Back to basics: Your memoir’s ending, Part 2

Sunday at church, a lady came up to me and gushed, “I just read the end of your memoir!”

She wore an enormous smile but had no words beyond those eight—she was speechless. But she waved her hands and gestured with her arms and let out a few sighs, and her non-stop smile continued to light up her face.

As you might imagine, her words pleased me.

But that’s not my point. 

My point is this: The ending of Please, God, Don’t Make Me Go: A Foot-Dragger’s Memoir resonated with her. It must have made sense to her. It left her feeling the way she did.

Your job as a memoirist is to set aside plenty of time to craft your memoir’s ending. You want it to end on a high note so readers will long remember it.

How do you do that?

Ask yourself, “I had a reason to start writing this memoir. What was it?”

If you pinpoint your reason to begin writing your story, you’ll have a better idea of how you want it to end.

Ask yourself:

• In what ways am I a different person because of what I experienced in my story? (Click on What is a memoir: Back to basics)
• What principles do I want my story to illustrate?
• What attributes of God do I want to shine in my story?
• What Bible verses or passages capture the point of my memoir?
• What lessons do I want readers to apply to their own lives?
• What change do I hope to see in my readers because of my story?

You might get out a sheet of paper and divide it into two columns. In the left one write, “The reason I’m writing my memoir is _________” and fill in the blank. 

In the right column, write, “The message I want readers to take away from my memoir is _________” and fill in the blank—realizing you won’t likely know the final version of your ending until you’ve written all your chapters.

That’s because, within the process of writing, our stories often take us directions we didn’t anticipate.

And that’s because the process of writing can open our eyes to things we overlooked before.

That, in turn, can change the end of our story. (Click on last week’s post, Back to basics: Your memoir’s Grand Finale, Part 1.)

You might not know the heart and soul and best ending until you’ve finished your first draft and have made time to mull it over—and that could take weeks, or months, or even years.

But that’s okay. As you keep writing, these will become more evident.

When you’ve finished and polished 

the main body of your memoir, 

finalize your Grand Finale 

so readers will resonate 

with your memoir’s significance.

The beauty of your memoir will shine brightest

in its carefully crafted ending.

“Make sure no loose ends hang from the story

that leave people wondering.

They will feel the story isn’t over. . . .”

You want readers to feel the story is over, to feel that:

“The story has been told, the tension resolved,

the consequences shown. . . .”

(Craig Brian Larson, “How to Tell A Moving Story”)

from The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching)

Leave your readers satisfied. 

Leave them celebrating 

all God has done in your life. 

Leave them thankful and changed 

because they read your memoir.