| "The best gift you have to offer when you write | | | | You'll find that the most difficult thing about this |
| personal history is the gift of yourself. Don't forget | | | | project is that first sentence. Most people have a |
| that it's there and that it has great power. Give | | | | good idea of what they want to write about, but |
| yourself permission to write about yourself, and have | | | | beginnings can be hard. Making yourself sit down, pick |
| a good time doing it." (William Zinsser, On Writing | | | | up a pen, or turn on the computer, is the big hurdle |
| Well) | | | | for most people. Once started, the memoir takes on |
| Congratulations on wanting to pen your memoirs...or | | | | a life of its own, and your story will spill out. |
| at least some part of them. This should be a | | | | You'll also find that you'll spend an inordinate amount |
| rewarding and fulfilling activity and not the chore that | | | | of time just thinking about your project. I know I do |
| you might be imagining it to be. Think of it as a work | | | | when I'm involved in a project. Sometimes I think for |
| of love. This is a wonderful gift for your family, and | | | | weeks before I write. I'm thinking when I'm driving |
| one they will cherish always. | | | | (now that's a scary thought). I think while I'm |
| Many people assume they have to sit down and "let | | | | gardening, riding my horse, and I think about my |
| it all hang out," and for most this seems a daunting | | | | work even when I should be thinking about other |
| and potentially embarrassing thing to do. This isn't a | | | | things. Writing overwhelms my life. My stories and my |
| good idea either. You want to leave your loved ones | | | | characters consume me. It's impossible for me to |
| with the truth, but maybe not necessarily the whole | | | | stop. |
| truth and nothing but the truth. Remember: "Memoir | | | | This may or may not happen to you, and you may |
| is the art of inventing the truth." (Zinsser) | | | | find that the memoir is far easier to write than you |
| With memoir you can just tell a segment or even a | | | | imagined once you get started. |
| "moment" of your life's story. | | | | Some writers talk about sweating blood. You should |
| Do you really think you want to do an | | | | not have to go to this extreme. If your memoir is |
| autobiography? An autobiography spans an entire life, | | | | difficult to write, perhaps you need to try another |
| from the very start. Not many of us have lives that | | | | event to chronicle, or you need to set the project |
| warrant this much telling. A recent example of an | | | | aside for a bit for some thinking time. |
| autobiography is General Chuck Yeager's YEAGER. He | | | | As you write you'll laugh. You'll cry. As you recall this |
| includes his childhood, but still spends the majority of | | | | segment of your life and you really begin to dig, you |
| his book talking about his time as a jet pilot. Let's | | | | will relive it with the same passion and feelings you |
| face it, only a few have childhoods that are out of | | | | had the first time around. |
| the mainstream enough to warrant inclusion in a book. | | | | "If we had to say what writing is, we would have to |
| People like Ben Franklin, Johnny Cash, Mahatma | | | | define it essentially as an act of courage." (Cynthia |
| Gandhi, and Martin Luther King had lives that perhaps | | | | Ozick) |
| warrant an all out autobiography, but most of us out | | | | I believe we need to add that writing is also an act |
| here? Probably not. | | | | of love. |
| Memoir, on the other hand, is probably more what | | | | Writing your memoir will help bring clarity and closure |
| you are wanting to do. Memoir has focus. | | | | to the particular event that you are writing about. It |
| "Memoir isn't the summary of a life; it's a window into | | | | seems that sometimes we don't really know what |
| a life, very much like a photograph in itsselective | | | | we think about things until we see what we write. |
| composition." (Zinsser) | | | | |