LEARNING HOW TO WRITE MEMOIR begins with knowing what to read. And specifically, this means reading really well, since reading bad memoir won’t help you a bit. But I also strongly suggest reading fiction, interviews, biographies and all matters of writing, though foremost in my suggestion of reading is to read reviews, especially good critics of television, movies, theater and books. Why reviews? Because any good critique of art will include a discussion of “What is this about?” that dreaded question all editors ask of their writers, all writing coaches ask of their clients, and all writing teachers ask of their students.

How to Get Great Fast

Learning to transpose your work to a higher key is possible. In fact, it’s the goal, right? That’s what answering that question affords you — the chance to get great fast. Knowing what the piece is about wrestles a piece of writing out of being a mere diary entry and into the marvelous world of memoir writing. You see, most people think that writing memoir is writing about themselves. Most people are wrong.

Writing memoir is about exploring the universal through the deeply personal. To do so, your work must be about something other than you. In fact, you are illustration of that bigger idea. That’s how it works. But what is that big idea, and just how does one go about getting one?

Let me give you an example from a timeless piece of criticism I remember many years after reading it.

Where to Find Good Criticism

A New Yorker piece by the great, Pulitzer prize-winning critic, Emily Nussbaum, explains why the HBO series, Big Little Lies, is absolutely worth your time, and does so via the answer to what its about. In the piece, Nussbaum tells the reader that the show explores the danger of shared mythology in marriage. Wow, I thought as I read it. I get that. I wasn’t going to watch the series, but then, after reading that, I did and got hooked, in no small part because Nussbaum gave me this lens through which to view it.

“The danger of shared mythology in marriage.” That phrase changed everything for me.

Finding such a phrase for each piece you write is your assignment, as well.

Critics will send you back to your writing desk, guiding you, reminding you that knowing what your piece is about is essential to someone else reading, understanding and enjoying it. So read the reviews. Find them in your major national newspapers, online and even on social media. But read them, specifically looking for that “what is this about” moment. Me? I read reviews of plays I will never see, movies I will never rent and books that I will never read. Why? To sharpen my ability to convey what something is about in my own writing.

Try it. Start today. Read around. And learn to identify what something is about.

How to Know What Your Piece is About

How do you apply this to your own work? Specifically, how do you figure it out? How do you know what your piece is about? Start with the event itself, asking yourself what happened. What was the human transaction that took place? What exchange was made between the people involved, or you and your garden, that tree in your back yard, the piano piece you just learned or the goal you just achieved. What just transpired?

I’m not asking for the plot here. Nope, not that. That’s the story you’ll write. What do you know after what you’ve been through? What does the plot illustrate?

Is it a story about grief? Okay, then what about grief do you know to be true? What about grief and are you willing to share with us, your eager readers? For instance, can you slice down the idea of grief even further so someone can examine closely the idea that grief is a process that must be experienced slowly or else you are destined to stay in it forever?

Ah. Now we’re getting somewhere.

Want more help? Join me in live, online memoir classes

Start here, with The Memoir Project System Page, to understand the breadth of all the classes we teach.

Want to jump right in? Here’s a sampling of our classes.

Memoirama: Live, 90 minutes. Everything you need to write what you know.

Memoirama 2. Live, two hours. Limited to seven writers. What you need to know to structure a book.

How to Write Opinion Pieces: Op-eds, Radio Essays and Digital Commentary: Live, 90 minutes. Get your voice out into the world.

And keep in mind that we are now registering names for the next Master Class, the prerequisites for which are Memoirama and Memoirama 2. Live, once a month. Limited to six writers. Get a first draft of your memoir finished in six months.

 

Photo credit: niclas via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-ND