Reading memoirs can make you a stronger writer

 Matilda Butler at Women’s Memoirs encourages memoirists to read lots of memoirs, to “read broadly and think deeply.”

 

I am tempted to add a condition to that.

 

While I agree it’s wise to “read broadly and think deeply,” I say: Read good memoirs, memoirs written by people who understand what a memoir is (and is not), written by people who have a good grasp of what good writing is (and is not).

 

I’ve read several memoirs that have received rave reviews and attention but, in my opinion, they are not stellar. I want to say, “Don’t read them!” However  . . . . 

 

However, Matilda says “Even memoirs that aren’t particularly good can teach lessons,” and I must agree.

 

When reading memoirs, good ones or not-so-good, Matilda has these tips:

 

“You can ask yourself:

 

• What do I like in this book?
• What is off-putting?
• How would I handle the story differently if I were writing this book?
• Is the opening weak?
• What ideas do I have to make the opening stronger?”

 

Matilda continues,

“Thinking about a memoir,

questioning a memoir,

even rewriting a few paragraphs of a memoir

will make you a stronger writer.”

 

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!

Fun writing contests for you!

Have you ever entered a writing contest? If not, give it a try!

“You don’t have to be an expert or published in [your] genre or have entered a lot of contests, you just have to try,” says Angela at WoW (Women on Writing). “You may think your writing is not good enough or other things your inner critic may whisper in your ear, but the truth is if you don’t put yourself out there, consistently, you’ll never know.”

A couple of years ago I invited you to enter a First Paragraph contest hosted by Pamela at Women’s Memoirs.

Did you participate?

I submitted an entry and—whoa! Women’s Memoirs honored me with a Silver Award! (Click on Silver Award to read more about it.) In Pamela’s post announcing the Silver Award recipients, she included each person’s paragraph and gave a brief critique of each.

Reading the other submissions and Pamela’s comments further educated me about fine-tuning that all-important opening paragraph. Click on First Paragraph Silver Winners Revealed for your own enrichment.

But let’s get back to YOU. If YOU have never participated in a writing contest, please give it serious thought.

Here’s an opportunity for you: WoW—Women on Writing—hosts quarterly creative nonfiction writing contests. The next deadline is October 31, 2017. Check here to learn more.  

Don’t miss Chelsey Clammer’s post, Writing Contests: You Have Nothing to Lose. She lists reasons most of us talk ourselves out of entering a writing contest. And then she points out, “Someone has to win…. Contests are created so someone wins, and you are someone.”

And even if you don’t win, Chelsey shares this wisdom: “Contests aren’t about who wins…. When we enter a contest knowing that we probably aren’t going to win, it is at that exact moment when we hit ‘submit’ that we know contests aren’t about who wins.”

She goes on to list what writing contests are all about, things like believing in your writing, meeting a deadline, and resisting the thought that your writing is about a dollar amount.

Chelsey concludes with this encouragement: “…there is one thing you’re guaranteed to obtain with each contest submission: just by believing in yourself enough to enter, you’ve already won.”  Click on Writing Contests: You Have Nothing to Lose to read Chelsey’s post.

Click here to download Women on Writing’s PDF about word count, deadline, guidelines, etc.

In The Ultimate Guide to Finding Christian Writing Contests, Jerry Jenkins offers lots of tips and wisdom, and also lists the following contests:

• The Write Life, 31 Free Writing Contests: Legitimate Competitions with Cash Prizes
• Poets and Writers  
• The Christian Writer’s Market Guide  
• Writer’s Market 2017  

And I have more opportunities for you! Click here to find lists of additional nonfiction writing contests at The Writer Magazine.

Take note: Beware of scams! Kelly Gurnett urges this caution: “Some legitimate contests do charge a small entry fee or ‘reading’ fee, but often a fee can be a red flag or a scam….” (Read about one such scam in Kelly’s blog post.) 

Jerry Jenkins recommends checking with Writer Beware to help you determine if a contest is legitimate.  

Do consider entering writing contests.

In the process,

you’ll improve your writing, editing, and proofreading skills,

and if you win, or even get an honorable mention,

the publicity helps build your platform.

God has given you stories to tell.

They’re important.

Others need to read them.

Write your stories.

Do you have an author platform?

If you plan to publish only a few copies of your memoir for family and friends, you probably don’t need a platform.

But if you hope to (1) self-publish your memoir, or (2) find an agent, or (3) find a publisher, (4) and sell your memoir, you need an author platform.

“You can’t assume that the act of printing a book equates to developing a sizable readership,” says Dan Blank.  “[T]oo many writers cannot see beyond the publication of their book.” That means you need a platform.

A platform helps you connect with people, to establish relationships with them.

A platform gives you visibility, an audience. It helps people find you—

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

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.”

“Unless an author has a clear message platform,” he says, “they will be frustrated and discouraged when trying to assemble a large number of devoted social media followers.” 

Dan explains that a message platform differs from an author platform in this way:

“Message Platform + media = Author Platform.

So, with that in mind, we must first build a message platform, which we accomplish, Dan says, with “a consistent message, delivered creatively, one that attracts readers and followers and meets the expectations they have for you.”  

Dan also points out that “Most authors have no idea what their message platform is until someone else tells them. If you try to figure it out yourself, you are engaging in a form of self-deception. We never see ourselves as others see us. Ask someone who will be honest. Don’t ask close friends or family. They will be nice and usually agree with whatever you say.”

If you want to develop a message platform, study 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

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, 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 get to work answering 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 (developing an audience) 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.” 

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

He covers detailed information about the following first steps in developing your 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 for you. Click on The First Steps to Building an Author Platform.

Brace yourself—

building a platform is a lot 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: Your writing can lead to personal discovery

Many of you will recognize yourselves in this quote:

“I’ve lived with and in my memoir for many years.

 Not only did I mentor my younger self

through writing my story,

but the writing process mentored me in turn,

providing lessons on writing and life

I could not have learned in a classroom

or a therapy session.

Through writing my memoir

I discovered who I was,

and who and what had shaped me into that person.”

Pamela Jane (emphasis mine)

Read more of Pamela Jane’s post at Women’s Memoirs

That brings us back to an excerpt from last Thursday’s post:

Much more hides within your experience than you realize right now. Writing leads to discovery. Roger Housden says it this way:

“…[A]s much as we think we know about our story,

there is far more waiting to surprise us

when our own words hit the page.”

(emphasis mine)

This is only one of the numerous benefits of writing your memoir.

So there you have it, your Tuesday Tidbit.

Have you started writing your memoir?

If not, how about beginning this week?

Tuesday Tidbit: How you can become a stronger writer

Here’s your 15 seconds of inspiration,

your Tuesday Tidbit:

Matilda Butler at Women’s Memoirs encourages memoir writers to read lots of memoirs, to “read broadly and think deeply.”

She says,

“Even memoirs that aren’t particularly good

can teach lessons.

You can ask yourself:

What do in like in this book?

What is off-putting?

How would I handle the story differently

if I were writing this book?

Is the opening weak?

What ideas do I have

to make the opening stronger?

Thinking about a memoir,

questioning a memoir,

even rewriting a few paragraphs

of a memoir

will make you a stronger writer.”

Thanks to Matilda for these helpful tips.

If you’re not a regular reader of Women’s Memoirs’ blog, do check into it.

More tips for using dialogue in your memoir

Pssst. Did you miss Tuesday’s post?

My entry in the First Paragraph contest

at Women’s Memoirs

received the Silver Winner award!

(Click on Silver Winner.)

Let us know how your entry does!

And now, let’s look at the best way to use dialogue in your memoir:

Needless dialogue can bore readers and tempt them to put down your memoir.

When we speak to one another, we make small talk that’s not important to include as dialogue (at least in most cases). That’s needless dialogue. For example:

“Hey, how ya doin’?”

“Great. How ‘bout you? You survivin’ this storm OK?”

Unless chit-chat holds significance for your story, eliminate it.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes people make the same point several times in a short conversation? For example, a person might say something like this two or three times in a given snippet: “The doctor said you need to go to the ER if your fever doesn’t break by midnight.”

Sometimes writers include repetitious phrases to emphasize urgency or emotion, but otherwise dialogue will be better without repetitions.

Use dialogue to show how each person in the conversation has a unique personality, emotions, and distinct, perhaps conflicting, goals to achieve. Dialogue can reveal the dynamics between those in the discussion, round out characters’ personalities, and convey what’s important to each of them.

Include body language. Usually people are in motion when they speak and those activities carry a message and reveal a person’s personality.

When a man is impatient, waiting for his wife to get dressed so they can go out, does he stand by the door and toss his car keys up and down, up and down? Is he sending her a coded message?

Does she habitually refuse to make eye contact when a certain topic comes up? What does she look at instead? Does she cross her arms over her chest? Does she swallow hard? Does she start a sentence she can’t finish? Does she change the subject?

Bottom line: Use brief but necessary dialogue—dialogue that will enhance your story’s message, bring main characters to life, and increase the reader’s comprehension—and include body language.

Related post:

Tips for using dialogue in your memoir

Tuesday Tidbit: Are you a memoirist, a genealogist, or a scrapbooker?

Here’s your Tuesday Tidbit,

your 15 seconds of inspiration:

Are you a genealogist, memoirist, or scrapbooker? Or all three?

“Memoir writers, genealogists, scrapbookers,” writes Matilda Butler. “Most people interested in recording their family consider themselves as one of the three. But only one.”

If that’s you—if you think you’re involved in only one of those three—stretch your thinking. Get beyond that “only one” perspective because these three interests have lots of overlap.

Utilize all three to maximize the richness and impact of your finished works. You’ll really enjoy doing so, and your readers will thank you.

Read more at “When Words Divide Rather Than Unite.”

Tuesday Tidbit: First lines

Here’s your 15 seconds of inspiration

for this week’s Tuesday Tidbit.

If you’re polishing an opening paragraph

for the contest at Women’s Memoirs,

keep this in mind: Openings require a lot of work.

Tips for writing a top-notch opening

Your opening is the most important part to write well—whether you’re penning a book, a vignette, an article, a blog post, or an opening paragraph for the Women’s Memoirs contest. (Did you miss Tuesday’s post? If so, click here. And remember, the contest is open to men, too.)

At the same time, the opening is probably the most difficult part to write well.

Your beginning can make or break your story: An effective opening can entice a person to keep reading—but a weak opening can make a person close the book and walk away.

Before you start working hard to perfect your opening,

chew on this question:

Is your opening the correct opening?

Most of us write our way into stories. We start writing anywhere we can, and that’s fine.  We get down as much as we can, knowing that later we’ll go back and reorganize, edit, rewrite, and polish.

Warming up. Yes, that’s what we’re doing with our first drafts, maybe even with our second and third drafts, too.

Most of us warm up by circling around the heart of our stories. Warming up helps shape our ideas, discover where our story is taking us, and pin down what’s important.

I’m talking about the scaffolding we set up to build our stories.

I first learned about scaffolding years ago from Donald Murray, and later from Roy Peter Clark and Don Fry.  They say:

Chip Scanlan tells how scaffolding in writing resembles scaffolding in construction:

“Scaffolding is the ‘temporary framework of platforms and poles constructed to provide accommodation for workmen and their materials during the erection, repairing, or decoration of a building,’ as the Oxford English Dictionary defines the term.

“In the writing trade,” Scanlan says, “the poles and planks of scaffolding are words, phrases, and sentences that help the writer build.” (Click here to read the rest of his post, Dismantling Your Story’s Scaffolding.)

Whether you’re building a castle or a memoir, the scaffolding must come down.

Look over your WIPs (works in progress) and identify the scaffolding. Those are the sentences that “can’t appear in the final version” (Clark and Fry).

Is it possible that your original opening paragraph is scaffolding?

If so, remove it.

Then, examine your story to determine the best opening. Often the opening—or the idea for your opening—is buried deep within the story.

In most of my writing, I seldom craft the best opening until I’m well into the revision phase.

How about you?

Your assignment this week is to recognize and dismantle your scaffolding. Then begin planning to create the best opening for your piece.

We have lots more to consider

about crafting an outstanding opening.

Be sure to come back next week!

Tuesday Tidbit: A writing contest over at Women’s Memoirs

This week’s 15 seconds of inspiration might take you 30 seconds,

but it’ll be worth your time: Here’s a fun opportunity!

At Women’s Memoirs, Pamela Jane Bell, Kendra Bonnett, and Matilda Butler have announced a contest for both women and men. (If you’re a man and you doubt whether you can enter, read the comments at that link.)

They invite you to submit one paragraph—your opening paragraph—for their current contest. Entries, due September 3, should be around 150 words. Click here to learn more, and be sure to check out those prizes! 

If the thought of entering a contest makes you want to run the opposite direction, click here for a pep talk.

A book’s opening is the most important part to write well: From sentence one, your job is catch your readers’ attention, draw them in, and entice them to keep reading. 

Thursday I’ll share tips on editing, rewriting, and making that paragraph sparkle. For now, look over your manuscripts (you have a number of them in rough draft, right?) and select one to polish for the contest.

Be sure to come back Thursday!

Send me your Mother’s Day vignettes, Part 2

.

Wednesday I invited you to submit a Mother’s Day vignette by April 30. (You can read that post here.)

Several of you are busily writing, and I’m enjoying everyone’s enthusiasm. I’ll select one vignette to publish here the week before Mother’s Day.

Helpful pointers:

Review Wednesday’s blog post and the definition of memoir.

Character Development:

Remember, every person is complex. Develop your character’s shortcomings, redeeming qualities, beliefs, relationships with others, prejudices, body language, tone of voice, attitudes, and quirks.

Was she sentimental or no-nonsense? Consistent or inconsistent? Gentle or gruff? Did she stand tall or did she slouch? Did she stress the importance of good table manners? What else was important to her?

Was she optimistic? Check out The Bookshelf Muse’s post today about describing an optimistic person. Angela and Becca aim their blog at fiction writers, but we nonfiction writers can discover gems for our writing, too. I hope you’ll take time to get acquainted with their rich resources. (You’ll also find an icon for The Bookshelf Muse here on my blog in the right sidebar.) 

For describing the people, you’ll find inspiration from a recent FaithWriters post, Four Dimensional Characterization, by Cate Russell-Cole.

Include emotions and sensory details:

You’ll find tips from Kathleen Pooler’s blog post, Evoking Emotions: The power of Sensory Detail in Storytelling, and from my earlier post, Method Writing.  (I can't get that link to work, so here it is: http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/06/method-writing-helps-your-memoir-come.html)

Polish your lead—your opening sentences:

A lead can make or break a story: It can lure readers into it or send them away. Remember, most writers craft the lead after they’ve written the main body of the vignette.

Here are links to earlier posts about leads:

Leads, Part 1    

Leads, Part 2 

Leads, Part 3   

Leads, Part 4 

Give special attention to your vignette’s conclusion:

A weak ending can make a vignette fall short of its potential impact, but a strong ending is where the beauty of memoir shines.

Here are links to earlier posts about crafting an ending:

The beauty of memoir: your vignettes’ strong endings

Maximize the power of your vignettes’ endings 

Links to mother-related pieces in the blogosphere:

While these are essays—not in memoir format—they will give you ideas:

Over at A Diamond in the Rough, Jessica writes This Holy Work on being a new young mother.   

In The Hum of Something Holy over at The High Calling, two of Emily Wierenga’s phrases zinged right to my heart because my mother’s eyes are almost all that remains of the dear mother I’ve always known. Emily says, “…She looks at me with the same eyes that she’s always had.… And her eyes, they tell me she’s still my mom.… ” 

I Remember My Mom, my green tea-cher, will help jog your memories.  

My favorite, Pease Please by Donna DeWeerd, was the Grand Prize Winner last December over at Women’s Memoirs. Donna’s subtlety—what she doesn’t say—is very effective. Her message is powerful, too.

You might be interested in the Sixth National Women’s Conference entitled “Pearls of Wisdom: Memoirs About Mothers” which takes place in Austin, Texas, April 13-15. I’ve never attended one of their conferences but it looks good.

When you’ve polished your Mother’s Day story, submit it by April 30 for consideration. I’ll be happy to edit it if you wish.

Your vignette should be 700 words or less in a Word document, sent as an attachment, to grandmaletters [at] aol [dot] com. (Replace [at] with @ and replace [dot] with a period, scrunch it all together, and that should reach me.) Please write “Mother’s Day Vignette for SM 101” in the subject line so I’ll know it’s not spam. Thanks.

I’ll choose one story to publish here the week before Mother’s Day.