You Don't Have to Be Famous to Write Your Memoir
By Anthony F. Shaker, PhD

There is a myth that bestselling memoirs can only be about one of three things: celebrity, hard luck, or whistle-blowing.

Many people dream about publishing their memoirs. But they've convinced themselves that fame precedes publishing success, rather than the other way around.

Or, they simply dismiss the idea of writing on the grounds that they have no earthshaking story to offer. Such as single-handedly saving a plane from crashing, rubbing elbows with a Michael Corleone, or for that matter, any inkling about how to write a book.

First of all, this way of thinking betrays a gross misunderstanding of the nature of the memoir.

Second, if you don't know how to write a book, hire a professional.

Third, the demand for memoirs is now so strong that almost anybody with a well-told life story can expect a reasonable chance of success. The same cannot be said of fiction, memoir's closest relative. Novels are still popular, but their declining quality--even among established authors like Stephen King--and the growing thirst for more "reality" are steadily changing the book market.

Generally, people are looking for more reality in how they are entertained. Observe the phenomenal rise of reality shows. Despite their negative impact, they--along with the mountains of how-to and self-improvement books published each year--reflect a deepseated desire to feel something we generically like to call "reality." People love to see other people in unscripted situations, either in the present or the past. Some prefer content they can learn from and relate to our lives; others want nothing more than to be entertained.

Memoirs today are written in a range of styles that lies somewhere between fiction and nonfiction, and for this reason seems to bridge the gulf that has traditionally separated these two areas.

I don't mean that authors of memoirs normally fabricate their experiences, though sadly this has become more frequent of late. The truth is, though, that memoirs are not mere records of events and relationships; they're not just factual accounts.

Of course, there was a time when they were not much more than that. A good part of our knowledge of the past comes from firsthand accounts by important figures like Julius Caesar and Benjamin Franklin. Famous people described pivotal events because they wanted to leave a record of their role for progeny. That didn't prevent them from inflating, philosophizing, and distorting whenever they saw fit.

But imagine what would happen if telling it like it is was all that memoirs did. What chance would a non-celebrity living an average, indescript life stand in the marketplace?

Modern memoir-writing offers much more than a factual account. Both its character and the market for it allow regular folks to write on the scale of their own lives, however unrecognized or uncelebrated they may be.

And amazingly, their readers love them all the more for it!

What your readers long for is not only to know the facts about your "insignificant" life, but to plumb it. They want to understand its meaning and to relate it to their own lives. The closer you resemble your readers, the easier you can strike a chord.

That's what the present market seems to be saying, and it's exactly why I stand by my claim that you don't need to be famous to write a memoir. If you can't write well, have it done by a professional ghostwriter.


Anthony F. Shaker, PhD, has been writing, ghostwriting, editing and reviewing books for 25 years. He is fluent in several languages, has traveled around the globe and writes in both fiction and nonfiction. His clients include individuals and businesses the world over.

For contact: afshaker@aol.com

Visit the web site: www.wordstead.com

By Anthony F. Shaker, PhD

Timothy Fitzgerald. Wawona Brotherhood. New York: Strategic Book Publishing, 2009. 306pp.

This, the first of Tim Fitzgerald's three-volume autobiography, is a fine introduction into a turbulent period of history with which not all who lived or "survived" it have quite come to terms. Looking back, we tend to glorify it and long for its return, or we just belittle it. Tim wasn't just anybody back then; he was a central player in the student movement at San Jose, and masterfully tells it like it was.

This is a complex work, not in an academic sense (although historians are certain to value its contribution), but because even intellectual ideas are suffused with the emotional intensities, tones, colors...and insights he recollects about them. His account may be about a past long dead, but it is a living account. His fluid, purposeful style of writing has that rare quality of allowing the reader to step inside expectantly for the long journey. But Tim is far more than just a writer. In this book, he is foremost a witness of others and of himself, thinker, and keen political analyst all rolled in one.

Before I go on, I should point out that I was his first (not last) editor, the one who undertook at least to put his early draft into good enough shape for submission. It required a lot of work, and more work needed to be done after I was through. Lacking funds, Tim worked on it some more and then took up my suggestion to submit the manuscript, as is, to an agent. I was delighted, but I later learned to my horror that his manuscript stayed in limbo for a number of years. I felt guilty for not having done more...

I had nothing to do with the final edit, and don't like every change done there. However, I am especially glad Tim kept the mountaineering chapters. It must have been a struggle with his publisher, but they constitute some of the best writing I have read on the subject. I wish there had been a way to keep the rest of it, though admittedly the original length of these these chapters caused the manuscript to be a little disjointed when I first worked on them.

This said, the rock-climbing and several early chapters about beginnings seem fine just the way they are. They help you ease into his life and the times. A stroke here, another there...until barely a few pages in and you've gained a broader view of what follows than you would have through a linear progression. Not everybody will feel the same, and it probably won't work with the remaining two volumes, yet to be published. There may be room for improvement come the next edition of this volume.

That's all minor. You will enjoy this book. Tim's life story reminds me of "A Tragic Honesty," Blake Bailey's biography of Richard Yates. But whereas Yates, a "mere" writer, sacrificed and suffered for the sake of artistic honesty, Tim has sacrificed and suffered for political honesty. He dared live his convictions. His whole life is the art piece!

I like his writing style, but I was enthralled by the world that subsists between the lines: its hopes, relationships, disappointments, dreams, betrayals, downfalls, redemptions, faith. Like every engaging writer, he lets the writing disappear and the image take shape. What comes out is a portrayal drawn with meticulous and visceral realism. It will at once uplift and disturb you.

I mentioned faith. I don't know if or to what extent he's religious, but you can't miss the stubborn faith he has in our ability to create a better world for ourselves. And, boy, did he suffer for it! Still, Tim is not a tragic figure like Yates was, despite the crushing political disillusionment of the late 1960s, which threw up the Weathermen and their likes. Yates abused his body and mind, drinking himself to oblivion and squandering his rare talent. It's a hefty price that artists are sometimes willingly to pay for the sake of "honest" expression.

Rather, Tim has been abused and railroaded by others, and very early on. The USSR wasn't the only place where dissidents were condemned as mental cases and hauled off to psychiatric wards. It happened right here in the Land of the Free. He was briefly institutionalized and drugged; he was lied to and manipulated. But he fought his way out. He pursued his studies, earning several university degrees. He later became a college teacher of history, political science and economics. Lucky for all of us (whatever our political persuasion), he hasn't lost faith. He's still active.

Tim has indeed risen high. The difference between him and many of his generation is that he has done, and is doing, what most of us desire and fear at the same time. We're fearful above all of personal consequences. But then, what is honesty without a tinge of personal tragedy? What is meaningful change without some sacrifice?

Life is like climbing mountains. I'm so glad he kept that part of his manuscript. It symbolizes the life of an uncommon man truly worth reading and learning from.

Anthony F. Shaker, PhD, has been writing, ghostwriting, editing and reviewing books for 25 years. He is fluent in several languages, has traveled widely around the world and writes in both fiction and nonfiction. His clients include individuals and businesses.

Anthony F. Shaker, PhD

afshaker@aol.com

www.wordstead.com