Want to know how to write a memoir?

In our soon-to-be published book on Writing a Hero Story, we provide a “Stepping Stones” template, which is essentially a tool to help you organize your life at a glance, by just listing things, like the date, how old you were, major events, who your friends were- you know, the basics.

This is how you start to write a memoir – with listing. Yup, pretty boring for us creative types right? We don’t want to list, we want to expound upon, describe, search for hidden gem and write a heartfelt memoir or hero story right away!

But that’s not always the way to start. The way to start is to take a deep breath and start to explore your life. What happened to you? when? who was with you? where were you?

Just list. You’ll be amazed at what happens.

Here’s a list of what happened to me when I did the Stepping Stones exercise:

1. I started to see patterns.

2. I started to notice myself judging my life, sometimes not too nicely.

3. I started to feel a little sad at the losses, not just deaths (although there’s been a few), but of friends I’ve lost touch with, places I’ve let go of.

4. I started to wish I had done more travelling, and now I’m planning to.

5. I started to see even deeper, that I have many hero stories to tell, that I am on an adventure.

Want to know what to write a memoir about? Start with the stepping stones of your life. Start making a list.

Your creative side will love you for it.

(eventually).

… Diane

Image By Alethe (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL , via Wikimedia Commons