I didn’t know I was writing a memoir until I checked the definition in the dictionary. I know I had loved to share my story and just put some nice themes across. I love to motivate and challenge people. And I tag most of my writings with challenging or motivating words. So, when I discuss these themes, I use examples from my own life and experience. I use short stories and anecdotes. I extracted the lessons and turn them into topics that I can discuss with people.
Writing a memoir is pretty simple if you love to share your story and things about life in general. It also allows you to pay attention to things that you go through and the lessons that you learn from them. By the way, if you love to know more about the power of your story and why you should share it, check the previous article here - (https://sopiensofgod.blogspot.com/2021/09/be-author-challenge-part-4-power-of.html)
Just before we go further, let’s differentiate between a memoir and an autobiography. A memoir is a word from memory, meaning any nonfiction narrative of one’s personal memories. It is simply explaining a topic or theme, using your personal experience or story. Whereas, an autobiography is a chronological account of your life written by yourself (while your biography is written by someone else). A memoir is different from autobiography in the sense that a memoir doesn’t have to give a chronological account of your story or experience. It can be different phases or stages of your life. But an autobiography must follow a chronological order – say from the time you were born up to this present moment. So, while memoir focuses on the theme and the lessons you learn from your story, autobiography focuses on the story itself.
Now, to write your memoir, how do you start? You start by having a theme or topic. In memoir, the lesson you want to share is more important than the story. The essence of sharing your story is to buttress a topic or theme that you are discussing. So, when writing a memoir, the first thing that you focus on is what lesson or topic do you want people to learn from your writing.
After you’ve selected a topic, then you will look for a story or experience in your life that buttresses that topic or theme. For instance, if I want to discuss how to break free from sexual addiction, I can discuss that topic using my own story. I can discuss how I became sexually addicted, the struggles and the challenges and how I eventually broke out from it. So, using my own story, I’ve discussed how to break free from sexual addiction. So, there could be many topics or themes that you can choose to discuss using your own life experience or story.
People always love to hear your story. They always love to see that someone has gone through what they are going through and he/she is now proffering some advice or solution to their problem.
Now, depending on the story that you are sharing. If you don’t want to share the entire story directly, you can use indirect ways to share your story. Maybe you want to protect some people’s information or you don’t want to disclose some confidential or private matters, you can conceal other characters in your story and still bring out the original content of your story. You can change name, location, description and so on. Because sometimes, some people might not be comfortable with you sharing their private matters publicly or without their consent.
And as a memoirist, you may also feel the fear, anxiety or shame of sharing your story. But you know what, this is normal and you will later feel happy when you found out that your story has helped a lot of people. Many people that shared their story while discussing some sensitive topics were not at first comfortable with it. But when they saw the result, they were encouraged and fear disappeared.
Again, while you write your memoir, what is important is the lesson that you want your readers to learn. So, focus on the lesson and not too much details of the story. And after you’ve put your ideas together, organize them and start writing your memoir. In the next article, I will show you how to continue and complete writing your memoir. Stay in touch!
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To order for my new book on HOW TO BECOME AN AUTHOR, follow this link: https://www.amazon.com/HOW-BECOME-AUTHOR-Easiest-Write-ebook/dp/B09F3VZ242/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=how+to+become+an+author&qid=1631326002&sr=8-11
Suggested Articles:
1) 15 Reasons Why You Must Have Your Own Book: https://sopiensofgod.blogspot.com/2020/09/15-reasons-why-you-must-have-your-own.html
2) Your Life Is A Principle: https://sopiensofgod.blogspot.com/2020/09/your-life-is-principle.html
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