Memoir is not fiction, yet some of the literary conventions used in the genre of memoir are the same as those used in novels. Plot, dialogue, and character are three shared devices. Fiction and memoir share a structural emphasis on narrative arc. In fiction, this is called a plot line. After setting the scene and introducing the characters through some dialogue and action, there is an inciting incident which creates tension or conflict and pushes the plot forward in a series of escalating incidents that reach a climax and eventual denouement. Real life rarely follows such a clean trajectory of chronological events so the writer must take liberties with the structural development of the story. A memoir is more than a chronicle of events, it’s a hero’s journey of personal transformation. This should not be misunderstood as permission to alter the facts, but to rise to the challenge of writing your story to provide the reader with its intended cathartic effect. The writer of memoir is a narrator. The reader only knows what the writer narrates. The narrator in memoir must also be the protagonist, the major character in a story with which the audience with identify and champion. Many writers in their first draft of manuscripts haven’t reflected back upon how they have introduced and presented themselves to the reader. They’ve often given a great deal of consideration to the representations of other characters in their memoirs. Concerns about protecting privacy, anonymity, family secrets, legal and financial ramifications for…

You may think you left citations behind when you finished writing college papers, but if you are writing non-fiction these little footprints of authority are more important than ever. In school, your references to others’ work is a matter of intellectual honesty and under Fair Use of the Copyright Act, attribution of the source is sufficient. When you are writing a book that will be published and sold, your work no longer falls under this clause since the purpose is for profit. The responsibility for proper citations and copyright permissions rests entirely upon the author. When do you need to use a citation when writing non-fiction? When you are using a direct quote When you are paraphrasing someone else’s idea or analysis When you are using data, statistics, or any other quantifiable ‘fact’ that can challenged or called into question When you want to strengthen a point or argument, and there is a more qualified figure who also speaks to that fact If you want to give readers more information that doesn’t fit into the flow of your writing (although that can also fall more under the purview of a note) There are many ways to deal with citing your sources depending on how you are writing your manuscript and what you are writing about. This isn’t academic writing – those messy MLA and APA parenthetical in-text citations probably won’t make an appearance in your book. Chances are, you will use footnotes or endnotes to house your conceptual credentials. The…

When you write a book length manuscript you need to keep the story moving forward. Every scene, every sentence, every word should serve to advance the storyline. When editors talk about “pacing,” they refer to the narrator’s ability to keep the reader turning the page. Have you ever heard someone tell a joke that went on for so long by the time the punch line came you moaned instead of laughed? With comedy, timing is what makes it funny. It’s hard to recognize good pacing, but readers notice when it is lacking. Pacing is about the manipulation of time in text. If you are looking for a rule of thumb, this is it: When nothing happens, hurry it up. When there’s action, slow down and spell out every detail. Avoid summarizing major events. Instead, spell them out with details, particulars, specifics. If you’ve ever been in a car accident, then you know the sensation of time slowing down as the crash occurs. Carry this experience into your writing. The minutes prior to the crash whiz by at 70 mph. The second you lose control of the vehicle, time stretches and warps like slow-motion video. During the climax scene, the number of words you write will be tenfold the number about the passage of several years prior to the crisis moment. What takes only seconds or minutes in real time might be covered in ten paragraphs or ten pages. Tempo. Speed. Rhythm. Pacing is the part of an author’s composition which…