Give muscle to your memoir's ending

Your memoir's ending needs to have muscle. Impact. That's the "A-ha!" part.

How will you conclude your memoir? What will your ending be?

Grasp at least a general idea of your ending while you're writing your rough draft so you can aim for a specific conclusion. (If you missed last Thursday's blog post, click here.)

Write an ending "elegantly crafted that does not end with 'and as you can see, "all things work together for the good."'" (Cindy Blomquist, Women of the Harvest)

Keep in mind the definition of a spiritual memoir:

• Writing a memoir involves pondering, unraveling, examining, reflecting.
• Looking back, what did you learn from your experience?
• What did you learn about yourself?
• After connecting the dots, what patterns (repetitions) did you discover in your thinking, relationships, and faith that you hadn't noticed before?
• What new person did you become? 
• As you see it now, what did you learn about God?
• In retrospect, what do you now see that God was doing?
• What deeper lessons did God have for you in the experience(s)?
• Do you now have a better understanding of God's purpose for your life?
• How was your faith strengthened for the future?
• Include Bible verses that illustrate and validate your experience/life.

Sum up principles you've learned.

Keep in mind that

people long to discover universal truths,

transforming truths,

spiritual truths,

underlying truths,

relevant truths.

Your readers long to discover them

in your life's stories

so they can apply them to their own lives.

Your goal is to write a compelling, satisfying end that gives readers hope, courage, faith, tenacity, and inspiration for living.

In your ending, tell your readers:

• This is how far I came,
• this is how I got there,
• this is how I overcame obstacles.
• I am now a new person.
• This is the most important lesson I want to leave with you.

Phrases you might include:

• I didn't recognize it at the time, but...
• Though I didn't understand it forty years ago, now I see that...
• Neither I nor they understood why it was happening, but... 
• It occurs to me now that...
• It took me many years to realize that...
• Over the years I've come to accept...
• Years later I discovered....

How do you want readers to feel when they finish reading your memoir?

How do you want them to think as a result of reading your memoir?

What do you want them to do, how do you want them to live, because they read your memoir?

Write your memoir not because you're so great,

but because of who God is.

The beauty of memoir: your vignettes’ strong endings

Finish your individual vignettes with punch, with muscle.

A weak ending could make your story fall short of its potential impact.

A strong ending, however, offers readers the rich lessons your story contains.

This is where the beauty of memoir shines. Keep in mind the definition and purpose of memoir:

Retrospection, pondering, and examination are required.

Think about why you are telling your story.

What is your current understanding of what God was doing?

Include Bible verses that illustrate and validate your vignette.

What did you learn from the experience?

What did you learn about yourself? Do you now see a pattern? Some repetitions?

How was your faith strengthened as a result of the experience? How was your faith strengthened for the next difficulty?

What new person did you become as a result of the event?

Write your discoveries into each vignette’s ending.

Remember: your stories can do more than entertain: They can play a role in shaping the spiritual lives of those who read them—your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and anyone else you choose.

Write an ending “elegantly crafted that does not end with ‘and as you can see, “all things work together for the good.”’” (Cindy Blomquist, editor, Women of the Harvest, http://wothwritersblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/i-am-not-teacher-but-awakener.html) 

"… My biggest pet peeve … is a weak last paragraph. Why? Because I need satisfaction: a well-paced ending gives me closure and makes me feel good about my investment in reading.… A bad ending is like a car cruising along in the fast lane about to pass up its appointed exit, only to make it by crossing three lanes of traffic without looking to see what catastrophes have occurred by this abrupt and careless behavior. Don't be that kind of writer (or driver) .… Allow yourself the time to wrap up your [story]…. Evoke a call to action. Tell me about the transformation that resulted. Drive your point home without crossing 3 lanes of traffic at 100 mph. And please, oh please, don't use a verse from the Bible to wrap it up...." (Cindy Blomquist, editor, Women of the Harvest, http://wothwritersblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/it-was-dark-and-stormy-nightthe-end.html

An effective ending leaves a lasting impression upon your readers.

Writing a strong finish takes time and thought.

If necessary, set your story aside for a few days, pray, and then craft your ending.

Conclude your vignette so your reader will feel inspired by reading it.

Create an ending for each vignette that will move your reader to ponder,

maybe laugh,

maybe shed a tear,

and, most importantly, to apply your story’s lessons to his or her own life.

Related post:

What is a memoir

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-is-memoir.html

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