The speaker was E. Ethelbert Miller, poet and author of two memoirs, and the information he shared with our group of 25 or so attendees was very interesting. He did not delve very deeply into the nitty gritty of memoir-writing, but he did cover the steps one should take before starting out on the journey, as well as some of the elements that would make the memoir more compelling to the reader.
The first step is determining why you want to write a memoir. Mr. Miller cautioned that it shouldn't be to get back at someone, but rather it should be because you want to share what the readers can learn from your life. Did you or your family overcome a hardship, a traumatic experience, a revelation that helped you grow or a lesson that made you who you are today? Those are all good reasons to write a memoir, revenge never is.
The second step is determining what type of memoir you want to write: is it going to be the memoir that will map your life, showing how you got from point A to point B, or is it going to be the memoir that will mine your life, focusing on a particular aspect of it and digging down to the secrets and the dark things, which become treasure when you work through them.
The third step is determining who you are writing for: yourself or the market. This is quite possibly the key factor that will shape your memoir, because when you write for yourself you will focus on the things that are important to you, but when you write for the market you will focus on things that will help sell your memoir, things that strangers are curious about. I myself would also add a third target audience: your family, because when you take your loved ones' feelings into consideration you may end up with a memoir that is drastically different from the one you'd write just for yourself or the perfect strangers at the book store.
When you've determined your target audience you'll need to make decisions about underlying issues: how will you deal with secrets and controversies, what will you leave out, how will you talk about the aspects of your life that can possibly affect the future of your family? After all, your children and grandchildren will grow up, your relatives will enter new phases of their lives, how will your story influence the way their relationships and futures will unfold?
Now that you've made all the difficult decisions and are ready to begin here are a few things to remember:
Writing a memoir is story-telling, and all the same rules and principles apply. If you want to keep your readers turning the pages you must tell them a good story.
It helps to use objects, activities and sensations as a unifying force in your memoir. Is an heirloom a focal point of your family's history? Is there a family tradition that is observed no matter what? Does the smell of a certain dish bring back memories and weave through your life?
Use objects such as photos and heirlooms for inspiration and look beyond what is in the picture or what the item is right now. Who were your grandparents in their dating days, when the photo was taken? What kind of person was your great aunt and what moved her to make the quilts that are now passed through generations? What kind of person were you back in the day when you owned that car or last wore that dress?
Last but not least, writing a memoir will require courage to examine your past and to bring difficult memories into the light of day. It can require even more courage to put your truth out into the world. But you know what? It can bring rewards you can't even imagine when you first begin.
I really enjoyed Mr. Miller's lecture, and only regret that I was late and missed the beginning of it. I'm looking forward to the Fall conference, and in the meantime will peruse the author interviews and other resources on the Meacham website. Hope you'll find something of interest there as well!
