PROJECT PLAN: HOW TO WRITE A MEMOIR

Every project plan starts with an idea, a glimmer of light shining in the darkness.

It either has a flashing moment of recognition before fading to the places, or finds life on a list of things to do.

A ‘To Do’ list, and ‘Action List’, an ‘Order of Operations List.’

This is when an idea either thrives and grows, or shrinks and dies.

If you write a memoir about cancer treatment and the champion of the day, shrinking and dying cancer is the best result.

Not so much the memoir.

A memoir needs a project plan, and outline, a guide. It needs focus and clarity and a driving voice that makes readers want to turn the page.

If every book written about writing were laid end to end it would lead all the way to Library of Alexandria and back.

Google ‘how to write a memoir books’ and you’ll find “Five Simple Steps” to go with “6 Tips” along with “7 Ways” and even “Everything You Need To Know.”

Call it a comprehensive list of memoir instruction.

Project Plan For A Memoir

By now you’ve had an idea for a memoir, and it’s not an autobiography that starts with birth. Instead, it’s a defined period of time.

With that in mind you could write memoirs every day, but don’t.

At some point, closer than you might think, you either read all about memoir writing and give up, or read just enough and start.

If the plan is to write it, start a list. Where does it start? What are the main events? How do you add context to mundane activities that create universal appeal?

Contact a book person and ask for advice. Then take their advice. Do you need an editor? Does the book guy know editors? Yes, they all know editors.

Interview the list of editors and explain your project plan. Pick one, follow their advice, and be on time delivering pages to them.

Keep in mind that the book person and editor are not going to write your memoir. That’s not how it works. You won’t be handing in a draft and find a finished manuscript in return.

Instead, you get notes to work on before the next round. After that you get more notes, and a mention that the industry standard is getting a new set of eyes on the page for the third round.

Editors read the work with their editorial eye. You won’t know them, their backgrounds, or their lifestyle. What you will need to know is they are professionals charging pro-rated hourly wages.

In other words, editors are expensive and worth every dollar. They give an idea shape, you the writer do the rest. And yes, it seems unfairly difficult.

Memoir Inspiration To Inspire The Work

My first thought after getting the “I hope you’re sitting down” cancer call was the usual, “Oh no, I’m fucking dying now?”

And it’s just the start, so lock down the idea that mentally strong people get past the first shock. And you’ve one of them. You have to be.

Not everyone gets past the first shock, though, which is an inspiration for a memoir. How do you get past that first shock? Who else can you tell about it? Who should you tell?

One of the keys here is TIMING.

After the phone call, shouldn’t you go straight into treatment? Of course, but that doesn’t happen. While it’s a huge moment of reckoning, there are many others in line ahead of you.

Shocking, to say the least.

After trekking a labyrinth of testing, more testing, and followed up by more testing, the notion comes up of ‘You said it’s cancer, I believe you, so let’s go.’

This is where the locked down mentally tough patient lets time ride. You’ll get there, just not as fast as you think.

My inspiration for writing a memoir? One came from discovering my insurance was canceled while I was in the car to the first round of chemo.

Another came from a doc who said, “I don’t know what you’re waiting for, that tumor isn’t going to shrink itself.”

The biggest inspiration came from my wife and kids, just not the way I expected.

Carrying The Load

Cancer of any kind is a load. Patients carry it, medical staff carry it, and family carry it.

But the patient carries a little of everyone else’s load along with their own, and it gets heavy fast.

How do people bear up under the weight? From testing, to treatment, to mistakes and fixes, how do we go through it and come out recognizable to ourselves?

That’s my story. We are more than the labels attached to us. Those labels are there for others to make easier identification, not to define who we are.

Throughout the process we shrink a little each day, literally and figuratively. If we’re lucky we have a chance to build back, to climb out of the death spiral.

My memoir is more than a step-by-step procedural. It offers a layer of protection, a shield to hold up against uninformed expectations.

The person you’re meant to be never goes away, but sometimes it’s hard to find after so many new things happen.

You’re still there and I’ve written all the proof you’ll need. Call it a plan, a project plan, and you are the project.