Writing and Editing a Memoir

Memoirs are becoming more and more popular among readers, and for good reason. Memoirs are written by famous and inspirational figures in society, and commercially, the built-in fanbase makes memoirs a favorite genre for publishers to produce. Take Becoming by Michelle Obama for example. In only 15 days, Becoming became the best-selling book in the US for 2018. You don’t even have to be generally admired by the public to write a memoir and have it sell millions of copies; take Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life.

Capitalizing off of his controversy, Peterson’s book also stayed on the bestsellers list in both Canada and the US for weeks on end. Readers are increasingly beginning to like learning about the nitty gritty of celebrities’ lives. With the advent of social media, it has become easier than ever for people to reach celebrity status, and this means that more and more people are becoming inspired to release their own memoirs. Whether you’re an Olympic athlete, an Instagram model, TikTok star, or doctor, chances are, publishers might decide to print your book.

But how do you convince them that your story is worth being heard? Read on to find some tips in the following.

TYPES OF MEMOIRS

Before beginning to write a memoir, it might help you to decide what category of work your memoir falls under.

Coming-of-age memoirs are self explanatory; these are about an author’s life, particularly about the transition from childhood into adulthood.

Travel memoirs deal with the author’s experiences traversing around the world and different cultures/exotic places as seen through the lens of the author.

Public and celebrity memoirs are our most popular; they can incorporate elements from all other kinds of memoirs and are based on what they think fans would like to know about them.

Spiritual quest memoirs can be like your travel memoirs; the writer would have usually reached an end destination in their quest for spiritual enlightenment and are sharing their journey as to how to reach a similar point or goal.

All memoirs can generally be filed under the category of personal memoirs; personal memoirs are related to the writer’s life in some pivotal way and highlight events/situations that have been the most traumatic/or have defined them in some way.

Political memoirs can recount, for example, what happened in the 2016 elections, details of political espionage, political nepotism, etc. Political memoirs reveal insights as to the political workings of our world.

TIPS ON WRITING A GOOD MEMOIR

DEVELOPMENT

Developmental editors work with both established and first-time memoir writers. Therefore, it is crucial for you to filter out your most critical life stories. You must carefully handpick the details of your life that make your stories yours and unique. Furthermore, do not confuse your memoir with an autobiography; your memoir is the parts of your story you are choosing to tell, not your entire life story. These details should be good representations of instances you’ve been vulnerable to make your story relatable to the reader. Furthermore, seek moments of honesty and truth; you cannot be shy about writing your own story.

PURPOSE

Ask yourself: who are you writing for, and why? Many authors have cited that their reason for wanting to write is to connect with others and to connect communities together. What is your personal reason?

BUILD TRUST

Treat your reader as though you are talking to a friend; offer personal details and good, relatable advice where appropriate. Tell your readers what you’ve learned. Often, readers will want to know about mistakes you’ve made so they can avoid making the same mistakes. They’ll want to learn how to overcome adversity and how to stay strong in the face of criticism. Offer your readers a gateway into your life and all the difficulties that have led to your success. Try your best to allow your readers to feel as though they are walking in your shoes.

COMMENT ON YOUR SOCIOPOLITICAL CLIMATE

Often, memoirs are written by people with humble beginnings. Everyone enjoys a story about how someone made it big having began their journeys with nothing. Provide your readers with your context; tell them about not just you, but the environment that made you.

CREATE AN EXPERIENCE, NOT A JOURNEY

Relating back to an earlier point, your memoir should reflect your personal growth and not your personal story. Rather than only iterating the facts regarding what happened to you and how you have come to this point in your life, you should reflect on how events in your life have impacted you. Your motivations and your outlook are often far more enticing than the results of an event themselves. Where possible, try to get your reader emotionally invested in your growth.

Showcase aspects of your personality, demonstrate your wit and humor, and don’t be afraid to be utterly yourself. Link your reactions and emotional outbursts to your stories; imagine writing your memoirs as a sort of therapy and allow readers a glimpse into your internal psyche.

WRITE AS THOUGH YOU ARE WRITING FICTION

This particular piece of advice might seem odd as the previous pieces of advice have asked you to be brutally honest and to showcase your personality. However, you should incorporate elements of fiction to make your story compelling. Works of fiction are structured in a way that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. All information leads to the climax, and stories are told in a way that keeps readers on the edge of their seat. You should employ a similar format with your memoir.

Don’t reveal all the juiciest, scariest, most horrifying, or most interesting parts of your life right away. Try to think of a logical sequence as to how elements of your life have made you who you are and how different twists and turns have led to one singular climax: the one piece of your life that is most interesting around which the entire story has centered. Write to keep readers interested.

GET AN EDITOR

One thing in particular that writers often complain about is the word count; you might think 80,000 words, the length of a standard memoir, is a lot. However, it’s the whittling down that is going to take the greatest effort. Often, writers will be forced to meet the requests of their publisher to turn their 400-page manuscript into a 200-page book. Cutting down this information is extremely difficult, and being able to objectively identify information that is not as valuable or conducive to the overall effectiveness of the entire manuscript is a daunting task.

However, this is where an editor comes in. To avoid wasting ample time writing down irrelevant text and to produce the most cohesive and coherent text possible, it is a good idea to consult an editor at the early stages and throughout the writing process. The editor acts as a bridge between the author and the reader; editors are a series of filters that manuscripts are put through to create a concise, digestible, and relatable text. These elements are particularly important for the memoir as they make up elements of good writing.

Good writing is not only important for the overall understanding of the story, but is a reflection of the writer’s intelligence, wit, and overall credibility. Establishing credibility and subject expertise is extremely important for the writer of the memoir. The idea that you might not understand your own circumstances and your world are extremely damaging to your reputation and possibly your career. Therefore, when putting out a memoir, you should definitely have your writing checked from grammatical and syntactical errors to avoid erroneous criticisms that can overshadow the impact and importance of your story.

Furthermore, editors can help authors connect to their audiences; they help authors identify their ideal readership, how to reach this readership, and what style of writing to employ to entice this readership. Therefore, consult an editor when writing memoirs to ensure your story shines and not elements of bad writing.