What is a Narrative Memoir?
Are you writing a memoir? If so, it’s a good idea to think about what kind of approach you’re taking. Are you reporting on events in your life or are you writing a narrative memoir? The easiest way to write the story of your life, or part of your life, is to write a report, but the difference for your reader is (subject matter aside) like the difference between reading a book-length newspaper report and a novel. What is a report A report is non-emotive writing. Its aim is to share facts about events rather than judgements. Though it uses expositional language (telling rather than showing) turning a report into showing events rather than telling about them doesn’t by itself change it from a report to a narrative. The definition of report writing is creating an account or statement that describes in detail an event, situation or occurrence, usually as…
Writing Therapy and Writing for Publication
Writing therapy can be more than writing a journal on a therapist’s suggestion—though writing a journal may be the stimulus for someone more ambitious. Where someone has a long story to tell, writing therapy can take the shape of a whole book. Or, approaching it from the writing rather than the therapy side, writing a memoir can be therapy in that it is an excellent way to find closure on a period of our life that was difficult in some way or another. Difficult times & horrifying statistics We all have difficult periods in our lives, and these times can either break us or make us. We can buckle under the weight of them and let them destroy us or we can see them as a learning opportunity and grow from them, even if we have to fall to the depths of despair first. With the help of a good…