Provides the reader with the tactics to create a work of individual truth by putting your memories into words.

The fast and easy way to write your memoir Memoir writing is a growing phenomenon, and not just by celebrities and politicians. Everyone has a story to tell, and Memoir Writing For Dummies provides hopeful writers with the tools they need to share their life stories with the world and become published authors. With easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions—along with helpful tips and advice on how to get published—Memoir Writing For Dummies shows you how to put pen to paper and hone the craft of writing a truly compelling memoir. You'll get advice on how to explore your memories, map out your story, perfect your plot, setting, character, and dialogue, and so much more. Includes tips on getting over writer's block Guides you through every step of the writing and editing processes Covers the best ways to market a finished memoir Packed with proven tips and writing tricks of the trade, Memoir Writing For Dummies gives you everything you need to ensure your life story is never forgotten.

Drawing from more than 25 years of literary know-how and modeled after a 15-week college course, this manual provides guidance for seekers wishing to delve further into self-exploration through writing. Extending beyond the idea that memoir writing intends to put past events into a more understandable current perspective, the guide maintains that keeping a document of one’s life is actually the basis of a psychic process called “soul work,” which manifests as a desire to experience the state of being alive to the fullest. This unusual approach to memoir writing aims to generate more honest and genuine results that come from inner needs rather than outer expectations. Intended to clarify a writer’s developmental path, this resource emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and the need for dealing with difficult material that actually alters the writer in the process, resulting in significant growth of the soul.

For those that have mastered the basics of memoir and wish to probe this brand of creative nonfiction further, Writing the Radical Memoir uses salient theories about memory and the self to challenge assumptions about how we remember and tell the truth of our lives when we write about it. Innovative in approach and making new critical ideas accessible, each chapter maps out the key principles of such writers as Barthes, Lacan, Derrida, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Philippe Le Jeune and Joseph Campbell, invokes literary examples to show how other writers have mastered the idea before reflecting on how you can practically apply the theory to your writing. With original exercises and prompts for further reading that bridge the gap between the theoretical and how it might be put into practice, the book is attentive to the multiple facets of the genre of nonfiction writing generally, covering such topics as: - The writer/ reader contract - How to embark on a thematic/ symbolic exploration of themes and incidents in your life - How neuro-scientific theory can inform our understanding of memory and recall and what happens to our memories when we remember them - Character development and the ethics of writing about real people - How constructing your identity in memoir offers a chance to push back against traditional structures - That memoir might not be preservation of your past but a process of self-erasure - How J. M. Coetzee's Autrebiography trilogy challenges traditional biography By bringing together lived experience, post-structuralist and postmodernist theories, praxis and artistic vision as a unique approach to writing memoir, this book encourages you to think the self, how it is portrayed, created, erased and made strange through the process of writing and remembering.

An extraordinary "practical resource for beginners" looking to write their own memoir—​now new and revised (Kirkus Reviews)! The greatest story you could write is one you've experienced yourself. Knowing where to start is the hardest part, but it just got a little easier with this essential guidebook for anyone wanting to write a memoir. Did you know that the #1 thing that baby boomers want to do in retirement is write a book—about themselves? It's not that every person has lived such a unique or dramatic life, but we inherently understand that writing a memoir—whether it's a book, blog, or just a letter to a child—is the single greatest path to self-examination. Through the use of disarmingly frank, but wildly fun tactics that offer you simple and effective guidelines that work, you can stop treading water in writing exercises or hiding behind writer's block. Previously self-published under the title, Writing What You Know: Raelia, this book has found an enthusiastic audience that now writes with intent.

A new approach to family and personal memoirs that includes many creative formats. Memoir Your Way inspires family storykeepers to create a memoir using a craft you already know or are inspired to learn to create a personal, polished memoir your family will treasure. Accessible and with broad appeal, this first-of-its-kind book extends the written memoir form to cookbooks, scrapbooks, quilts, and other forms of storytelling. Readers of Memoir Your Way will find out how to: Create your own family cookbook like a pro Design, stitch, and create stunning quilts that preserve family memories for the next generation and create a cherished gift Bring out the natural storyteller in children while building self-confidence and a sense of family Write engaging family stories with proven writing tips Enrich scrapbooks with stories that might otherwise be overlooked and techniques that showcase even the memories that weren't preserved in photographs Turn your story into a graphic novel with hand-drawn illustrations Become the bridge for your heritage between the old world and the new Memoir Your Way makes memoir accessible to everyone, including those who don't see themselves as writers. Memoir Your Way is a valuable sourcebook for quickly and easily creating memoirs that celebrate family stories and ancestry.

Language, literature and biography.

Have you ever felt as if your life would make a compelling story? As if you should be published because the stories you write are intriguing and popular? Well, I am here to give you the tools to do just that. By learning the Perspective Outcome Journaling methodology you will have the tools to avoid writers block, to perfect your stories, and immerse yourself in your creative process. You will even reach a point where everything becomes information that can add depth, description, and life, to any setting, character, or circumstance. This workbook will walk you through the method by linking it to the stories of your life as soon as you pick it up.

Helps readers write memoirs, personal essays, and life stories of every length and type.

A book of writing prompts from the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, authors of the bestselling 642 Things series Focus on a single aspect of the craft of writing with help from the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. Writing Memoir starts with a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Julie Lythcott-Haims, who offers pointers for crafting a compelling narrative from your own experiences. The rest of the book consists of prompts and space to think, providing opportunities to reframe aspects of your life in thoughtful and interesting ways. Among other ideas, you’ll be asked to write: a virtual tour of your hometown a description of what’s in your purse or wallet right now a list of all the lies you’ve told an account of a historical event from your own lifetime, in a way that reveals something significant about yourself Take to a café, on vacation, or on your morning commute and practice your creative writing a little bit at a time. Special Features Advice from a published writer, followed by prompts Part of the Lit Starts series, a collection of single-subject writing prompt books by the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto Check out the other books in this series: Writing Action, Writing Character, Writing Dialogue, Writing Humor, and Writing Sci-fi and Fantasy.