| p>Envisioning your autobiography as a series of | | | | your lifewriting venture? Do you ask yourself how |
| stories makes the sizable task of writing the | | | | you will ever compose a book-length manuscript? |
| stories of a lifetime tolerable and ultimately | | | | Instead, think of writing stories that are just long |
| enjoyable. Memoir writing does not have to be an | | | | enough to enjoy sharing at an evening gathering |
| intimidating task. Lifestories, written singly just as | | | | with family and friends. |
| they are told, one by one, add up to a memoir. | | | | Creating your book is a later task. Some writers |
| When I ask people if they can write a 3-, 4-, 5- | | | | decide to connect their stories with transitions and |
| or even 7-page story, most will answer, "Sure I | | | | seed their texts with references to other stories |
| can do that." Ten 3-page stories add up to 30 | | | | so that the whole manuscript will read like a |
| pages while ten 7-page stories add up | | | | continuous piece--like a fabric sewn together so |
| encouragingly to 70 pages. Even better, twenty 7 | | | | cleverly that the seams don't show. Others are |
| page stories make a 140 page lifestory | | | | satisfied with a manuscript that reads more like |
| manuscript! Any of these is an impressive start | | | | an anthology of separate stories--juxtaposed, yet |
| and a worthwhile goal. | | | | one story independent of any other, with only |
| When I write a book, I write it several pages at a | | | | emotional and thematic links apparent. |
| time. Were I to ask a beginning writer, "can you | | | | These decisions about how to link text together |
| produce a 140-page story for me?" most would | | | | comes later in the writing process, however. Your |
| blanch and then protest, "I can't write that much!" | | | | first task is to be perfectly clear about one thing: |
| Are you perhaps feeling the same crisis of | | | | start writing! |
| confidence as you hesitate at the beginning of | | | | Good luck Writing! |