Memoir - Truth or Fiction?

It is said that writing one's memoirs is much like writing a piece of fiction.  In order to make your story come alive, you need to populate it with characters that are individuals; well described and round.

Are all characters in a memoir absolutely true to life?

Not necessarily.

There are times when you'll want to disguise your character in the interest of preserving their privacy.  You may also want to save your own skin, especially if you're revealing a secret that you promised long ago to keep. You can write a truthful memoir, and still change names, ages, even sexes of certain characters for these reasons.

Most writers of memoir try to stay as close to the truth of the situation as they possibly can.

But what is truth?

Truth is in the eye of the beholder.  Truth is a matter of perspective. Truth can be different for different people.  If I were to write a memoir of my childhood and my siblings were to do the same, it makes sense that some of the stories would be the same.  What would be different, however, is the perspective of those stories.  My brother and I could write about the very same event, and we could both tell the absolute truth about that event.

The interesting point of this exercise is to demonstrate that truth is different for each person. Our stories would be VASTLY different!

So, when you go to write your memoir, write it as truthfully as you can.  You may know a LARGER truth now that you are older, but in the interest of keeping your perspective in your memoir, try to retain the truth that you knew of the event at the time. This will also help you to determine if you are writing from the perspective of age and wisdom, or if you're re-entering yourself at a younger and greener age, and expressing the truth of the situation from that perspective.

Interesting point of view, isn't it?

Write on,

Kathleen

What's a Blueprint?

People are always looking for a process for writing. Or, rather, if you're trying to get your writing going, having a process can be one of the ways around that thing called "Writer's Block".

Blueprinting is another word for an outline, only it's a really, really special outline.

Blueprinting the process of your writing project is looking at it from beginning to end. You need to know at least 80% of what you're going to write about. Each chapter or portion of what you're writing needs to be thought out, planned out, and blueprinted. 

How do you blueprint?

You ask yourself what is the single most important thing your reader needs to know at this point. Then you begin the process of filling in all the details.  Ask yourself the "who, what, when, where, why, and how" questions for each point. That's right...you're creating questions.

Why?

Because your brain likes to answer questions, and there is little chance that you will develop "writer's block" when you're answering the questions.

That's the secret behind blueprinting your writing project.  Every point you want to cover, you turn into a question.  Then you answer that question in as much detail as you possibly can. Suddenly you're turning out a great deal of writing almost without effort.

What's even greater is that while you're developing the blueprint for your project, you can see where you're going and you can keep things in the right order.

I hope this helps your next writing project.

Best,

Kathleen

Changing Horses

As a ghostwriter and a freelance writer I spend a great deal of my time writing for other people.  It feels really great when we discuss the project and we both know where we're going with it. Work begins, and it seems like smooth sailing.

Then you get a call.  "I think we're off track."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I think we (meaning me) have lost focus."

Me..."How so?" I'm thinking I've already written over half the project...this is sounding like a lot more work.

We talk, and yup, the client has changed her mind.  But who am I? I'm the writer. It's not my project. It's her project.

You have a couple of choices. You can either panic and realize that you're going to have to do a complete rewrite, or you can re-discuss the idea and see what you can salvage.

When you write for yourself, you can write anything you want.  When you write for someone else, you need to keep their needs in mind. The more you work at this kind of job, the better you'll get at understanding the needs of your clients.

Remember this, when you really take the time to understand the needs of your client, the less rewriting you'll have to do.

Best,

Kathleen

Myth #1: Writing is Hard

Here's the myth: Writing is Hard!

Take a piece of paper and a pen...or sit down at your computer.

Write this down:

The last time I was absolutely furious was...

...and go on from there.

We've all had a time when we were furious. I'll bet if you gave yourself five minutes, you could list a number of circumstances that made you furious...how about the guy who cut you off in traffic on the way home from work yesterday, or the woman in front of you at the grocery store who insists that she rifle through her three inch stack of coupons because she just knows she has one for that box of macaroni.

You name it...we've all had times when we had a very strong reaction to something, and usually we tell several people about it. If you were to record yourself telling people, then type up the story, you will have written it.

Did you hear me? You just wrote something!

See...it's a myth.

But it is a myth that most people believe! I suspect that there is some kind of conspiracy out there that promotes that myth. Perhaps those who do make their living by writing are afraid of the competition. Or, it could be that if too many people figured out that it isn't that difficult to write they would have to give up their act of being completely exhausted at the end of eight hours and they only have a single paragraph to show for their efforts.

(Personally, I suspect they spent a whole lot of time surfing the internet, answering email, lurking on Facebook, or playing killer games of Spider Solitaire...but I'm not right there, so it will remain just a suspicion.)

Our job is to dispel that myth and prove to you that getting your book written isn't as hard as a lot of people make it sound.

You hear about the writers who slave away up in their attic garret eating nothing but a single red apple for days at time...oh, wait, that was Louisa May Alcott when she wrote Little Women. She really did write that great long book in a very shore period of time, and she did it up in her attic, and I do remember something about those red apples.

The point is, when you have something to write about and you have a direction, a blueprint, or a road map, it's actually pretty easy to get that book written. So please stop believing the myth that writing is hard. It's really as easy as talking to your friend over coffee.

Best,

Kathleen

Everyone Wants to Be an Author

 

That's almost correct.

Actually, according to statistics, 4 out of 5 people want to write a book, which translates to 80% of the population.  That's a pretty good number of people who want to write a book.

As a writer, I would say that about 80% of the people I talk to say they want to write a book when they hear that I am a writer.  So, I guess it is safe to say that there are a whole lot of people out there who either want to write a book, are writing a book (and have been for years and years), or have several manuscripts lying about, but they haven't figured out what to do with them.

America's Author Maker is designed to help all you folks come out of the closet.  Our goal is to guide you step-by-step through the seemingly dangerous and treacherous (OK, it's actually not that bad) path to getting your book written and in print.

The next post is going to deal with some of the reasons people don't ever get their book written.  Look for it!

Best,

Kathleen