How do you start to tell your story? It all begins with a single step...

By Dennis Lowery

One of the most frequent questions I get is, "I want to write my memoirs or a story about my life, how do I start?"

Real lives can have twists and turns that no fiction writer could ever dream up. Recently I've spoken with, messaged and emailed back and forth with some people that truly have fascinating life stories. If written, their story will make an excellent book.

The best memoirs (most popular commercially) are those written just like telling a story. They start with the main character in a serious/dangerous situation to hook the reader and get them engaged and curious as to "what happens next". That is my primary approach when ghostwriting a memoir for a client. Judgment on using that approach depends on the content of the story (the events in the client's life) or if the client has a specific flow they want the narrative to have.

For those of you who want to write your story; within your journals/notes on your life or memory you want to find a critical moment and event in your life and try to shape that as the beginning/start of your story. Then using the rest or your story, broken into logical sequences and transitions, you can carry the reader through the rest of what you want to share with them.

With a starting point, you can build momentum to continue writing and complete your story. The journey of a 1,000 miles starts with a single step! Remember writing a book (your story) is done one letter-one word-one sentence at a time!

Comments

[Stef]

Hi Dennis, interesting post...