ESCHEW WRITING PROMPTS. Be hospitable. Ask Amy. Those are the three previous new year resolutions I’ve asked you to make when learning to write memoir. And today? What could it possibly be today?

Use an algorithm.

Here’s how this works. Merely plug in your coordinates to the algorithm I’ve devised for writing memoir. Here it is:

This is about x, as illustrated by y, to be told in a z.

It’s about something universal (x), as illustrated by something deeply personal (y), to be told in some length of a piece (z).

Use this, and watch how you are no longer the center of your own tale, but rather the illustration of some larger, universal theme. Understanding the need for this change of emphasis is the difference between writing good memoir and boring our socks off.

And the key to making this shift? Simply accepting that you are not the story. Repeat that to yourself: I am not the story. Exactly. You are the illustration. You are the picture in the frame, the lozenge in the wrapper. Get that, and when you do, you will see how your story—the illustration of the theme—gets shifted to the y, or second phrase, of this sentence, and by extension, to its proper place.

Use the algorithm.

Want me to explain this more fully? I’d be glad to. Merely go to my book page, specifically to the video, press “play” to let me tell you more.