / Find Your Structure answers the perennial question: How do I put all my stories and manuscript pieces together? This book is a guide.
    6.Don't Let Writer's Block shows you how writer's block CAN teach you to push beyond stuck. Banish writer’s block forever.
    7.Write to the End / Eight Strategies to Thrive as a Writer will help you to complete your writing projects and reach your audience.

    Also read our classic, Turning Memories Into Memoirs.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDenis Ledoux
    Release dateJun 24, 2015
    ISBN9781311010667
    How to Craft a Memoir - 12 Basic Steps for the First-Time and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer
    Author

    Denis Ledoux

    YOU CAN LEARN TO WRITE FROM THE INSIDE OUTI believe in the power of telling our personal and family stories. These are our hero's journeys, and by telling them we honor ourselves and the people we have come from. An important early task for the writer is go inside and find the story that is worth telling. The story is not about "nice" words; it is about honest words, visceral words.LIFESTORIES FEED USStories have always played an important role in my life. I grew up in a three-generation home with paternal grandparents who lived upstairs. I heard tales of my extended family and their history recounted by the family storyteller, my grandmother Ledoux. These stories were a food for my soul. I could not get enough of them, and her gift to me was that she was a voluble, entertaining storyteller.I began writing as a short-story writer, drawing on family characters, settings, and stories for my fiction. In 1989, I won the Maine Fiction Award for Mountain Dance & Other Stories. My other titles include What Became of Them and Other Stories from Franco-America (1988), and Lives in Translation: An Anthology of Contemporary Franco-American Writings (which I edited in 1990). In 1992, I published (and it is still in print) Turning Memories Into Memoirs / A Handbook for Writing Lifestories; in 1996, The Photo Scribe / How to Tell the Stories Behind Your Photos; in 2009, The Consumer's Guide to Ghostwriting, in 2013, a memoir—We Were Not Spoiled. E-publication includes the books listed here in Smashwords as well as others.MAKING THE LEAP TO BECOMING A MEMOIR PROFESSIONALIt was a natural leap from my own family stories to helping others to record their stories in well-written accounts that apply all the techniques of fiction writing to autobiography, family reminiscence, and scrapbooking.In 1996, I was honored as Lifewriting Professional of the Year by the Association of Personal Historians.THE MEMOIR NETWORKToday, I continue to work as a writer, educator, teacher, autobiography co-author, memoir-writing coach, editor and publisher. I direct The Memoir Network, an international group of lifestory writing teachers who use my method and materials to lead the popular Turning Memories® and Photo Scribe® workshops and programs.My Memoir Network offers Memoir Professional Packages for individuals wishing to do what we call memoir work in their communities. [http://thememoirnetwork.com/memoir-professional-packages/] Please inquire if you are interested in becoming a Memoir Professional.BUILD YOUR MEMOIR-WRITING LIBRARYYou will find a number of my memoir-writing e-books on Smashwords. Begin to purchase them now so as to develop your memoir-writing library. These are the best memoir-writing books available anywhere at any price.BEYOND THE BOOKSIf you need more than these great books, give me call at 207-353-5454 for a free consultation to determine whether coaching, editing, or ghostwriting is a good fit for you. When you're ready, we can also do book production for you.Keep writing and stay in the memoir conversation.

    Read more from Denis Ledoux

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    Book preview

    How to Craft a Memoir - 12 Basic Steps for the First-Time and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer - Denis Ledoux

    How to

    Craft A Memoir:

    12 Basic Steps for the First-Time

    and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer

    Denis Ledoux

    KUDOS FOR DENIS LEDOUX

    I.

    Denis Ledoux won the 1989 Maine Fiction Award judged by Elizabeth Hardwick and the juried 1991 and 1996 Maine Individual Writing Fellowships.

    II.

    Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to have people speak well about The Memoir Network, about Memoir Network products and about Denis.

    ~ Time Magazine wrote of Denis in an article on memoir writing in April 1999: Denis Ledoux has helped thousands of people get started writing their memoir.

    ~ The Christian Science Monitor ran either roundups or feature articles on Denis. Three times.

    ~ His Turning Memories Into Memoirs was deemed by Booklist (the review medium of the American Library Association) as very beneficial…helps writers get off to a great start.

    ~ Rhonda Kanning Anderson, co-founder of the early (and for long time) premier scrapbooking company, Creative Memories, said of his Photo Scribe: "The Photo Scribe has inspired me to a new level of

    photo-journaling. This practical step-by-stop guide can enable anyone to discover the depth of their memories."

    ~ Bottomline Publications acknowledged Denis’s work (in two feature articles) as a memoir ghostwriter, editor and coach.

    ~ The Cincinnati Post praised Turning Memories Into Memoirs / A Handbook for Writing Lifestories: …a step-by-step manual, lots of examples, a fine appendix and a detailed index, making it a useful reference over time.

    III.

    Denis has been interviewed on a variety of radio stations in cities as far flung as Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Montréal.

    He has been interviewed by NPR affiliates as well as Radio Canada.

    ©Copyright 2022 Denis Ledoux

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations.

    For more information on how you can get help to write a memoir—yours or someone else’s, contact:

    Denis Ledoux

    The Memoir Network

    95 Gould Road, Lisbon Falls, ME 04252

    www.TheMemoirNetwork.com

    Denis@TheMemoirNetwork.com

    for hundreds of stimulating and informative posts:

    https://thememoirnetwork.com/memoir-writing-blog/

    Cover design: Sally Lunt

    Ebook: Bruce Pagliaroli

    Many thanks to Sally Lunt and Bruce Pagliaroli without whom this book would have been much more difficult to create. It is a better book because of their insightful and skilled contributions. Thank you so much.

    Dedicated

    to all the First-Time and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writers

    who are committing to write their lifestories.

    You are heroes!

    …and to all other writers: welcome!

    A Simple Request

    If this book contributes to your writing—whether to its quantity or its quality—would you please take a moment to write a short review of the book on your favorite Internet book seller. Tell your fellow writers what they might expect of Craft A Memoir. For other titles on writing personal family stories and memoirs, click here.]

    Thank You Gift

    I hope you will enjoy this book. As a thank you for trusting me to be your guide, I would like to gift you with a free membership in the Memoir Network’s My Memoir Education. Membership advantages include a twenty-eight lesson introductory memoir-writing course, and dozens of MP3s, including interviews with prize-winning memoirists to inspire and guide you. When you sign up for your free membership, you’ll also receive the informative newsletter, The Lifewriter’s Digest.

    http://thememoirnetwork.com/register/

    Table of Contents

    Introduction

    1. What Are You Writing?

    2. Write with an Audience in Mind

    3. Make a Memory List

    4. Write Your Ten Most Important Stories First

    5. The Writing Process

    6. Double Check Your Memories

    7. Tell the Truth As Much As You Can

    8. Be Specific

    9. Explore the Myths in Your Stories

    10. Be Simple in Your Writing

    11. Set a Schedule For Yourself

    12. Stop Trying to Write!

    About the Author

    Introduction

    CRAFT A MEMOIR:

    12 Basic Steps for the First-Time

    and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer

    You may have studied novel writing. You may have studied essay writing. You may have studied historical writing.

    Fine and good, but this is not specific, or even sufficient, preparation for memoir writing. Memoir writing has its own requirements and processes which this book will help you appreciate and put into practice.

    ~ Too many novel-like elements you love so much and you create a credibility gap. Who is going to believe you? How much did the author make up? the reader asks. In fact, the reader might presume you have fabricated much of the story. It reads well as a novel, but—sorry—it is not credible as a memoir. This is what tanked A Million Little Pieces. Its author, James Frey, went overboard fictionalizing what he called a memoir, and after a hue and cry from the literary world, the publisher was forced to stop categorizing it as memoir. It seems Frey had made up entire portions of his story. Speak of fictionalizing!)

    ~ Too many essay-like expositions of facts your mind revels in and who is going to care about your characters? Your book will read like a report, a case study. Your characters are missing from the prose! Memoirs are about characters—you and your people. Be sure you give them priority exposure. They need to be in the foreground. Memoirs are about one heart speaking to another while an essay is one mind speaking to another. Quite a different conversation!

    ~ Too many historical factoids and who is going to remember the story as a memoir? Historical context is important and should never be overlooked, but a memoir is about particular people not about an overview of an era. Historical overview is about background not foreground of your story.

    A memoir invites you to walk a mile in my shoes. A memoir worth reading brings the reader into the story; we find ourselves empathizing with the subject’s struggles and successes. We appreciate that this story is the story of a person, a personal account that introduces us to one aspect of the human experience—the memoir subject’s.

    An introductory glimpse

    Craft A Memoir: 12 Basic Tasks for the First-time and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer was written with the novice writer especially in mind. The book focuses on basics. Hence the subtitle. The newbie—the first-time and (perhaps) only-time writer—will find here many suggestions on how to approach writing with a constructive frame of mind and will learn a number of techniques to facilitate not only his/her entry into memoir writing but also a path to the completion of the memoir.

    Other titles in the Memoir Network Writing Book Series pick up on writers who have more writing experience. That is not to say, however, that an experienced writer who has never written memoir will not find this book very useful. In the sense that this person has never undertaken a memoir, one could rightly say s/he is an inexperienced newbie—in memoir writing. I would recommend this person read Craft A Memoir: 12 Basic Tasks for the First-time and (Perhaps) Only-Time Writer before commencing to craft a memoir. It will help to make the process easier and better.

    At The Memoir Network, we have helped writers of many different levels. Some like the readers for whom this booklet is primarily intended are new to the craft, while others who have already written much and even published books seek specific memoir training when they come to us.

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