So you’ve decided to write your memoir. Congratulations! Remember, a memoir is not the same thing as an autobiography. You are not going to start on the day you were born and keep going from there. You might not even tell your story in chronological order. Memories will come flooding in and they may not even make any sense. But have no doubt. You’re recalling that moment for a reason. Write it down before you forget it.

A memoir has a point of view. A memoir may focus on a specific time frame in your life, one that will reveal a larger theme, something you come to understand in the story of your life. A memoir may start in the present, then flash back to key moments that comprise the main story.

Use Writing Prompts to Awaken Your Creativity. Start with All My Prompts, FREE when you sign up for my newsletter. I created this booklet from three decades of composing the prompts writers can use on works in progress. My writing exercises not only awaken your creativity but deepen your characters and help you find your theme.

Create a Structure. Find an online resource to learn the three act structure. I recommend Save the Cat, by Blake Snyder, or Story, by Robert McKee. At the same time, see the “Structure Prompts” chapter in All My Prompts. In it, I guide you through the main turning points every story must have.

Watch a Movie! No Kidding. I learned everything I know about story structure in the movie business. Take a look at The Wizard of Oz, or Jaws, two examples of perfectly structured stories. Wild, with Reese Witherspoon, is an example of a memoir that made a great film (there aren’t many).

Read these Books:

Wild, by Cheryl Strayed

Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls

Wild Game, by Adrienne Brodeur

The Tender Bar, by JR Moehringer

The Liar’s Club, by Mary Karr

Write a Rough Outline. Take a stab at putting things in some kind of order that makes sense. What’s the moment that the story really gets started (inciting incident)? What’s the worst moment, when everything falls apart (midpoint)? What lesson do you learn from your story (epiphany)? Answering these questions will help you shape a rough outline.

Create a Master Document with My Twelve Chapter Method.

I have a thing about the number twelve. There are twelve months in a year. Twelve hours in a day. Twelve apostles. So I divide my story into twelve relatively equal parts. Then I divide it again into four acts. Later, I divide those twelve chapters into smaller ones as needed. The initial twelve chapters of my memoir became twenty-six, once I broke them into smaller pieces. But when I had my rough outline broken into twelve chapters, I committed to finishing a draft of each chapter in a month, so I knew I would have my first draft in a year.

Make Friends with Post-it Notes. When you start a memoir, all those memories will come rushing back in no particular order. You’ll wonder why you remember that particular bad day, or that particular happy moment, or that amusing anecdote. Just make a note of it and put it on the pile. Later, you can see where it might fit.

Begin! Write something every day. I don’t advise my writers to hit a word count goal. I advise you to make progress every day, even if it’s just one Post-it Note. And, before you go to bed at night, make a plan for the next day. Tell yourself to finish a particular paragraph or rewrite an awkward sentence that bothers you. Small goals!

What are You Waiting For? Let’s Write Something! Good Luck!