I’ve been writing my first book for nearly two years. It has taken me this long to realize something that’s crucial to the success of my memoir: It’s okay to let myself ramble. More than okay. To write a good memoir, I have to force myself to ramble. I’m best at writing in a newsy […]
A year and a half ago, I asked readers of this blog for help coming up with a title for my book. It made sense to ask for your opinion because many of you followed me here after reading my travel blog, so you were familiar with my travel tales. From a list of possible […]
From the beginning, I've been stubborn about following a model for my story arc. If I wrote a good story, I figured, it would have a natural arc without me obsessing over the “inciting incident” and “crisis” and “resolution.” If all authors stuck to a strict story arc template, I rationalized, books would be boring! […]
If you’ve ever thought about giving up as a writer, this Q&A is for you. Laura Munson wrote 14 books over the last 20 years, while juggling responsibilities as a stay-at-home mom and freelance writer. But not one of those books was published — until now. Laura’s a Modern Love success story. Her book, This […]
… and landed on my blog, you made my day. Thank you! Best women’s travel memoir comin’ right up.
Writing an awesome memoir requires being honest with the reader. This is pretty basic, Memoir Writing 101. You’ve got to reveal your true self through your story, because if you don’t, readers will know it. They might not be able to put their finger on it, but they’ll know something’s off. If you’re not completely […]
Feedback is hard to come by during the query process, as I explained in a post last week. Several agents rejected my manuscript after reading sample chapters or even the entire project, but most of them didn’t say why. Actually, perhaps I should rephrase that. Not many of them offered a helpful why. Several said […]
It occurred to me this week while revising: Would my story feel more alive if I wrote in present tense? I wrote my manuscript in past tense without giving it a thought. That’s the tense I’m used to from my journalism background, the kind that comes easy to me. But I’m reading Mary Morris‘ The […]
I had an Ah-Ha! Moment at the Compleat Biographers Conference this weekend. (Yes, there might be a biography in my future. But I’m not ready to share details yet.) We’ve all been told a million times that the success of a book depends on how the author tells the story. It doesn’t depend on the […]
If you’re writing a travel memoir or enjoy reading them, hope you’ll follow @travelmemoir on Twitter. We’ll offer tips, helpful links and book recommendations, as well as notes about what’s going on in the Travel Memoir Writers Ning group. [tweetmeme source=”alexisgrant”] Should be a good resource.