Memoir writing? Many plaintively ask me: “But just how do you go about writing your memoirs, your life stories? I can’t even write!”
Well, let’s get over the first hurdle: not knowing how to write. All of us tell our stories to our friends and family, our seat mate on the plane, and the person next to us in the waiting rooms of the world.
I say, “Imagine you’re enjoying a cup of coffee/tea with a friend and you’re telling them a story. If you can do it orally, you can do the same writing it down on paper or with your keyboard.” So, yes, many people – but admittedly far from all — can write and can do so quite well (with lots of friendly, patient editing that even skillful writers need).
For general writing help, my best recommendation for a hilarious, poignant, and accurate writer is Anne Lamott, and her best book about writing is “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”. Once hooked on Anne Lamott, you’ll have to read “Almost Everything: Notes on Hope” with its opening line: “I am stockpiling antibiotics for the apocalypse, even as I await the blossoming of paperwhites in the kitchen windowsill”. Such fine writing.
But I digress . . .
Back to the second hurdle of writing memoirs, life stories: how to write this specific breed of cat. For sure there are plenty of books that offer advice, from “Memoir Writing for Dummies” (never used) to “Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir” by esteemed author Natalie Goldberg, who I always imagine sitting in a cozy coffee house in Santa Fe, easily churning out story after story after story. Then there is Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s beautiful, classic example of memoir writing “Gift from the Sea” which I have read again and again. Descriptive, mesmerizing (don’t we all want to be with her on the Cape Cod beach picking up seashells?), thoughtful, reflective – all that a memoir can be.
What have I used to facilitate memoir-writing groups? For six 13-week classes, I have used one method (Julia Cameron), and going forward, I am now jumping into the Internet era embracing another method (Storyworth).
The Julia Cameron Method: Julia’s specialty is nurturing creativity in all its many forms. Her seminal book is “The Artist’s Way” which has been followed by many other books on the theme of creativity. One book in particular speaks to memoir writing, although the title looks otherwise: “It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again: Discovering Creativity and Meaning at Midlife and Beyond”.
Julia Cameron’s memoir-writing method is quite simple: determine your age, divide it by 12. Each week for 12 weeks, the memoirist writes about 1/12 of their life, starting at 0. Using myself as an example: 77 years divided by 12 = approximately 6 years. My first story would be from age 0 to 6ish; next from 6ish to 12ish; 12ish to 18ish, and so on.
Using her 12-week method, I created a 13-week class, with the first week an introductory/orientation class. Every week memoirists came to class with a story they had written at home, a five-minute story to be shared out loud with the group.
Together they shouted: “Out loud? Oh no! I can’t write, let alone write a memoir, and now I have to read this, this, oh, I don’t know what to call it, this whatever I’ve written, to the class? Me? You must be kidding.”
No, I wasn’t kidding, and memoirists quickly found out that they love to share their stories and that in their sharing, they formed a friendly, loving, caring bond with their curious, fellow memoirists. “But then what happened?” “Wait until next week to find out!”
So you see, with each class a community of writers sprang into existence. For those in the classes in Rochester, Minnesota at 125 Live (a huge senior center), that community lives on in the form of M&Mers (Memoirists & More) that meets twice a month (once in person, once on Zoom). Wonderful circle of writing friends.
Now for the future . . .
Storyworth, an online process that ends with a hardbound book: It’s time to modernize the memoir-writing process by going online to write memoirs, life stories. Best of all, at the end of the process, the writer ends up with a hardbound book! All for about $100! Additional costs are for color photos versus black & white, additional copies, etc. Check the website for details.
A writer signs up online with Storyworth at storyworth.com. It’s a one-year, user-friendly process. Each week Storyworth send a writer an email prompt (who was your favorite friend, teacher, pet, vacation, etc. – easy questions). The writer can answer the prompt right in the email or go to the Storyworth site. I choose to go to the Storyworth site to write my stories, add photos, edit, arrange the Table of Contents, etc. BTW: I don’t use their prompts; I make up my own.
Within a year’s time (or sooner), I’ll complete my stories and then “Voila!” like magic, Storyworth prints the edited, previewed book and mails me my stories in a hardbound book! One of the guys in the writing group where I live recently completed the process and we had a wonderful “Book Celebration” party for him, each of us reading our favorite story from his book. He loved hearing his stories read by others, and his wife loved hearing his story about her and how much he loved her. Nice, huh?
I’ve created a new memoir-writing class starting March, 2024 at 125 Live in Rochester using the Storyworth process. It will work the same as the Julia Cameron method in that memoirists will bring to class their stories to read out loud to the group. The purpose of the class is community building, motivation, inspiration, encouragement, and minor technical help for this user-friendly process.
Whatever method you choose – maybe just your own devised method – Happy memoir writing!