Post #48 – Women’s Memoirs, News – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Women’s Memoirs welcomes Dillon Farowe today as she shares her story of beginning to write memoir. She has sound advice, including her discussion of the importance of education.
Dillon Farowe, Guest Blogger
One Way To Start Writing Your Personal Story
All of us have had unique experiences in our lives. We have all experienced triumph and heartbreak, happiness and sorrow and jubilation and regret. The important thing to remember is that everyone’s story is different. If you feel like you have an exciting personal story to share with the world, you might be wondering the best way to let others know. As someone who has been in your shoes, I can tell you that it is not easy. It is hard to simply sit down and spill your personal story onto the keyboard. Instead, heavy preparation and hard work are necessary to truly get your message across. It can also be helpful to learn writing techniques from writing schools.
Where to Begin Your Memoir
For me, the hardest part about writing my personal story was deciding where to start. I had so much that I wanted to say, so many interesting things to talk about, that I didn’t know how to begin. So one day I sat down at my desk and just starting typing. I wrote until I had a solid introduction done. Then I stopped working on that story and started a new one. The new story featured a different beginning than the one I just wrote. I repeated this process five or six times until I had created a nice collection of story beginnings. I went through and thoughtfully read each piece I created. Doing this allowed me to see what elements worked and didn’t work for the beginning of my personal story. I ended up writing an entirely new introduction using elements from a couple different pieces. You might decide you really like a particular introduction you wrote and choose to use that.
Either method is totally fine.
Narrowing Down the Story for Your Memoir
There is no doubt in my mind that every single one of us could fill a 1,000-page book with our personal stories. Each one of us experiences so many things on a daily basis. We all have a seemingly endless amount of material to work with. Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to tell our full personal story in a way that is readable. Instead, we have to choose only the most important facts to write about. Choosing what to put in your personal story can be like choosing which child you like the best. The method I used to help me choose what to include in my personal story involved looking back at a particular moment in my life. As I was remembering what was going on in my life at the time, I jotted down specific memories. After compiling a list of about 20 different memories, I chose the first five and fleshed them out. Because they were the first memories that came to mind, they must have been the most important to me.
It is Your Story — Your Memoir
When writing your personal story, it can be easy to forget your goals. It happens to all writers, we get too caught up in trying to please our readers. Just remember that this is your story. You should write what you want to write, not what you think someone is expecting. It is also important to remember to only share things you are comfortable telling other people. You never know who will read your personal story. Make sure your personal story is appropriate for general audiences.
While this may all seem quite stressful, it really isn’t. Once you sit down and actually start writing your personal story, you will see that it is an extremely fun and rewarding process. You will be happy that you have your personal story down on paper. Others will respect your effort to share your experiences with others.
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Dillon Farowe wrote her first short story when she was six and hasn’t stopped since then. She graduated with her Masters from Temple University and began teaching immediately. She’s delighted to be a resource for people looking to enhance their skills and delve deeper into the world of creative writing. The only thing that Farowe loves more than writing is spending time with her husband and three wonderful daughters playing board games in their colonial home.
