Stay present. Bear witness. Write your memoir.
Decision #6 from Sixteen Superpowers Memoir Writers Need to Have. Over sixteen posts, I help you make pacts with yourself so all will go well for you.
Photo by Katie McBroom on Unsplash
6. Stay present to your story.
YOUR MANTRA: Even though it’s unpleasant, I’m here and I’m bearing witness.
Commit to staying present to the experiences you’re rendering in the book—even if it hurts. The French writer Anais Nin said,
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”
ANIAS NIN
If it hurt to live it, it’s probably going to hurt to write it. This is a good thing. That means you’re going to be successful in evoking emotions in the reader that make it a book worth talking about.
Stay present, even when you don’t want to remember—or cannot remember.
If you cannot remember events from your deep dark past so well, I have a handy guide for retrieving and reviving your past, drawing on my skill set as a journalist as well as a book coach and memoirist. It’s available to paid subscribers as part of my Memoir Catalyst series.
DECISION: Steady on and stay present. It’s OK if you need to microdose this “staying present” business and do it in small increments. Maybe you’re writing about grief or trauma. You don’t have to write it all in one sitting. More about that in a minute.
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.
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
Related posts
Why Writing Your Book Will Change You As Much As It Will Change the World
From Lived Experience to a Book: The Path of My Memoir, Boundless