The Voice of the Writer in Memoir

This past year, ever since we came back to the States, I've been all wrapped up in work for WiDo Publishing. It's our ten-year anniversary and we are very close to having our 100th book published.

We also started a new imprint, E.L. Marker, a hybrid company that offers traditional publishing services to self-publishing authors.

It's been a crazy busy year. The only writing I've done is journaling (my personal psychotherapy) and writing emails to authors whose work I'm editing and/or preparing for publication. So many emails.

I've edited a number of memoirs this year for both WiDo and E.L. Marker, and it's got me thinking about the writer's voice. In any kind of writing, voice will attract or repel readers. But in memoir it's especially important. If you dislike the voice of the narrator, you won't keep reading, since the memoir is about the narrator.

There a few tricks of the trade in editing a memoir to make the voice more appealing. Strangely enough, one of them is to tone it down. You might think, "But why? It's about this person so why not put as much personality in there as you can? So the reader can feel like they know them?"

A good question. The entire book is about the individual, in first person, their story, but it's also about other people they've included in their story. And those other people are part of what makes the memoir whole and balanced.

Putting in too much of the writer's personality, in the form of little asides or sarcasm or other types of humor, can quickly turn the reader off. It tends to make the narrator come across as self-absorbed and thus unlikable--the last thing we want to see happen in a memoir.

If you'd like to take a look at WiDo's selection of memoirs, click on this link to our bookstore and see the tab for Memoir.

Memoir is currently my favorite genre. I can't get enough of them, which I guess is why I've chosen to edit so many lately, rather than passing them along to other WiDo editors.

How do you feel about memoir, either writing or reading them?

M is for Memoir

MEMOIR is a form of autobiographical writing dealing usually with the recollections of one who has been a part of or witnessed significant events. MEMOIRS differ from autobiography in that they are usually concerned with personalities and actions other than those of the writer, whereas autobiography stresses the inner and private life of its subject.

One of the best-known MEMOIRS is Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, the story of his growing up years in Ireland, specifically centered around his mother, Angela. A MEMOIR does not need to be written by a famous person. McCourt was an unknown writer when he wrote his debut work. It is more in the meaning given within the MEMOIR rather than the fame or importance of the author.

Soon to be released is this MEMOIR by Ann Carbine Best, a blogger that many of you know from A Long Journey Home.  It is titled In the Mirror, A Memoir of Shattered Secrets. Oooh, sounds intriguing!

I

In the Mirror, A Memoir of Shattered Secrets by Ann Carbine Best is the story of a woman who planned on her marriage lasting forever.

When Ann marries Larry in September of 1961, she’s certain he will be that eternal companion. Eleven years later, she is devastated to learn that he’s been having affairs with men. She wants to help him. She wants to save her marriage.

However, powerful emotions pull Larry away from his family, and eight years later their marriage ends. As a single parent, Ann is now faced with four grieving children who don’t want to leave their father and their home in Utah Valley. But Ann needs to start a new life in a new place.

In the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Ann at last makes peace with the past.

I am looking forward to this one. Go, Ann!

What tickles your writing bone?

Most writers I know also love to read. Reading, along with a few other sedentary activities, tickles my writing bone, and then I have to shut out the world and go work on my wip.

Here's my list of most motivational writing tools:

1. Reading a poorly-written book. I can do better than that, I say, let me at it!

2. Reading a well-written book. It teaches me by example and I want to have a go.

3. Reading the biography or memoir of an author. I want to be just like them.

4. Movies about authors, books and writing. Just seeing a writer in action makes me want to write!

5. Pretty much any Woody Allen movie, because the dialogue is so stimulating.

I wish I could say taking a long walk in the woods, or running 20 minutes on the treadmill, or cleaning house inspired me. That would help my fitness level.

What is it that most inspires your writing? Do you have a list of your own?