Not everyone gets you right away. It's your job to help them get it.
Here's how to get it on the page so everyone gets it. Decision #12 from Sixteen Superpowers Memoir Writers Need to Have.
Photo by Yeshi Kangrang on Unsplash
12. Not everyone gets it right away.
YOUR MANTRA: It’s neither good nor bad—it’s just feedback.
Accept that your First Reader may not get it right away, and that is information, too. You may sign on with a writing teacher, book coach or developmental editor, then feel baffled that this First Reader person, who is so skilled, is not quite getting it.Â
This is actually the best (well, second best…) outcome you can have. My First Reader, a writing teacher and developmental editor I had through The Lighthouse Book Project, mapped out about six possible visions and narrative structures for what I submitted to her.Â
While that sounds frustrating—why didn’t she get it?—she was magnificent, and I highly recommend her (Erika Krouse, author of Tell Me Everything and other books).Â
She didn’t get it because I didn’t have it on the page yet. Or I had some of it on the page, but the true through-line was diluted by all the other things that were on the page.
Some of the items on her menu of possible books I would write were future books I will write. She absolutely saw a future book in my print media career. But that was not the book I wanted to write at that moment. BOUNDLESS was pressing to come first.
Because she didn’t get it, I could see I needed to work harder, and I did. Second Reader got it because I dug down deep and did the work.
DECISION: It’s your job to make them get it—eventually. Make use of all feedback, positive and negative. Listen.
ABOUT SIXTEEN SUPERPOWERS OF MEMOIR WRITERS
It’s easy to write a memoir! All you need to do is write something with universal resonance that is true and comes from your life.
Let’s get real. To write a memoir, you need a basket of superpowers.Â
As a memoir writer with a forthcoming book (BOUNDLESS, coming December 2024 - pre-order here at Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Amazon and as a book coach/developmental editor who works with memoir writers, I’ve learned quite a lot about tapping into literary superpowers.
What’s enduring about memoir is that it is real, and it matters. A few decisions you make on the front end will determine whether it will go well.
In this series of posts, I give you 16 decisions to install at the beginning of your journey. Make these pacts with yourself, stick to them and you’ll get there!
THE FULL SERIES - AVAILABLE TO PAID SUBSCRIBERS
The Sixteen Superpowers of Memoir Writers: Make These Decisions on the Front End, and All Will Go Well for You
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