Jerry Payne

Practical, professional advice on how to write your memoir

Jerry Payne is a ghost writer, he writes for other people. Mostly he writes memoirs.

He feels, and rightly so "there is something profoundly revelatory in exploring a life to the depth that’s required to write about it." He suggests an honest memoir does just that.

In his book, Writing MEMOIR, The Practical Guide to Writing and Publishing the Story of Your Life, Payne is also honest in his assessment of those who want to take this project on. Some people just can't write, others can't be honest with themselves.
However, if you have a proclivity for writing and can be honest with yourself this book is an excellent guide.

First and foremost, Payne points out that a memoir is not the story of your life but a story of an interesting part of your life. He suggests you approach your memoir as an author approaches a novel defining goal, motivation and conflict and establishing a story arc. If you don't know what all this means, he explains it.

He also offers writing advice - how to "show" (action) rather than "tell" (summary and passive). There's also information how to effectively revise and polish your work and when that's done how to go about attempting to find a traditional publisher or to self-publish.

Writing Memoir is not the work of an angst-ridden author telling you how he or she struggled to come to grips with writing their own story. It is a very readable practical guide, excellently presented by a seasoned professional.

As a facilitator of creative writing circles at which many of the participants are writing a memoir I would recommend Writing MEMOIR, The Practical Guide to Writing and Publishing the Story of Your Life over all other books I've read on this subject.

I receive this e-book free in the hopes of an honest review.… (mehr)