Need a Tip on How to Write Memoir? It’s This: Read and Respond

WHILE RECENTLY GIVING A KEYNOTE ADDRESS on the power of memoir, I was introduced to the crowd by a scholar who invited me to repeat something I had forgotten I’d said last time I spoke to his students. My host said, “In fact, we liked it so much we use it on our website,” and I sat there wondering just what it is I might have said that would prompt such a lovely response.

“You told us that ‘writers respond,’” he said.

Well yes, they do. And how nice to be quoted, though I could see on the faces of the audience that I had some explaining to do.

“React to the things you read, you hear and you see,” I said as I began my remarks.

It’s a good rule, as well as a great tip for memoir writers.

Here’s an example of what I mean. I recently read the same study that Adam D. Chandler apparently read, and I had nothing to say. Mr. Chandler, however, had an essay in him that was so good it got published this week by The New York Times. He responded.

Read and react. Call and response. It’s what we do when we write memoir.