Learning how to write a memoir involved a lot of learning, and some unlearning (ie, I am not writing a research paper anymore). Here are some notes I took, which helped me define the theme of my memoir, from “Fast Draft your Memoir” by Rachel Herron.
Six-word memoir:
Voiceless woman travels, returns home with voice.
My character arc:
I started out fearful and depending on other’s approval, I ended up bold and depending on my own ingenuity.
Two sentence premise (log line):
Traveling into the Patagonian Winds is the story about the six-months I traveled in a country where I felt illiterate. Yet there the locals were hospitable to me, fellow travelers told me I was brave, and I learned who I was outside of the constraints of the defining relationships in my life. Each lesson I learned in the school of travel changed me from a human doing to a human being. In it I show how travel is an agency for personal change.
What if a retired woman who depended on other’s approval went on a six-month solo trip and discovered she could depend on her own ingenuity.
Outline:
Write what happened to your early unchanged self before you became your changed self at the end of the book. Big events that mattered, in chronological order.
Write 2 or 3 smaller things that contributed to the bigger things that happened. Big events are chapters, smaller events are scenes. 1500 words for scenes.