How to Write an Outline for a Book Memoir
Memoirs are books that do not fall under the fiction category. They may relate a specific portion of a person's life. However, unlike an autobiography, they do not list an entire chronological life. They may only focus on one event or one idea. Writing a good memoir is easier when an outline is completed. This helps to keep the writer on track.
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Instructions
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Research the subject of the memoir. If it is not about the person who is writing the book, extensive research must be done about the person and ideas being written about. Make some notes on the topic that will be written about. Narrow the ideas down from an entire life story to a few facets of that life. Decide what the most crucial and interesting facets of the story are and how they will be elaborated upon. Select a theme that will become a major thread. According to Writer's Digest, many good memoirs are known for having a major theme with which people can identify. Many popular themes found in memoirs include traumatic events, family, recovery, love, healing, loss, travel or war.
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List all chapter ideas. Make sure to thread any main theme that has been selected the whole way through. It is important to bring thoughts back to the main idea. Readers want to know why they should be connecting with the book.
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Make a list of all the characters. Write down the traits related to these characters. It is a good practice to include a sympathetic character as well as a villain. According to Writer's Digest, a villain can be a metaphor (drugs, sickness). Many memoirs need a conflict to maintain momentum and to keep readers interested in the protagonist's struggle.
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Write a list of possible hook ideas. The hook in the memoir style of writing is the opening page or first chapter. It must be interesting enough to keep the reader involved. Many memoirs do not begin chronologically. They can open with a scene from the past and skip to the future. This is a common way to create a hook since the story opens up with a critical scene from the past.
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Type the entire outline as a list with extra space so that more ideas can be added if necessary. Make sure the list of characters, scenes and hook ideas is in bold and easy to read type. Refer to this as the writing process begins.
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Tips & Warnings
Writing takes time. effort and editing. If the book is complete, it is important to know that it is not finished---yet. Editing is another stage that must be completed. It is a good idea to get a trustworthy advisor to edit your work.
According to Barbara Doyden, a literary agent, it is important to remain completely honest in a memoir. Authors caught lying tend to lose credibility.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit The book image by Dzmitry Halavach from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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This is pretty cool for sure. It looks pretty confusing for a guy like me though!
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biff16
Apr 06, 2010
I am an editor who works with a lot of people writing memoirs. I advise them to begin with stories rather than research. They can simply create a list of favorite stories they want to include or they can use exercises to focus their stories. For example, creating top ten lists of the most important turning points in my life, the most influential people Ive ever met or the most humorous moments in my life can generate wonderful anecdotes to include. An exercise in which the author thinks of herself as the director of a movie about her life can focus things even more sharply. Time constraints in a two hour film would limit the director to only 10-20 scenes, forcing her to choose only the most important ones. This process generates a wealth of rich material. Then the author can make decisions as to whether the stories shes gathered would be best organized chronologically or topically....
