“A title that tolls off the reader’s tongue”

Choose a title that’s easy to pronounce and easy to remember.  Jerry Waxler points out that a good title helps a reader recommend a book to a friend.  I hadn’t thought of that before, but his point caught my attention. He says, “…the title should roll off the reader’s tongue when friends ask for a recommendation.” Good stuff, Jerry!

Denis Ledoux says a memoir’s title is “about the reader not about the writer.”

Choose a title that reaches out to readers and hooks them because, Denis points out, “Many things are competing for the reader’s attention [so] a title needs to be a player in the competition.”

Think about what your potential readers need. In his post, How to Choose a Title for a Memoir, Denis asks:

• “What is your ideal reader struggling with? Where is his pain? Place a word or two that describes that pain into the title….
• What outcome will the reader achieve when she reads this book?...
• How can you involve the reader’s curiosity?”

Analyze other memoirs’ titles. Study advertisements. Examine article titles in newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Ask yourself “What makes them work?”

And then have fun crafting a few possible titles for your memoir.

Tuesday Tidbit: Your memoir’s title

Last week we looked at giving your memoir a temporary, working title instead of a permanent title because the process of writing often takes the story places the author never expected. If that should happen to you, you’d have to change your title. (Click on that link to read last week’s post.)

While you write your memoir, in the back of your mind play around with possible title ideas.

When you’re close to finishing your manuscript, the time has come to get serious about choosing just the right permanent title.

Kathy Pooler offers good advice in her post, “Does Your Memoir Title Pack a Punch?” She lists questions she asked herself in crafting her memoir’s title: 

• Is the title catchy?
• Does the title strike at the heart of my story?
• Does my title reveal my promise to the reader?
• Does the title create interest for the reader?

For now, then, ask yourself Kathy’s questions and come up with a few potential titles for your memoir.

And there you have it: your Tuesday Tidbit.

We’ll have more tips on Thursday, so y’all come on back!

Tuesday Tidbit: On vulnerability, success, failure, and hope

Let's read that last part again. "Editors don't want [and I add: readers don't want] stories of our great triumphs and success. Readers identify with failure and find hope in rising above mistakes."

Let's remember this while we write our memoirs.

Follow Cec and Me, with Cecil Murphey and Twila Belk, on Facebook. 

Tuesday Tidbit: Your stories serve an important purpose

Your story is important. God can use it to help shape the lives of your children, grandchildren, great-grands, and anyone else who reads your story, including the “spiritual” children God has given you. Not all of us have children, but we all have “spiritual” children who look up to us and model their lives after ours—more than we realize.

You know from personal experience

how powerful other people’s stories can be.

Many of them inspired you,

opened new worlds,

sent you in different and better directions,

and made you who you are today.

Believe this:

Your story can impact readers

in the same way.

Pray for God’s help in writing it.

Tuesday Tidbit: Where is the best place for your photos?

Have you noticed where people place photos in their memoirs?

Here's a pic from my little story, "My Blackberry Summer."

Some authors group them together in the middle of the book.

Others place them at the end.

Other authors scatter photos throughout the memoir.

Which is best?

Denis Ledoux of The Memoir Network writes: “…Where you place photos…will influence how readers appreciate your story…. There is in reading and writing a phenomenon called ‘suspension of disbelief.’ If I as the reader am constantly saying, ‘This is only a book. This isn’t happening as a read,’ then it is impossible for that reader to get ‘lost in the story.’”

Our goal as writers—and as designers of our layouts—is to avoid suspension of disbelief and, instead, to invite readers to live the story while they read. Strategic photo placement can help accomplish that.

If we place photos throughout the memoir, within the vignettes they pertain to (instead of grouped together in the middle or at the end), we will increase readers’ likelihood of experiencing our stories—almost like seeing the events on a movie screen.

So as you write and edit and rewrite and consider your publishing options, plan ahead for your photo placement. It’s important.

There you have it—your Tuesday Tidbit.

Here are two more significant pictures from "My Blackberry Summer."

Tuesday Tidbit: Make something happen inside your readers

Here’s your Tuesday Tidbit,

your 15 seconds of inspiration:

While writing and rewriting and editing and polishing your memoir,

keep your readers in mind.

Write for them.

What do readers need from you?

Take in Annie Dillard’s words about what readers need:

“Why are we reading,

 if not in hope of beauty laid bare,

life heightened,

and its deepest mystery probed?...

Why are we reading

if not in hope that the writer will

magnify and dramatize our days,

will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage,

and the possibility of meaning,

and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries,

so we may feel again their majesty and power?” 

Annie Dillard

What do you want to make happen 

inside the people who read your memoir?

Tuesday Tidbit: Offering readers hope

Here’s your 15 seconds of inspiration,

your Tuesday Tidbit:

“Hope is the answer your readers are searching for.…

We write hard things to inspire others.

We inspire them to overcome their fears,

and to tell them they are not alone

in their dark night of the soul.”

Kellie McGann,

guest blogger at Wayne Groner’s

“Your Memories Your Book”

Do you know what a book dedication is—and is not?

Do you know what a book dedication is—and is not?

Have you written your memoir’s dedication—or at least a rough draft? Doing so can help you write the rest of your book. (See below.)

If you haven’t penned even a rough draft of your memoir’s dedication, this blog post is for you.

The dedication often begins with “For” or “I dedicate this book to” followed by names of people for whom you have written the book. But it doesn’t have to be spare and dull: There’s room for creativity and innovation.

Lucille Zimmerman over at Wordserve Water Cooler is fascinated with book dedications. She says the book dedication is not “the acknowledgments page where you thank everyone who ever helped you” but rather it's “that mostly blank page tucked in the beginning of a book, after the title page and publishing credits.” Her blog post includes seven charming book dedications.

A book dedication should be personal. Joseph Kunz emphasizes the emotional connection a book dedication can create, and offers a dozen examples in his blog post.

Stories to Tell workshops include an exercise called “Dedication Page” in which participants answer two questions:  “Who is your book for? Why are they special to you?”

Biff Barnes explains why it’s important to answer those questions even in the process of writing your memoir:

Knowing your audience

will help you pin down your voice,

your tone, your vocabulary,

what stories to include,

and how to shape your book.

If you haven’t thought about your memoir’s dedication page, the time has come! Creating it can be a lot of fun, and even a rough draft will benefit you during your writing.

What do you want your memoir to do inside your readers?

Sometimes one sentence 

packs more punch than a whole blog post, 

so here’s the message I have for you today:

Saturday Snippet: Invite readers into your story

.

Welcome to new followers here and on Facebook:

Bella, Wayne, and Jennifer!

Several of you have blogs and I’m really enjoying getting acquainted. Because you have rich inspiration to share, do us a favor: Leave a comment below with a link to your blog. We have a great "scribe tribe" going on here!


Now for our Saturday Snippet:

Barrington continues: “… these acts of memory will serve you well. They… push your story deeper, pull your reader closer, and lift the heart of the story out of obscurity into a sensory world that you and your readers can inhabit together.” (Judith Barrington, Writing the Memoir)


Revise your rough drafts by adding sensory details: sights, sounds, tastes, feels, and smells. Doing so invites readers into your story with you.

Take joy in writing your stories!