During this unbearably long past year I have used my Substack platform for political pieces, but have decided to head in another direction that I hope might keep me calmer and might also be of use to those who are thinking about writing or are already stuck in.
I’ve been writing since the early 2000’s and although I am not universally known, I have had some success. I write mostly fantasy and have also delved into paranormal mystery. I am now working on memoir as well as another fantasy that takes place in Ireland. I won’t go on and on about myself. If you are interested in who I am please visit: www.nikkibroadwellauthor.com
For me writing has saved my life. All of the pent up emotions of my past, my childhood and my over active imagination have been let loose from where they were caged for so long. How I began this 30 year journey started with a writing class. It was run by Emily Trinkaus in Portland Oregon where I lived for many years. Emily has had many careers since then, and is now an esteemed astrologer. I have known her a long time and highly recommend her for anyone who is interested in the subject.
I have always loved writing—my favorite school exercise was when the teacher gave us a sentence and then said, ‘write for fifteen minutes’. In college I switched back and forth between Art and writing and continued this in my later life with a greeting card business and then a silk painting business. The writing began sometime later.
Today I want to talk about memoir writing, since it seems to be of interest to many who seek to be writers. It is where I thought I was headed when I embarked on Emily’s class. My father was in prison camp for three and a half years in WW2 and I had hoped to use his journals to write a book, not about my life, but about his and my mother’s life. I managed 400 pages after crying my way through my father’s heartbreaking journals. He lived to tell the tale, but what he experienced was almost too much to read, much less to live through.
At that point I gave up on the journal, deciding instead to write a little fantasy to take my mind off the emotional impact of what my father had endured. I picked three words as a writing prompt and started writing. What came out of that little exercise was one incredibly long novel that I divided into three. After finding an editor and learning tons about what writing really was, I found that I was addicted. Perhaps that will happen to you? You never know where writing will lead—that is the fun of it.
So, to get down to the gist of this article—to write a memoir you only have to pick a certain time period in your life. It isn’t an autobiography, which means you could write many of them having to do with certain times in your life that either changed you, or marked a time when you learned something profound, or just stood out in your mind as important. It could be a year long period of time, or a decade or more. It’s up to you.
I have a writer friend who has read all about memoir writing and has taught a class on it. She picked a certain formulaic process to follow described by some writer whose name escapes me. When I explained how I was handling mine, she told me I was wrong before explaining the rules to me. And since I don’t believe in rules, I ignored her. Mine reads in first person and in third, depending on the immediacy of what I’m writing about. For instance, in writing about my mother from the perspective of a six- year-old, it is my voice in the first person with many exclamation marks. I don’t shirk from the emotions that I remember, which I believe makes it much more relatable and interesting to a reader. It’s the adage of “show don’t tell” that I’m talking about here. Here is an article which I recommend.
Approach your project like you’re writing fiction—and have fun with it. What it is NOT is: I grew up in blah and went to school in blah and then we traveled to blah blah blah—make it interesting to your readers, a slice of your history that you want to share because it did something to you—breathe life into it by using your own voice and enthusiasm.
That’s it for now. If you would like more of this sort of writing you will find it here. I am not famous, but I have been writing for 30 years and have self-published thirty books. Why I decided to self-publish is a story for next time.
Thanks for reading! and please feel free to reach out with comments or questions.
