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I started writing my memoir or autobiography last night. Well, actually I did a first draft last spring - and I just wrote beginning to end, no spell check or grammatical changes, just wrote the events of my life as I remembered them in order.
I set it aside and have read it a few times. Then yesterday as I was driving to work, I had this strong feeling that NOW was the time to start making it a book. It was very strange and even the title popped in my head.
This book is about all the alcoholics in my life and my struggles dealing with them and coping. I know there are many books about this subject, but I tend to see more books written by parents of addicts or alcoholics, or books written by the alcoholics themselves. I hope to add humor too - which will be a challenge on a very serious subject.
I know this will be very hard, and it will probably just end up being a personal book and nothing I could ever make money on, but I cannot wait to be able to say it is done. Oh, and the only thing I have ever written are my blogs!! So no pressure here .
If you have any thoughts or suggestions to keep me sane through the process, I would be open to them!
I started writing my memoir or autobiography last night. Well, actually I did a first draft last spring - and I just wrote beginning to end, no spell check or grammatical changes, just wrote the events of my life as I remembered them in order.
I set it aside and have read it a few times. Then yesterday as I was driving to work, I had this strong feeling that NOW was the time to start making it a book. It was very strange and even the title popped in my head.
This book is about all the alcoholics in my life and my struggles dealing with them and coping. I know there are many books about this subject, but I tend to see more books written by parents of addicts or alcoholics, or books written by the alcoholics themselves. I hope to add humor too - which will be a challenge on a very serious subject.
I know this will be very hard, and it will probably just end up being a personal book and nothing I could ever make money on, but I cannot wait to be able to say it is done. Oh, and the only thing I have ever written are my blogs!! So no pressure here .
If you have any thoughts or suggestions to keep me sane through the process, I would be open to them!
It sounds interesting to me! Alcoholics have had an impact on my life as well. Oh, yes, there is humor involved. It keeps us from killing them, I suppose.
Some people say that the way to do it is exactly as you did--write a bad first draft and then work on it. I heard Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, speak, and she wrote her initial draft in six weeks and then went back and reworked it. If you haven't read it, her memoir deals with her bizarre upbringing with an alcoholic father and an eccentic mother, among other things. The most difficult thing, I'd think, is having to sit down and "open a vein*" and allow yourself to feel. It will be an emotional tumble, but it will make your writing resound.
Check in here and let us know how you are doing. I personally like to hear what other writers are working on.
*There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. ~Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith
Thanks mightyqueen! I am on my 3rd chapter, not necessarily writing in order, just making chapters out of events or topics.
I haven't done any work on it since before New Years - no time and no desire. I think that is the best way to do it, no pressure, just write when I feel like it.
Thanks mightyqueen! I am on my 3rd chapter, not necessarily writing in order, just making chapters out of events or topics.
I haven't done any work on it since before New Years - no time and no desire. I think that is the best way to do it, no pressure, just write when I feel like it.
I thought there was something wrong with me because I don't write in order, either. I know how my novel ends and have drafted the ending. I also have assorted events and conversations written, but not the transitions between them. I just re-wrote the opening chapter after reading "Hooked", a book about writing effective beginnings and realizing mine was all wrong.
And now I've decided to to try to plow through in order, and I am stuck at Chapter Two. It's boring. I don't mean that writing is boring, what I WROTE is boring. But I've got an idea...
Good luck to you! I have found that when I go to write, I will write a whole chapter, but 2 out of the 4 are 'boring' while the other 2 sound pretty good.
Of course it has to do with my mindset at the time. Some days I feel too serious and others are more lighthearted.
From everything I have read, it is best to try to take the time to write a complete thought (chapter, paragraph) with a beginning and end at one sitting. I'm sure I will rewrite everything many times, but at least the idea is down on paper and just a little more organized than the last draft.
I started writing my memoir or autobiography last night. Well, actually I did a first draft last spring - and I just wrote beginning to end, no spell check or grammatical changes, just wrote the events of my life as I remembered them in order.
I set it aside and have read it a few times. Then yesterday as I was driving to work, I had this strong feeling that NOW was the time to start making it a book. It was very strange and even the title popped in my head.
This book is about all the alcoholics in my life and my struggles dealing with them and coping. I know there are many books about this subject, but I tend to see more books written by parents of addicts or alcoholics, or books written by the alcoholics themselves. I hope to add humor too - which will be a challenge on a very serious subject.
I know this will be very hard, and it will probably just end up being a personal book and nothing I could ever make money on, but I cannot wait to be able to say it is done. Oh, and the only thing I have ever written are my blogs!! So no pressure here .
If you have any thoughts or suggestions to keep me sane through the process, I would be open to them!
wow, me too, title and all! I am not as far along as you but hope it will come to something.
Just stumbled upon this thread, and WOW! Glad to hear other writing experiences. I started my book almost 3 years ago, and I'm stalled on Chapter 4. My book involves personal life-long experiences, interactions with others, along with a dab of humor. But this Chapter 4 has been staring at me for 3 weeks. Maybe I need to put it away for awhile and not think about it? I've hit dry spells before, but they never went on this long.
Remember I am a total newbie .... but are you saying you started your book 3 years ago and have only written 3 chapters? Since your book is non fiction, I think you need to start a new strategy in order to get going again.
Maybe chapters are too big for you right now. Why don't you consider writing events - beginning to end - without worrying about making them into a chapter? Some will be short and some longer. You may find that 2 shorter events are somehow related and can eventually be one chapter (but this would come together much later). You might also find that some events that you thought were significant, are not as important as others you wrote about and can then weed them out.
From what I have learned, the most important part about writing is just DOING it! Getting on a schedule or setting goals to write something every day will keep you headed toward the goal.
Personally, my writing has stopped completely . I had a heart attack almost 4 weeks ago (at the ripe old age of 47) and am suffering through this 'I don't care about anything' phase. My blogs and dead in the water and my book just sits there.
The crazy thing here... is that my dad (one of the alcoholics in my life) tried to commit suicide 2 weeks ago, went into rehab (after being sober for 6 years) and is battling severe depression - all related to alcohol. So ironically, new chapters have unfolded for my book and I just cannot write about this - which I should be doing, at least in some journal type format.
I am not sure how that helped , but I guess it helped me realize I need to get back into it!
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. I had a heart attack almost 4 weeks ago (at the ripe old age of 47) and am suffering through this 'I don't care about anything' phase. My blogs and dead in the water and my book just sits there. 
