WRITING YOUR MEMOIR

We all have a story to tell, however, taking part or all of our life story and turning into a book that readers are going to want to pick up is a skill. To be successful you have to be ready to spend time crafting your words, your story, polishing it and shaping it. Like starting pottery - you begin by throwing a lump of clay on a pottery wheel. As you spin the wheel you gently shape that lump into a new shape, gently squeezing, teasing and finessing it. You fire it and add a glaze and colour until you have a thing of beauty that people admire.

It’s the same with your memoir. To begin you a effectively throwing a bunch of words onto a page. Then you shape it, you gradually turn it into a thing of beauty. Then you bring in the editors to finesse it.

So don’t worry about crafting each sentence when you first pick up your pen, or more likely, start tapping away on the keyboard. Throw that lump of clay.

Below are some tips to help you get started along with a reality check of what’s involved.

What timeframe?

Decide on the timeframe you are covering. Is it your entire life story? Is it an event, your childhood, a period of time? It could be an ‘Eat, Love, Pray’ where it is a few months, or like our author Sarah Davis, where it is about her expedition down the Nile.

That doesn’t mean you won't refer to other events outside of the timeframe, but you bookend it to create the boundaries you are focused on.

Why is someone going to read this?

This is when we have to think about the most critical person - the reader. Why are they going to read this? Are you educating them, inspiring them or entertaining them? We may feel that our story is fascinating - we have to be sure that others will too unless this is pure vanity publishing. What is going to make them pick up your book? Then what is going to keep them reading to the last page and telling their friends about it?

Think about your underlying message and purpose before you start. It is easier to weave it into your writing and pick the stories you go into in detail if you do this before you go deep into writing.

How to start?

Everyone is different. One way is to start with bullet points of key events and stories that you will share. Or specific periods of time. Then gradually expand on them. Then you shape them into chapters. Each chapter is a sub-story, with a beginning, middle and end.

Before getting in too deep spend time thinking about how you are going to begin and end your book. This is critical, particularly the beginning. You have to hook the reader quickly.

Keep your references

Often authors will share a story from history, or a fact. When you do this you need to reference it. It’s incredibly painful to have written your memoir only for your editor to tell you to find references. Then you have to go and find where you got that information from. When you are quoting, make sure it is from a reputable source. Wikipedia is not recommended. Make a note of the author, source, title, date, link and when you looked at it. If it is something someone told you, then say in your text Mr X shared the history of this building, blah, blah, blah.

Avoid a libel or slander case.

Inevitably your memoir will include other people, unless you are writing about the time you lived in a cave on your own. Get their permission. Tell them what you are going to share, send them the text and get their permission. It might seem like an innocuous story to you, but you never know how they might feel about you sharing that.

Consider a disclaimer.

If any of your memoir is based on memory and if you have changed any names, add a note to cover yourself.

Get permissions for quotes.

The law is super vague and really unhelpful when it comes to being clear on what constitutes a breach of copyright and what doesn’t. Even if it is a single sentence quote - get permission unless the author has been dead over 70 years. Anyone coming through Expedition Publishing will be required to get those permissions.

Be ready to be patient

Unless you are an experience writer or have a ghost writer as well as a publisher lined up, be ready for this to take years from start to finish. If you want this written and published in a few months and for it be high quality, you are optimistic. People can take five years to go from putting pen to paper to their book being on a shelf. First it is the time to write it and do your own edits. Then multiple rounds of professional edits - likely three to four. After each of these you will be going through the edits, and re-reading your manuscript. Time between edits is recommended so that you are reading it with fresh eyes.

Be willing to invest $$$

Unless you have a contract with a publishing house, be ready to invest some cold hard cash. Even if you are going to try and go through a publishing house, you need to have the first few chapters fully polished. At a minimum having a structural edit of your entire manuscript and a copy edit of your first few chapters (that you will send to a publisher along with a synopsis) is recommended. A full copy edit is ideal. If you are self-publishing then you will need both of these edits, possibly multiple rounds of them, followed by a proof read. Then you need to get a typesetter and a graphic designer for your cover. This site has more information on what’s involved in these steps. If you want a quality end product, invest in this.