Writing a memoir is a journey worth taking. If your story has been calling to you from the deep, dark woods of your heart, there’s a path right there waiting. Like all the best journeys, telling your story begins with a single step.
Writing a Memoir
Writing a memoir can bring up a lot of questions. You might wonder if your story is worth telling at all—or if anyone will be interested in what you have to say. You may worry about sharing private parts of your life—or fear exposing someone involved in your story.
And yet something keeps bringing you back to it.
Maybe you’ve written a few chapters and then stopped—because you aren’t sure what comes next, or what you’re really trying to say, or whether any of it is working at all. If you’re not sure how to move forward—or even if you should move forward—I may have some helpful insights for you.
Why Write a Memoir?
People choose to write a memoir for all kinds of reasons. They may want to discover, through the process of writing, what a chapter of their life actually meant. They may want to preserve family stories or understand a relationship, or a loss, or a meaningful event in their life. They may feel the need to finally say something they’ve been waiting years to say—or leave something meaningful behind.
Whatever brought you here, you’re trying to do something that matters—to make meaning from your experiences.
And that is not simple work.
What Writing a Memoir Actually Involves
Memoir asks us to remember, to notice, to make meaning—and then shape our story into something a reader can understand.
Of course, writing honestly about our own life stirs things. We may even find it therapeutic. But while the process of therapy explores the past so we can live better in the present, the process of writing a memoir allows us to shape that past into a story that speaks to our readers.
Many of my clients find that therapy and memoir writing can support each other beautifully. As a coach, however, I’m here to help you find the story within your experience. To make memory into art. That’s where I can serve you best.
How I Can Help
Writers come to memoir coaching at different stages. But many arrive when they’ve found themselves at a crossroads, with a few (or many) chapters written and uncertainty about where to go next. They may have lost the true thread that connects their story.
Or they are wrestling with one of the questions memoir almost always raises: What do I do about the people in my story? What can I say? What should I say?
As your coach, I can help you answer the questions that may have kept you spinning your wheels—and also find the focus of your memoir, shape your memories into compelling scenes, develop confidence in your voice, and balance your emotional truth with your reader’s experience.
Ultimately, memoir is the craft of shaping reflection into narrative. You do not have to figure out how to do that alone.
A Few Words from a Client
The greatest gift I ever gave my writing life was hiring a coach. Jamie Morris took a frustrated, unstructured girl with a big story and sat her down one day in Barnes & Noble. She taught me plot structure, emotional timing, and Tarot.
Thank you so much for not only recognizing potential and developing my craft, but our magic. You are art and kitten monkey joy to me always. But you also taught me to use my voice, express my heart, and claim my vision.
—Tia Levings, author of the New York Times bestseller A Well-Trained Wife (Macmillan)
Tia’s words mean everything to me. She came to our work with a story that needed to be told—and the courage to tell it. It was a joy to watch her find her voice, discover a shape for her material, and ultimately bring her book into the world.
Your story matters. I’d love to help you tell it well. Learn more about working with me.
Work with me!