![]() ![]() But the narrative always hinged on the hike. You will notice that Cheryl Strayed focused on her hike as the backbone of Wild, even if she did go into other backstory. You need to pick which facet of your life you’ll talk about. This type of storytelling has long ago gone out of style. You are not going to win over readers, memoir literary agents, or publishers by telling the story of your life from birth to the present moment. ![]() Perhaps the best advice on writing a memoir is to choose which slice of your life you want to work with. As long as you are honest about what you’re doing, if you’re doing this, readers will come along for the ride. This is where the idea of “shaping” really comes into play. But you are also allowed to combine characters, rename characters, omit events, fictionalize dialogue, compress or combine events, and otherwise manipulate time in the interest of telling a more compelling story. Of course, you want to commit to truth in storytelling when you write memoir, and I’ll talk about that a bit more, below. They are trapped in the prison of “What really happened” and don’t feel like they can change or rearrange information. Sometimes, writing a memoir can actually be more difficult than writing fiction, because aspiring memoir writers often feel limited in terms of how they can “shape” their stories. That means you have to think of yourself as a character, and your story as a plot, because a lot of fiction writing craft ideas also apply to memoir. You are, in fact, hoping to get complete strangers interested in your life. By learning how to write a memoir, you are actually learning how to tell your story to a wider audience than just you, your friends, and your family. Most people who set out writing a memoir forget that they’re not just scribbling down their lives, journal-style. However, the first thing you need to do is adjust your perspective. Writing a memoir can be some very challenging, yet very rewarding work. ![]() If you have a story to tell, and it just so happens to be your story, you may be wondering how to write a memoir. ![]()
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