“Telling the truth matters even when it involves hard questions.

Showing up even when it’s difficult often gives strength for others to show up as well.”

—Michele Cushatt

Good news! If you write nonfiction, you are already equipped with all of the raw material you need to craft a unique, interesting story.

Our true life experiences can provide the plot, the setting, and the main characters for our writing. However, not every detail of a true story is interesting or beneficial to a reader.

When writing about your own life experiences, you will have to wrestle with how much to reveal within your work, especially if your story is a hard one filled with painful circumstances, or if your story involves other people. The difficulty of deciding when, how, and how much to share of your own story can be discouraging.

At hope*writers, we know this fear of oversharing on sensitive topics can keep writers from sharing their story with readers who need...

One of the most common hazards you may face as a writer of memoir is the temptation to write your story as if it’s a daily journal entry. When we sat down with memoirist and writing coach Marion Roach Smith, she reminded us that a memoir is not a diary, and recommended we consider the needs of our reader before we begin to write our story. 

As writers who lay bare the raw material of our own lives for public consumption, memoirists face a distinct challenge when it comes to deciding how to structure our work. Unlike fiction, where the plot may be shifted and shaped to suit the story, when writing about real life events, you must consider both the truth of the narrative and the needs of the reader. 

1. Focus on the Reader

Memoir: a record of a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation. (dictionary.com)

Marion would likely take issue with this over-simplification of memoir. She defines...