Tips for Memoirists

Having just finished work on the first round of edits for my... ummm... something like my 7th or 8th memoir in the past year, I would like to offer the following tips to any of you who might be considering writing one:

1) Although inside jokes and asides might be interesting to your close friends (and might be perfectly good fun in a free blog, even... ahem...), they probably won't make any sense to people who don't know you. So don't make 25% of your book things that only people who already know you will understand. It's just not a good marketing ploy.

2) When an editor (or someone paid to assess your work on any level) says to you "This needs to be double-spaced, and your paragraphs need to be standardized before editing can happen," don't simply hand it off to the editor without making any changes because you think it fits your personal style better. Until you've become a national best-seller, you're going to have to follow the rules. Which means that - if you haven't already corrected all of that stuff - your editor is going to have to correct it for you. It can take a lot of time for us to do all of that formatting for you, and, frequently, it's not in our job description. And, to your detriment, that extra work will probably make us editors cranky when we're finally doing the editing. Yeah. You know that's not a good thing.

Which brings me to...

3) Be ready to take criticism. Let's face it. Aside from actors and NFL quarterbacks, pretty much no one gets criticized as much as authors. Even politicians usually have one full half of the audience on their side. But authors - and especially those writing "their own stories" - have to learn how to stand alone, take the comments, and move forward. I really really really hope the guy whose manuscript I just finished working on understands that part. Because, otherwise, when I have a phone conference with him in a week or so it's going to be kinda uncomfortable.

Finally...

4) If you think you might have a memoir in you, by all means WRITE IT. I'm not saying that you should go out and publish it. But I'm definitely saying that if you have a story to tell then you should tell it. Tell it to your kids. Tell it to your spouse. Tell it to the people at your next dinner party. Tell it to the kids down at the school when you go in as part of an inter-generational learning event. There are amazing stories out there just waiting to be told. Whether they're about bee-keeping or college boarding houses or meeting Debbie Reynolds, they should be told. And shared. And relived and enjoyed.

And, by the way, if you need someone to edit them when you're done, let me know.