Memoir Writing

If you're thinking of writing your memoir or autobiography, this is probably the best time to do it.

It seems that people from every walk of life are: professionals, celebrities, regular folks, the wealthy, the downtrodden. The reason is that memoirs have been growing steadily as a market niche for a number years. Now, thanks to an important gap that fiction seems unable to fill, they are beating down what once used to be a robust fiction market.

Although memoirs are supposed to be factual accounts, they combine facts with storytelling. It's always been this way, of course. What's new about today's memoir/autobiography is the level of dramatization it can tolerate. It allows you, the author, or your ghostwriter to transcend the mass of facts at your disposal and to weave something that approaches a novel in both style and creativity.

By "dramatization" I don't mean that you can fabricate as you go along. Memoirs are not "dramatizations" in that sense. And you should be really wary of possible lawsuits by persons you falsely depict. Honesty, candor, and truthfulness are still your best virtues, even as you try to reconstruct past conversations from memory.

For better or worse, the information age has blurred the line that separates fiction from nonfiction in creative writing. One result of this is the hyper-realism we see in entertainment (novels, films reality shows, etc.). Novelists love to flaunt their "factual knowledge" of the martial arts, forensics or some other technical field, and they do it so loudly it would make Arthur Conan Doyle blush.

Other areas of change show a reverse influence: that of fiction on nonfiction. Think CNN, Fox and radio's Rush Limbaugh. What massive effort goes into making our daily fare of current events "entertaining"!

My job as a ghostwriter is to make sure the client's account of the past is both accurate and told as a story. It's a fine line to tread, and one that's fast fading.

But it all boils down to an elementary truth about all writing: Storytelling shows the colorful sinews of life, honesty your rightful place in it.

Anthony F. Shaker, PhD, has been ghostwriting and editing for 25 years. He is fluent in several languages, has traveled widely around the world, and writes in both fiction and nonfiction. He works for individual clients and companies large and small.

Stop feeding your inferiority complex and get on with the business of writing a memoir; and don't be afraid to do it on a scale that befits your own life, not that of a celebrity. Your experiences may sound trivial to you, but they're not to countless other people who are like you. If you have trouble writing for publication, then hire a ghostwriter or editor. That person should be able to recreate your inspiration on paper and make it a captivating read for the general reader.

So you're thinking of writing (or having a ghostwriter pen for you) your memoir or autobiography. The trouble is that you feel a bit queasy about the whole idea because you think your life is somehow "unimportant" in the grand scheme of things.

First things first: No life is unimportant. In memoir writing, mere living (some call it survival) is qualification enough.

I don't want to finesse you into taking the plunge if you don't feel the time is ripe. But let me point out the first great thing going for you even before you start: The average reader is a born voyeur. Good memoir writers know this, no matter what their station in life happens to be.

You see, memoir writing is not only about conveying the facts. If telling it exactly like it is were all there was to the task, then I agree: the chance of a non-celebrity like you and me making it as memoir writers is probably next to nil.

Thankfully, your readers--a sizable segment of the human race--crave not the "facts" themselves, but the pleasure of following how you overcame personal hardship, run your business enterprise, reinvented your marriage, dealt with mental disorder in the family...heck, married your husband five times! Some readers may enjoy being entertained by the quirky way in which this guy depicts the world around him. Or, they may long to be inspired by how that woman discovered trust despite a childhood of physical abuse.

Beyond their voyeurism, and the entertainment value of your story, people like to read about so-called "insignificant" lives also because they want to relate the experiences of others to our own lives.

So, stop feeding your inferiority complex and get on with the business of writing a memoir; and don't be afraid to do it on a scale that befits your own life, not that of a celebrity. Your experiences may sound trivial to you, but they're not to countless other people who are like you.

Write about what you know best and your niche of readers will love you all the more for it!

If you don't believe me, listen to what publishers are saying these days. They second my advice every day their market for memoirs and autobiographies expands.

That's exactly why I stand by my claim that anybody can write a memoir. And, if they can't write well, have it done by a professional ghostwriter.