From my book “Moonsoulchild: A Memoir”
Help your students write an outstanding memoir with the Memoir: Effective Example. Can be printed onto a transparency or passed out as handouts. The first two pages include the text of the effective memoir, and the third page includes notes about what was good and not so good about the example. Works well to have students try to come up with the good and not-so-good points first before you reveal the list. This document is included in the Two Examples MINI Unit All-in-One DEAL and the Memoir Curriculum MEGA Unit All-in-One DEAL.
Choose Your Own Memoir This comic appears in the Sunday NY Times Book Review. Posters are available at my shop. You can now pre-order my book, The Shape of Ideas.
Paris restaurant critic Alexander Lobrano's memoir is filled with detailed descriptions of lovingly recalled meals and hard-won insights into French culture.
Mother’s Day can trigger painful memories for some, but a traumatic upbringing need not define us
A black woman’s gentle quest of learning and relearning how to understand her body
“How to start a memoir”… It’s a popular topic with no singular solution. There are plenty of good ways to start and zero wrong ways. The important thing is that you get started. Although you can certainly start a memoir without any preparation or planning, doing a little on the front end can save you […]
How to read and find comparative titles for your memoir so you can become a better writer and understand your story in the context of the publishing market.
From celebrities to hostages and from food writers to first ladies, here are 12 memoirs you should read plus the memoirs I can't wait to read next!
Not sure what questions or life lessons you want to write on? Begin with these 63 memoir writing prompts that will give you inspiring writing ideas.
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Finding your story hook is key to engaging your reader and compelling them to read the whole story. Here's how to find your hook.
From celebrities to hostages and from food writers to first ladies, here are 12 memoirs you should read plus the memoirs I can't wait to read next!
Louisa Deasey is a bestselling author and nonfiction writer helping experts and professional writers successfully pitch and get published.
This is a list of 6-word memoirs from the book "I Can't Keep My Own Secrets." I use 6-word memoirs as part of a longer unit on memoir. My students love getting to look through these memoirs and are often inspired by what other teens have written. ...
A HUGE UPGRADE ON THIS PRODUCT AS OF 6/5/2014! A favorite of my students every year, is my memoir unit. Use this as a three week unit of study, use it along side the reading of a memoir, or use bit and pieces of it! Included are -introduction to what memoirs are, -5 different memoir brainstorming and writing assignments, -several minilessons, including a Story Starting Techniques PowerPoint, a thoughtshots and snapshots PowerPoint and a time manipulation hand out (lots of great examples!) See a more detailed list of what is included below. This is the Table of Contents which is included. 1.What is a Memoir? Teachers will need to provide sample memoirs for students to read. i use excerpts from The Glass Castle, Million Little Pieces, Dry, The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Girl Bomb. Also, I use previous students’ memoirs and memoirs from http://teacher.scholastic.com/writeit/readwork.asp?Genre=Memoir 2.Defining elements of a memoir This is the list my students produced after reading the sample memoirs. 3.Reflective “older’ You I use this hand out http://uwc.cah.ucf.edu/files/handouts/The_Memoir.pdf 4. The Name Memoir I have my students write 5, 2 page memoir drafts with a given topic simply because many have hard time finding specific slices of life to retell. Included are many of the different ones I have tried including the name memoir, the neighborhood map memoir, the scar memoir, the lesser known memoir, the color memoir, and the free choice memoir. 5. The Neighborhood Map Memoir I give students a large sheet of butcher paper on which they draw/sketch the neighborhood in which they have most memories. I also typically illustrate my own childhood neighborhood pinpointing exact stories from my childhood and sharing them with the class. I verbally reflect as an older me. This reinforces the qualities of a memoir. scar memoir 6. Lesser Known Memoir Sometimes people come into and out of our lives for just a short time but leave a powerful impact. Other times there are people who have always been there, but their presence isn’t so powerful that we don’t really realize their impact until they are out of our lives. 7.Color Memoir 8. Free Choice Memoir Students often have a story they are dying to tell but haven’t received the chance. This is it! I also give a list of ideas for students who still aren’t sure what to write about. Minilessons I weave these in throughout the writing of the memoirs. 9. Leads/hooks There is no hand out for this but there is a PowerPoint included in the zip file. 10.Dialogue —I first go over the rules of punctuating and formatting dialogue using the following sources: http://teacherweb.com/CT/scottsridgems/Jennes/punctuating.pdf https://www.mcckc.edu/common/services/BR_Tutoring/files/english/Rules_for_Writing_Dialogue.pdf —I also review descriptive vs. ping pong dialogue 11. snapshots and thoughtshots There is no hand out for this but there is a PowerPoint included in the zip file. 12. Time travel/ Time Manipulation 13. Dead words and to be verbs -I have my students eliminate as many “to be” verbs as they can. I first have them highlight. Then the goal is to have less than 3 per page. -I also give students a dead word list (a simple Google search will give you many options) and talk about avoiding but not entirely cutting out these vague words. 14. Peer Revision
What is a memoir/autobiography ghostwriter and what do they do? How do you work with a memoir writer, and what should you know about writers for hire? I spill my secrets and share more about my work as a memoir writer!
From celebrities to hostages and from food writers to first ladies, here are 12 memoirs you should read plus the memoirs I can't wait to read next!
Turn your true story into a compelling memoir manuscript and learn how with Louisa Deasey's memoir masterclass.
Various mental health bloggers have published memoirs about their illnesses. Illness stories are important to tell, but what's the best way?
Including #1 ‘New York Times’ bestsellers from Bruce Springsteen, Julie Andrews, Will Smith, and more!
Today would have been my father’s 91st birthday. What do you give a man who, in life, said he never needed anything? How about his photo on a book cover? I’m pleased that today of all days, I can show you the cover of Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter’s Memoir of Love after Loss. That’s Dad strolling along the edge, doing something he loved—walking and observing the world around him. He’s on Newport Beach in Southern California, a moment captured during a 1997 trip. Everyone else—my mother, husband, and child—was elsewhere, and he’d offered to stay with me on the beach, the only place I found comfort that summer: I was pregnant and fighting off all-day nausea, vertigo, and an odd aversion to air conditioning. I was content to sit in the sand, relief washing in on every ocean breeze, and was not in a mood to talk. Dad was typically taciturn and, as usual, only able to sit for a few minutes before he began walking, back and forth along a quarter mile of beach—but always within eyesight. I remember his glancing back every few steps to check on me. I’m biased of course, but I think the art department at University of Nevada Press did a terrific job. I love the cover for the way it treats light and balance, color and feeling. But I also love it for the way he is halfway-off-the-frame, and in a kind of slow motion; that captures something the story inside tries to tell—about the way he proffered protection, punctuated by our mutual tendency to always be moving near one another, but never fully. Happy Birthday, Dad. Hope you like the gift.
Learn what sort of bestselling memoir you would write with this super simple quiz to find your best book topics, styles and themes.
