The Memoir Project: A Throughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life
NOT SURPRISINGLY, I THINK that the best book on how to write memoir is the one I wrote. It’s called The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. The title reflects it contents – a somewhat irreverent how-to on writing what you know and the good that will do you. I love this little book. I wrote it for you, and when it was time to give a title to the book, those words seemed to sum it up best since along with all I know on how to write memoir, I’ve included a little life advice, as well.
After all, you want people to “get” the book right from the title. And that happened right from the pub date when I received a really wonderful boost from Poets & Writers, a magazine I’ve read and adored for more than 30 years. (I once had a t-shirt with their logo, and I remember that I was 21 at the time, so it’s a long love affair). P&W not only featured the book’s video on their fabulous site, but ran a few lines of real praise.
Though perhaps nothing made me quite so happy as getting a great review in Kirkus, that ever-hard-to-please trade magazine read by book stores and libraries as a guide to what to buy. Thank you, Kirkus. I promise to live up to your fine words in all my teaching.
All This and My Sister, Too
On Blog Radio, my sister, Margaret Roach, and I were interviewed for an hour. And early into that interview we realized that of all the wacky things we’ve done together, we’d never been interviewed together, despite having written 6 books between the two of us, as well as countless magazine articles, and having appeared separately on many of the same TV shows, including MARTHA.
My little book on how to write memoir is a much-improved version of the self-published edition entitled Realia, and along with that new title, it got a new publisher, Grand Central, whom I adore, and new pages that include an algorithm for how to make your story interesting to others. Don’t believe me? That algorithm is foolproof, I promise. I hope you’ll check it out in the book.
Is this, in fact, the best book on how to write memoir? Well, I think so. I put my heart and soul into it and hope you’ll enjoy the read.
For more on books on writing, please see my list of The Best Books on Writing I’ve Ever Read.
As I said on your sister’s blog, my favorite memoirs: Operating Instructions: A Journal of my Son’s First Year by Anne Lamott and Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. Lamott’s was given to me when my first child was born, and I appreciated her honesty and non-Mary-Poppins approach to childrearing. And Glass Castle haunted me for weeks after I read it. I wanted to jump in the book and call Child Protective Services or wisk those children away (when I read this one I had 3 kids and out of the baby stages).
Suffice it to say, the memoirs that stick with us usually strike a chord with our own experiences.
I’m all about family, and co-authored a coming of age tale (based on our real life but fictionalized) with my mother, so I feel drawn to your relationship with your sister.
Hope to win a copy! But, more than that, I’m glad to have been introduced to both of your blogs and stories.
Definitely want to win! :)
As far as which memoir I read which impacted me- it was Cheaper by the Dozen. The reason it mattered to me? Imagine a 12 year old reading this wonderfully fascinating tale of a family so full and so humorous. When I turned the final page, I was determined to get my hands on as many REAL life stories as I could find. Although I’ve read many memoirs over the years- this one mattered the most since it whet my appetite for all memoirs.
“The Woman Warrior” by Maxine Hong Kingston. This book broadened my understanding of how memory, dreams and fantasy interweave. Her writing in simply brilliant.
Anything by David Sedaris because his books make me laugh until my gut aches. (And I sure would like to win one of these here (dem dere?) books because clearly–and here I contemplate my vast and extraordinarily limp readership– I’m writing up the wrong tree).
ENTRIES FOR THE GIVEAWAY ARE NOW CLOSED, but your comments about memoirs you have loved are always welcome (even if they don’t count in the drawing). Winners are being chosen at random and will be emailed!
Thank you all for such a great response — Marion and Katrina and I want to make a booklist from these suggestions as a future post. So more to come…