“There must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Reading time: 1 minute, 40 seconds

“We need inspirational stories,” Pastor Brian said a few weeks ago.

I say, “Amen to that!”

We need stories about integrity, and courage, and perseverance, and about doing the right thing rather than surrendering to peer pressure.

We need stories written by thinkers and questioners,

by people willing to look at issues from various angles,

people willing to step forward and take a stand,

willing to expose evil and injustice,

willing to be leaders and role models for so many of us

who are cowards—or at least foot-draggers.

“But,” Pastor Brian continued, “choosing to live and act with faith is hard. Will we trust God?”

That’s the hard part: Will we trust God to help us step up and say what others need to hear?

Recently I read Jewish Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night.

You’ve no doubt heard about—and perhaps read—some of his books, but he says in the preface that “ . . . all my writings after Night . . . profoundly bear its stamp, and cannot be understood if one has not read this very first of my works.” If you haven’t read his memoir, I encourage you to do so.

Elie Wiesel shows us what it looks like to put into practice this quote from his Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1986, below:

Maybe God is calling you to follow Elie Wiesel’s lead by writing your memoir.

Perhaps you can recognize yourself in what Wiesel wrote in his memoir's preface, “Convinced that this period in history would be judged one day, I knew that I must bear witness.”

Yet he also knew his “testimony would not be received. After all, it deals with an event that sprang from the darkest zone of man. . . .

“But would they at least understand?

“Could men and women who consider it normal to assist the weak, heal the sick, to protect small children, and to respect the wisdom of their elders understand what happened there? Would they be able to comprehend how . . . the masters tortured the weak and massacred the children, the sick, the old?

“And yet, having lived through this experience, one could not keep silent no matter how difficult, if not impossible, it was to speak.

“And so I persevered. . . .” (from the Preface to the New Translation [of Night])

Persevering is hard work. It can be discouraging work. Sometimes dangerous work. Often emotionally exhausting work.

“Choosing to live and act with faith is hard,” 

Pastor Brian said. “Will we trust God?”

In what ways will you trust God 

to help you say what others need to hear?

In what ways will you trust God 

to help you write what others need to read?

Tuesday Tidbit: Let your memoir be full of grace and seasoned with salt

Reading time: 70 seconds

Is writing your memoir a ministry rather than a hobby? I hope so! (Be sure to read our earlier post, Do you think of yourself as an ordained writer?)

With that in mind, the Bible tells us to let our words be full of grace, seasoned with salt.

What does it mean for memoirists to use words that are seasoned with salt?

Salt purifies and preserves. In Bible times, because people didn’t have refrigerators, they used salt to keep their food from spoiling. Salt prevents rotting and waste.

Salt also adds flavor and makes food tasty but, even more important, it’s a necessary part of a healthy diet.

Think about writing your memoir while reading the following:

“Salt has little influence when sitting in a salt shaker,” writes The Sermon Writer’s Biblical Commentary.

“However, it is of great value once it is mixed, in the right proportions, in our food. When it is sprinkled on food—or, better yet, cooked into food—it transforms the food. . . .

“Salt then is a perfect metaphor for the people of God: We have the responsibility to transform the environment in which we find ourselves, just as salt transforms food.

“We are often few in number, but it is no matter. Just as a few grains of salt can make a big difference in food, so also a few faithful Christians can make a big difference in the world.” (from The Sermon Writer’s Biblical Commentary)

God can use your memoir

to do for your readers what salt does:

Your memoir can purify, preserve,

prevent wasted lives, add welcome flavor to life,

and keep your readers well-nourished and healthy.

In what specific ways can you write a memoir

full of grace, seasoned with salt?

Leave a comment below, or at SM 101 on Facebook,

or send a private message.

There you have it, your Tuesday Tidbit.

Your author platform helps you find readers and helps readers find you

Reading time: 2 minutes, 38 seconds

Author Platform. They say you need one if you hope to:

• self-publish your memoir, or
• find an agent, or
• find a publisher, or
• sell your memoir to more than your immediate family. (If you plan to publish only a few copies for family and friends, you probably don’t need an author platform.)

“You can’t assume that the act of printing a book equates to developing a sizable readership,” says Dan Blank.

He’s right. You develop a significant readership—in other words, you sell books—by establishing an author platform which connects you with people and builds relationships.

A platform gives you visibility. It gives you an audience.

Let’s flip this coin over: 

Rather than look what you need, let’s look at what readers need. Did you read Tuesday’s post?

In it, Dianne E. Butts wrote that people:

“need to hear what you have to say, or . . .

need to know what you know. . . .

Write for them. Reach out to them.

Work to reach them with your words.

You will make a difference in their lives. . . .

And isn’t that really why we write?”

Your author platform is how you reach out to them and make a difference in their lives.

So, working hard on your author platform can be a win-win for both you and your readers.

It helps you find people, and it helps people find you—

• people who are interested in your story,
• people who will buy your memoir,
• people who will tell others about it.

But first, a message platform:

Dan Balow, blogging at the Steve Laube Agency, says that a message platform is “the first step for developing the author platform.”

A message platform, he says, “must be in place before you get a website, Facebook Page or start a social media effort.”

Authors who don’t have a good message platform “will be frustrated and discouraged when trying to assemble a large number of devoted social media followers,” he says.

If you’re confused about the difference between a message platform and an author platform, Dan explains it this way:

“Message Platform + media = Author Platform”

What we need, he says, is “a consistent message, delivered creatively, one that attracts readers and followers and meets the expectations they have for you.”

Learn more about developing a message platform by studying Dan Balow’s three blog posts:

Author Platforms 101, Part One: Message Platform

Author Platforms 201, Part Two: Consistency

Author Platforms 301, Part Three: Customer Service

Next, your author platform:

Sarah Bolme offers detailed advice for developing your author platform, which she defines this way:

“Having a platform simply means that you have an audience—a group of people—who listen to what you have to say . . . because you are saying something different from everyone else, something that resonates with them.

“As a result,” she says, “these people trust you and share your message with others. When this happens, you develop influence with this group of people.”

“To be effective at building a platform,” Sarah continues, “you must first identify who your target audience is and what your unique spin on your topic is.”

You’ll want to read Sarah’s post, Do You Have a Platform? and answer questions in the following categories:

• WHO is your target audience?
• WHAT is your unique message?
• WHERE will you hold your audience?
• HOW will you build your platform?

Sarah gives this final advice: “Don’t rush out to start building a platform . . . until you have identified who your target audience is and what makes your message different from all the others out there on the topic.

“You can’t get to your destination if you don’t know where you want to go,” she says.

Dan Blank offers additional help in his post, The First Steps to Building an Author Platform:

• Understanding your Goals
• Identifying Your Brand (including how you represent your authentic self, how your personality makes you unique, and how your brand can be visual)
• Understanding Who Your Audience is and What Motivates Them

Don’t miss Dan’s post! It’s packed with valuable, insightful info. 

Brace yourself—

building a platform is lots of work!

But you can also think of it as

“the expansion of your passion for telling your story,”

writes Matilda Butler at Women’s Memoirs.

I like that!

Tuesday Tidbit: Do you know what an author platform is?

Reading time: 10 seconds

Last week I asked, Do you know what an author platform is?

Here's a quote to get you thinking about your author platform:

buttsaboutwriting.blogspot.com

Come back Thursday for :

• an in-depth look at what an author platform is, 
• why you need one, 
• and how to get started developing yours.

An opportunity to publish your big truths

Reading time: 49 seconds

“We are looking for your big truths,” the announcement read. Dinty Moore of Brevity Magazine had shared it on Facebook.

And here’s what he wants us to know:

Little Fiction Big Truths is inviting us to submit brief stories for their first ever “Flash Nonfiction” publication.

“Be brave, be bold, be fierce, be you,” Little Fiction Big Truths writes. (I love that, don’t you?)

“As per usual, we like nonfiction that isn’t afraid to break our hearts, that takes chances, and introduces us to new worlds and different perspectives.”

They’re looking for short pieces of only 1000 words—creative nonfiction, memoirs, and essays—and it must be previously unpublished.

Submission deadline: March 31, 2019, at midnight.

I have a hunch some of you have already written something you could spiff up and submit.

If not, you have until the end of March to write and polish a piece to submit.

Check out the details at their post, Call for Submissions: Flash Nonfiction Issue.

Share your big truths!

Be brave, be bold, be fierce, be you!

And if you submit something,

be sure to let us know here at SM 101!

P.S. When your work appears in publications like this, it helps build your author platform.

Do you know what an author platform is?

Come back next week! I’ll tell you about it!

Tuesday Tidbit: Where do you find the guts to climb over or break through or dig under?

Reading time: 55 seconds

Following up on Thursday’s post, Even if I must drag myself on bleeding hands and knees to get there, yesterday David Ramos, Author, spoke to exactly where I find myself:

"The three ingredients for a miracle:

Start where you are

Be thankful for what you have

Give everything you’ve got.

So often we think we’ve hit a dead-end

When in reality, the wall isn’t telling us to turn around.

It’s seeing if we have the guts to climb over

Or break through

Or dig under.

Miracles don’t happen when there are other, safe, more practical options on the table.

They show up for those who have nothing left

The ones who show up in obedience

Raised their arms in courage

And spoke out in faith.

You are not stuck.

When you can’t seem to find a way out

That’s when you need to start paying attention to how God is finding His way in."

And dear Chuck Swindoll—yesterday he, too, encouraged me. He writes:

“If you want to . . . replace excuses with fresh determination and procrastination with tough-minded perseverance, you need discipline. Winners know that disciplined persistence must be a major part of their training. That’s the only way victory becomes an attainable reality rather than a distant dream.”

You and I can do this!

Let's remember God's encouragement:

Don't panic. I am with you.

There's no need to fear for I am your God.

I'll give you strength.

I'll help you.

I'll hold you steady,

keep a firm grip on you.

Isaiah 41:10, The Message

With God’s help—

and with each other’s prayers and practical help—

we can publish our memoirs!

We will publish our memoirs!

Even if I must drag myself on bleeding hands and knees to get there

Reading time: 1 minute, 51 seconds

My memoir should have been in print months ago.

I’ve fought hard to finish this book, keeping my eyes always on the mountaintop—that sometimes-elusive “Published!”—hiking foothills, surmounting rocky outcroppings, enduring loneliness, slogging through inevitable valleys between peaks, persevering despite summer’s heat and winter’s ice.

Standing victoriously on that topmost peak requires a ton of hard work.

Like Vince Lombardi said, “The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.” (Duh. . . .)

It’s a struggle. A fight. Sometimes it’s an all-out war.

And my battle has tuckered me out.

I gave myself a couple of months to catch my breath, to regain strength and enthusiasm.

Now the time has come to throw myself back into this culminating scramble—to tackle the final sheer vertical ascent to that mountaintop.

But technical problems have left me immobilized. I struggle to pick myself up and fight the final challenge, to finish. I’m stuck.

Maybe you’re stuck, too.

A few weeks ago on Facebook, Mick Silva of Higher Purpose Writers wrote, “Mondays can come with a hefty dose of guilt and shame for once again having to concede you don’t have a work completed. . . .”

He nailed it. And the ridiculous thing is that, if I worked diligently, I could have this memoir ready to publish in less than a week!

Yes, I feel the guilt and shame.

But I don’t want to give up!

I want to conquer—to stand atop that mountain peak named “Published!” even if I must drag myself on bleeding hands and knees to get there.

And so I pray a lot, and I cling to God and a number of Bible verses. 

I hope these will strengthen you, too:

• Let’s approach God’s throne boldly and confidently, trusting Him, because there we’ll find mercy and grace to help when we’re in need. Hebrews 4:16
• Help me, O Lord my God! Ps 106:26a
• God is . . . an ever-present help in times of trouble. Psalm 46:1
• It is God who strengthens me. 2 Samuel 22:33
• God is my helper, the One who sustains me. Psalm 54:4
• Don’t panic. I am with you. There’s no need to fear for I am your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you. Isaiah 41:10, The Message
• Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT
• You, Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you. Isaiah 26:3, GNT

So, Friends, continue climbing those rocky, steep mountains!

Keep praying.

Trust God with all your heart.

With His strong assistance, scale those scary crags.

Clamber.

Persevere.

Prevail.

Triumph!

If you’re struggling to complete your memoir,

let us know how we can pray for you.

Leave a comment below on the blog,

or on Spiritual Memoirs 101 Facebook Page,

or send a private message.

Tuesday Tidbit: “The 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2019”

Reading time: 39 seconds

I’m excited to point you to a whole bunch of excellent resources!

No matter how new—or not—you are to writing, you’ll find a wealth of instruction and inspiration from among these 100 websites.

I follow a number of them and—Wow! What valuable resources they have been for me over the years!

Dana Sitar has organized her long list into the following categories:

• freelancing
• inspiration
• writing tools
• blogging
• creativity and craft
• editing
• podcasts
• marketing and platform building
• writing communities
• publishing

Set aside some quality time to scroll through Dana’s list and get acquainted with a number of these websites.

Some won't be of interest to you, but you’ll definitely find gems that could make a huge difference in your writing journey.

And this is important to remember: Websites aimed at novelists can also offer helpful tips for those writing nonfiction (memoir, creative nonfiction). Look into them!

Among many other valuable links you'll find there, check out Manuela Williams’ post, Using Fiction Writing Techniques to Enhance Your Creative Nonfiction. (Memoir falls in the creative nonfiction category.)

There you have it, your Tuesday Tidbit.

Happy Writing!