EL Doctorow once compared writing a book to taking a long drive in the dead of night. He said, “You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” He was right. Sometimes when you’re in the thick of it, sitting behind that steering wheel, going 10 miles an hour down the highway, it feels interminable. One word at a time can feel like a long slog, and there will be points in the process that feel so tedious and slow you start to wonder if you’re making real progress. In such a long project, anything that can give you a boost and make you feel that progress come a bit faster and easier is a blessing. So today we will give you to tips to accelerate your memoir.
Before we get into today’s post, we wanted to ask—do you have a plan for actually finishing your memoir? If not, we know you aren’t making the progress you hoped for. That’s why we developed The Memoir Method Checklist. This free guide (and video training!) will take you through every single step you need from idea to published marketable book. Grab it now at https://pageandpodium.com/checklist
Have a plan
Driving in the dark as EL Doctorow describes is infinitely more scary if you not only can’t see past the headlights, but you don’t have any map or landmarks to your destination. When you know where you’re going, you’ll at least have the faith in the journey as you go. That’s why we have developed The Memoir Method Checklist, to give you a clear idea of the major goalposts that you can aim for along the way. In long journeys, there’s a lot of room for detours. It can be intimidating to plan out a process that will take the next nine months to multiple years of your life, especially when you don’t really know how long you’ll be working on this project. When you have a clear plan, you can break down each of those major milestones into a manageable set of steps and schedule out how you will accomplish each stage. We have another tool you can use to help you plan your time, and that’s our drafting calculator. The calculator will help you make a realistic timeline for drafting your memoir, letting you feel the forward progress of your writing.
Make an outline
If you’ve been following our channel or blog long, you know that we are vocal advocates of having an outline. When you have an outline, you will have a clear structure that will ensure your project is cohesive, has forward momentum, and will earn the reader’s attention and trust. It also serves as a map for the long drafting process. Writers know how precious and often scarce writing time can be. Whenever you sit down to write, it is an enormous benefit to have a clear idea of the goal of that writing session. With an outline, this is so much easier to manage. That way, you can spend more time writing, and less time trying to find your way in the dark. Keep in mind that making an outline is not a one-session task. It often takes one-two months in order to develop an outline that will serve you throughout the drafting process.
Choose one source of supporting information
Writing advice is plentiful—sometimes too plentiful. You want and need to have support in your process and a place to turn to address questions or road blocks. However, if you turn to google searches and Youtube every time you feel a bit of a stall or uncertainty, you’ll find yourself spending all your time trying to learn everything you can before you even start. There’s too much out there to absorb it all, and worse, much of it is contradictory advice. When you’re constantly leaving the work to “learn” how to do the work, you can easily fall down rabbit holes that are too deep to climb out of. When you choose a single source of information, you’re still allowing yourself a place to turn to for support without driving yourself crazy with too much contradictory guidance. That is one of the reasons why we created The Memoir Method group program, to give our writers one place they can turn to for support and personalized guidance. Often the best kind of advice is from those who are not only experienced writers, but those who are invested in you and the specific story you’re trying to tell. Each book project is a little different, so having a small community of writers that know your specific goals and can help talk you through your specific obstacles is a very valuable source of support.
Determine the right chapter length for you
These tips work together in tandem. As you develop your outline and begin the drafting process, you want to figure out the right chapter length for you and your book. Some writers are naturally over-writers and others are naturally concise. Often in revision you will either be pulling back a lot of over-explanation or filling in details to enrichen the scenes. However, as you’re drafting, having a chapter length that works with your natural tendencies will keep you in forward momentum and get you faster to that clearly structured first draft.
Let go of perfection
No matter how detailed your plan is, it will need to flexible and include revision in the whole of the process. It is so tempting to only move on when you feel like what you’ve accomplished so far is just right. To accelerate your memoir writing, you have to be able to let go and allow words to exist imperfectly on the page for a while. Revision needs to focus first on the whole of the work—the structure, the pacing, and how closely it sticks to what serves the message. You cannot do this kind of revisions before you have the full first draft in hand, so spending time tweaking and editing and refining your writing on a sentence level is a form of procrastination.
Stop and brainstorm when you need it
One of the key steps to accelerate your memoir is accepting that thinking about and solving road blocks will be an inevitable part of the process. No matter how detailed your outline is, there will be times when the writing session you need is not writing a certain number of words, but brainstorming to solve the immediate problem. It might be trying to figure out how to connect two scenes with a transition or what would be the best way to approach a sensitive point. You can also be sure to count these sessions as forward progress, even if you don’t meet your word count.
Sit on your hands
There will be many times when to get going on your writing of a session, you will need to read what you’ve written before. Sometimes it’s been a few days or even a couple weeks, and so you need to refresh your memory to get back into the swing of writing. The temptation to revise and fuss with it as you go will be strong—but you should try to resist. If the temptation is strong, literally sit on your hands as you read. You can also “sit on your hands” by doing this reading on a different platform—your phone, a tablet, or printed paper, so you can keep yourself from editing your whole writing session.
Plan on slow progress
Yes, we are giving you tips to accelerate your memoir writing, but there’s only so fast the process can realistically go. You might see other programs that promise methods for 90 day books or books in less than a month. Perhaps some of those programs deliver on their promises for some writers—but I have yet to meet one. In our experience, nine months is fast, but doable, in book-writing time. Your progress in those months to years will feel slow at times. If you plan on gradual progress, you’re less likely to feel frustrated or insufficient to the task. There will be interruptions and slow times, embrace it as part of your process.
Tell people about your book
If no one knows that you’re writing your book, you won’t have anyone asking you when it will be done and when can they read it. If no one knows you’re writing a book, you may feel safe from those questions, but you will also have no one to give you accountability. When you tell people about your book, you’re sharing your goals. This makes them so much more likely to motivate you than if the only person to disappoint is yourself. Share your book goals and speak with confidence. You’re not trying to write a book; you’re writing a book.
Trust yourself
We saved the best for last. If you’re motivated to write a book on your life, you probably know more than you think. You’ve read others’ work and whether you see it or not, you’ve developed a sense of intuition about your story and what it will take to tell it. When problems arise, trust that you can find your way through them.
The reason you’re stalled is not because you don’t deserve to write the book. The reason you’re stalled is not because you’re not a writer. None of that is true, we promise you. Your book deserves to be told, and you deserve the support you need to tell it.
PS. Searching the internet for writing, publishing, and book marketing advice can be exhausting to say the least! If you’re ready for hands on, one-on-one support for your memoir, check out The Memoir Method. We’d love to welcome you into this nine-month group program specially designed for women writing their first memoirs. And don’t forget, if you’d like to chat with Amanda about the program (or any other services we offer), you can book a free consult any time!
