What is your memoir or biography about? [Archive]

E. S. Lark

05-14-2011, 06:28 PM

If you look through this forum, you'll find a lot of memoirists have already posted about their projects. What is yours about? You haven't told us yet.

As for me, my memoir covers a very bad year of my life, set between the death of my father and my adoption over a year later. I won't go into detail as I believe I've posted about it before, but that's the general idea.

It's currently out with betas and once those come back, I'll edit and then start my querying process.

benbradley

05-14-2011, 07:38 PM

A lot of mine will be about a seven-year period when I learned about "unconditional love" and other "spiritual" things, and had about two acquaintances a year who committed suicide.

sonyablue

05-15-2011, 12:33 AM

If you look through this forum, you'll find a lot of memoirists have already posted about their projects. What is yours about? You haven't told us yet.

I know, I just thought it might be nice to have a single thread where people talked about their topics. And since this is not a terribly active forum, I wasn't sure how many of the older posters are still active and posting on here.

At any rate, mine is a ghostwriting/collaborative writing of my husband's memoirs of his time with the NYPD in the 80s. I'm not sure if it's ghostwriting, exactly - I get the material from him in everything from semi-finished drafts from just conversation notes and am turning it into story/book form. I supposed that qualifies as ghostwriting, although he's doing a fair amount of writing himself. We're still in the first draft stage, and I've learned a lot about the writing and editing process through these forums.

janwyl

05-15-2011, 02:53 PM

Ah,a timely question.

I'm not sure. It's the journal my wife and I wrote during our first year in Africa. We volunteered in reserves, then trained as safari guides, and ended up guiding in a South African reserve.

But what's it about? I'm not sure it's about anything. It's us sharing the interesting / funny things that happened to us, and the interesting things we learnt about nature, evolution, and living in South Africa.

Which is giving me a headache, because I'm not sure what to do with it anymore. It's not a story, because there isn't a single thread of conflict and then resolution. It's possibly a collection of short stories, but some are more like essays with anecdotes thrown in.

So I guess I'll get back to you...

Wayne K

05-15-2011, 03:09 PM

My first, Street Life, is about my time after prison in the pornography industry and as a male escort. The second, Black Dark, is about my involvement with the west side Irish mob, and the third, Out of the Darkness, is about my life with a witch high priest in NYC....yanno, boring stuff

Ruth2

05-15-2011, 09:30 PM

benbradley

05-15-2011, 09:39 PM

We've been trying to give Wayne some interesting things to write about in the Derail thread...

Al Stevens

05-15-2011, 10:57 PM

Mine is about my life as a jazz pianist. Not about the music itself, but about the people, the ones who influenced me and those who did peculiar, funny, and otherwise remarkable things. Drugs, booze, murders, and other really funny stuff.

Each chapter can stand alone, although I have organized them as a loose chronology.

It's a long-term WIP with the working title "Saloon Piano Player." I work on it as time allows and hope the project doesn't outlive me.

Purple Rose

05-16-2011, 08:11 PM

This is what mine is about, and these sentences are also the opening paragraph in my query which has had nothing but "no thanks" or no response. The title is Praying To The Goddess Of Mercy.

In one of the world’s most global, competitive and unforgiving cities, people still believe a manic rage is due to demon possession and depression is punishment for bad deeds. Achieving success in such an environment while navigating life with dizzying highs and diabolical lows should have been an improbable dream. I made it my reality.

ResearchGuy

05-17-2011, 05:58 AM

The closest thing I'll ever have to a memoir is forthcoming collection of my weekly columns (http://theaccidentalpublisher.typepad.com/the_accidental_publisher/2011/05/coming-in-a-few-months-.html). I write a lot about my life, present and past. Decades as a bureaucrat and a few years of unexciting self-employment don't make for a sizzling bio -- but I can find paragraph-long nuggets now and then.

--Ken

PinkAmy

05-17-2011, 04:31 PM

Think of Dave Barry...then start counting the money, Ken :D.

ResearchGuy

05-17-2011, 06:50 PM

Think of Dave Barry...then start counting the money, Ken :D.
I LIKE the way you think!

Erma Bombeck (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Bowl-Cherries-What-Doing/dp/0449208397#_) sometimes comes to mind as I write . . . and she did ok.

--Ken

P.S. Although the publishing agreement is not yet signed, I expect to publish a memoir by a woman who tells of her life with serious physical disability, progressive since birth. She is now in her fifties, with a bachelor's, master's, and years of employment, including as a state department director. It is an intimate, detailed, and revealing book that will open eyes. I've done a lot of preliminary work on the manuscript and design; we have just not gotten around to a signed agreement yet. Not MY memoir, but maybe of related interest here.

Chrisla

05-18-2011, 12:00 PM

PinkAmy

05-18-2011, 06:51 PM

Mine is not so much a memoir as a story of my family, set against the backdrop of WWII and its aftermath. It started as a journal for family, but I kept adding pictures, old letters and other documents, and by the time I printed it, I had over 400 pages in an 8 1/2 by 11 book, double columned.

It got a lot of interest. It spread from immediate family to distant family, then friends of family, then their friends, with all of them telling me "It's a page turner. I couldn't put it down. It's an amazing story. You've got to publish it."

Tell that to the agents and editors. There is absolutely no interest. It's been on the back burner now for more than two years, despite query letters to numerous agents and small presses.

I'm not sure, though, that anything else would be more marketable in today's world of publishing. I keep writing. What else would I do with my time?
Did you have any beta readers who don't know you and don't have a personal investment in you and your story? Sometimes you get much better feedback from strangers who know nothing about the story. 400 pages is way too long for what agents are looking for today. I started out at 96,000 words and was told to cut 20k- I ended up cutting 15k then adding5k so I have about 87,000. I'd get 3 or 4 betas whose writing you admire, who don't know you.
Did you write an awesome query letters? Sometimes people miss the mark. QLH is a great place to get feedback on your query.
Good luck.

Chrisla

05-18-2011, 07:37 PM

Did you have any beta readers who don't know you and don't have a personal investment in you and your story? Sometimes you get much better feedback from strangers who know nothing about the story. 400 pages is way too long for what agents are looking for today. I started out at 96,000 words and was told to cut 20k- I ended up cutting 15k then adding5k so I have about 87,000. I'd get 3 or 4 betas whose writing you admire, who don't know you.
Did you write an awesome query letters? Sometimes people miss the mark. QLH is a great place to get feedback on your query.
Good luck.

Yes, I had unknown beta readers, and worked for months on the query letter. The story probably is too long, and I thought about cutting it down, but the simple fact is that an agent told me he could not take it because he cannot sell it in today's market.

What kind of response are you getting on yours? I hope you have better luck.

PinkAmy

05-18-2011, 08:33 PM

The first month I queried I had a 50% success rate for asking for fulls or partials. Then nothing for three months. I tweaked my query and my first few pages, to make sure I was drawing the agent in quickly enough. Then I basically tweaked my whole manuscript for tighter writing. I've just started to requery w/o much luck. Every time I get a rejection I sent out another one.
Is there something you could do to make your book more appealing?
Remember that only 1 agent said that he can't sell it in today's market--he doesn't speak for every agent. I went to the book store and found memoirs similar to mine, then in the acknowledgements section I copied down the name of the agents and queried some of them (who were taking MS)-- at least I knew they were interested in my type of book. I'm sure in the history section of barnes and noble you might find books similar to yours. Maybe you need to market it more like a history book "one family's story of....." rather than a straight up memoir?

FocusOnEnergy

05-18-2011, 08:43 PM

My memoir is about a devastating environmental disaster that took place last summer in one of the world's most famous small towns (because of generations of children sending in their boxtops to cereal giant Kellogg). It is about the people of the community affected and the people of the company company responsible, and what I learned about both.

It was intended to be transformational and spiritual, because that's my personal journey I was chronicling, but my hard-nosed betas held out for edits that turned it into the sort of gossipy tell-all that I'm known for. It is still a story of unlikely friendships.

Focus

Evelyn

05-18-2011, 09:14 PM

I have been doing Fine Art and Craft Shows for fifteen years.

My memoir is the story about how I got into doing shows in the first place - I had no idea what I was doing and had no business applying to one of the most prestigious shows in the country. I got in, of course, which set me into a panic. Mostly because I only had eighteen pieces of artwork to sell. (I wasn't too smart.)

I've enjoyed writing about the people I've met, the discovery that it's not all that easy to sell your own artwork (but it's wonderful when you make a sale to someone who just LOVES your work), and the twists and turns that my carreer has taken. I believe that I'm the only person who - within a five-year span - got into fairs with 2-D, then Ceramics, and then with Metalwork and Jewelry.

I'm about halfway through a (final?) revision. I plan to start querying soon...hope, hope, hope...

Rane

05-19-2011, 05:19 PM

My memoir is about working in customer service for over 15 years. A little about me, but mostly stories about crappy customers. :-)

Pistol Whipped Bee

05-19-2011, 05:24 PM

Well - here's a review. I think it speaks better for me than I can for myself.

"I bought 'Saturation' in an ongoing attempt to find hope for a loved one, and to offer hope to her mother. Little did I dream when I ordered the book I would see myself in its pages - and not be altogether proud of the sight. 'Saturation' will take you on one incredible ride after another, until you simply won't think the author can possibly survive one more day... and then she does. And she realizes she's got enough to live for that she finally makes the choice to save herself.

It was as I suspected for my loved one. She has to do the choosing - no amount of our wanting a clean and sober life for her will make it so; but 'Saturation' gave me the hope I'd lost that she'd ever do so. After thirty years of addiction, I didn't think there were any chances left. I was wrong: as long as there's breath, there's hope.

'Saturation' is one of the most difficult 'easy' reads I have ever had. Ms. Place tells her story with no-holds-barred, straight out, not excusing nor varnishing the tale or any one's part in it - including her own. Your heart will ache for her, and you will be so very glad for her, too... especially if you, like me, love someone with the same addiction.

In the end, 'Saturation' helped me - it helped me understand both the reality of alcoholism and the never-ending, ongoing struggle to live with it long after the last drink. It helped me accept that *I*, no matter how badly I might want to, can't make the choice for sobriety for my loved one. And it gave me insight into the 'battle and the war'.

I fully recommend 'Saturation', especially if there's an alcoholic in your life. You will learn; you will understand; and it might even reawaken the compassion you thought had died."
http://www.goodreads.com/search?query=saturation

Steve Collins

05-19-2011, 09:16 PM

I did two back-to-back memoirs which were published in 1997 - 98 'The Good Guys Wear Black' and 'The Glory Boys' both covered my time as a team leader with a police special operations team, in London.

PinkAmy

05-19-2011, 10:31 PM

My memoir is about working in customer service for over 15 years. A little about me, but mostly stories about crappy customers. :-)

So I assume it's a comedy? :D
If you were doing an anthology I'd have a few stories for you--working with the public sucks.

LKWatts

06-08-2011, 07:31 PM

Hi,
My memoir is about travelling Australia and New Zealand for twelve months. I'm currently writing a second one about travelling Canada.

CARas

06-08-2011, 08:23 PM

My memoir is about becoming pregnant at a late age. I was 42. My daughter is now 5. I had miscarriages and 10 years of not being able to get pregnant.

Bushrat

06-09-2011, 01:26 AM

My memoir (agented!) is about living in the wilderness of Canada's far northwest (air and water access only, off grid), not as a one-year adventure but a long-term way of life.

Saffron

06-12-2011, 11:55 PM

I wrote a memoir about a field trip to Cuba - one week camping on the Isle of Youth and one week living on a boat going scuba diving. It was only meant to be a 12,000 word project but ended up being 35,000 words. I don't think I'll ever try and get it published but family and friends have enjoyed reading it - I think I only wrote it for them anyway, and myself.

sf.writer.mdk

07-15-2011, 10:33 AM

My story centers around a string of synchronous events and psychic anomalies that inevitably lead me to discover the work and life of deceased science fiction writer, Philip K Dick. Once this connection is formed, life for me becomes even stranger. While all this is going on, I also battle depression, OCD, depersonalization disorder and an existential crisis.

BlackFlag

07-30-2011, 02:00 AM

The memoir I'm writing about has mostly been about my late best friend, and my hospitalization around that time.

samilad

08-04-2011, 05:32 PM

Hi I'm new. This is is my first post outside of introducing myself. I'm writing my memoir, the story of having a debilitating childhood illness that started when I was 10 years old. It takes the reader struggling to go to school from the 7th grade and finally graduating from high school. Side note: the doctors said I would be in a wheelchair by the time I was 18, and would be dependent on someone for the rest of my short life, which was expected to end at 30 years . I'm 47 and not in a wheelchair and live independent with this condition.

ResearchGuy

08-04-2011, 07:48 PM

Hi I'm new. This is is my first post outside of introducing myself. I'm writing my memoir, the story of having a debilitating childhood illness that started when I was 10 years old. . . .
I'm publishing (tentatively scheduled for next Feb. or March) a memoir by Laurie Hoirup (http://www.laurieslegacy.com/). Her condition was initially diagnosed when she was one year old, and has progressed over the years. But she has accomplished much (including having two children, teaching, completing bachelor's and master's degrees, and holding administrative positions). A literary agent instantly rejected her manuscript, saying, "We don't do misery memoirs." Pfah. Laurie is one of the least miserable people I have ever known. Hers (like yours, I suspect) is not a story of misery (despite challenges and hard times) but of accomplishment.

Good luck with your memoir. You might find Laurie's book, I Can Dance: My Life with a Disability, of interest when it becomes available.

--Ken

samilad

08-05-2011, 07:03 AM

I'm publishing (tentatively scheduled for next Feb. or March) a memoir by Laurie Hoirup (http://www.laurieslegacy.com/). Her condition was initially diagnosed when she was one year old, and has progressed over the years. But she has accomplished much (including having two children, teaching, completing bachelor's and master's degrees, and holding administrative positions). A literary agent instantly rejected her manuscript, saying, "We don't do misery memoirs." Pfah. Laurie is one of the least miserable people I have ever known. Hers (like yours, I suspect) is not a story of misery (despite challenges and hard times) but of accomplishment.

Good luck with your memoir. You might find Laurie's book, I Can Dance: My Life with a Disability, of interest when it becomes available.

--Ken

Thanks Ken, I'm not going to even look for a publisher. I already know I'm going to self publish. My story is a not is a testimony, not a misery. Now if I had died, it would have a miserable story and I wouldn't be writing it because I would be dead. But since I'm not dead and I'm writing it, it has to be a story of accomplishments. Laurie's life seems to parallel mine, including administrative positions, 2 kids, etc. Interesting. I'm going to have to check it out. Did you see how quickly I went away and came back to myself? LOL.

booker c

08-15-2011, 11:57 PM

I don't know if anyone is reading this tread anymore but I thought I would respond anyway. I started out writing a memoir but after some good feedback from a couple of agents and a publisher, I am changing the voice and now it is a true crime. Something that happened in my life years ago.

Birdy22

09-22-2011, 02:33 AM

My memoir is about becoming delusional.

nancy sv

09-28-2011, 08:51 AM

My memoir is about my family's bike trip from Alaska to Argentina. We cycled 17,000 miles through 15 countries. It was so great to watch the boys grow up on the road!

Siri Kirpal

09-29-2011, 03:17 AM

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

The memoir I'm working on centers on the question (asked me by an atheist), "Why does God want to be worshipped?"

I'm a former suicidal depressive who found happiness practicing Kundalini Yoga and Sikhism, a former singer who lost her voice, and the friend of a man who committed suicide right while I was dealing with the vocal loss. You can guess what the answer to the atheist is!

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

trumpetology

10-29-2011, 04:37 AM

Hi,

I am new to the forum and working on my memoir. It deals with a few years of my life as a Borderline Personality Disorder sufferer, encompassing four hospitalizations, self-mutilation, an addiction to sleeping pills and three suicide attempts. Not the most uplifting subject, I admit, but I'm approaching it with a sense of observational humor and recovered understanding.

Take care,

Nick

RunWrite

11-22-2011, 12:56 AM

Mine is a diary I started when I was put into chemical menopause and ended when I crossed the finish line of my first marathon, 10 months later. Also, my mother had just died and I was dealing with that and her stuff. Its about aging, death, running, cancer, running . . . and it has funny parts.

French Maiden

11-23-2011, 05:01 PM

After I finish writing my paranormal romance that im currently working on now, I want to write my story as a mother of a child with peadiatric cancer. The trials and triumphs, the losses and the bonds I've made over the course of his treatment and beyond.
My son is now in remission, has been for 9 months, we still have 9 years and 3 months to go until he is considered cured, but his/my story is one I think will help other parents/ families of children with cancer.
Plus it's an incredible story to tell :)

SummerSurf57

11-24-2011, 03:14 AM

I haven't, actually. Maybe I could start one. :)

milarepa

11-25-2011, 03:22 PM

I became a product of the care system when i was 14. By 15 i was in the Criminal Justice System. i'm a former Gang leader, Armed Robber, Cocaine addict. I've been shot at, stabbed, physically tortured/interrogated and had terrorists try to abduct me.

I broke away from that lifestyle some years ago. now teach personal protection, Reiki, yoga, and other spiritual things. Have my own 'system' which i use to help promote crime prevention/rehabilitation. As well as mentoring in many fields. I'm fast becoming a public speaker. I've an intense desire to use my past for the benefit of others. My life experiences are easily applicable to anything life has to offer, i teach it like this. It is what my whole life is about now. It is everything i do day in day out.

I've likely around 40 major life events that are out of the ordinary, I aim to use these in a book. It is a story about the darker side of humanity, and how something extraordinary may come from that. It will progress to what has been a truly wonderful life.

I believe in it. Feel it is a story that needs to be told. A real honest look at me. My weaknesses. My countless mistakes. The decent person i have managed to mold myself into.

I only started it yesterday. After some procrastination & recent planning. It's flowing easy. Nonetheless i'm glad to be here to learn from you all.

Thankyou for reading this, :).

warmest wishes
Wayne

Bluegate

11-28-2011, 04:22 AM

Sounds like a story worth telling Wayne! :-)

ResearchGuy

11-29-2011, 12:52 AM

I became a product of the care system when i was 14. By 15 i was in the Criminal Justice System. . . .
Wayne, you might find the gentleman behind this site (http://www.redefineyourmind.com/) of considerable interest (and the site itself, of course). He is also a member of AW's forums, and that is how I met him.

--Ken

bclause

12-19-2011, 07:22 AM

I'm new to this site and was referred here by Work Place Like Home forums. I started a blog about my son who was diagnosed with PPD (autism spectrum), sensory processing disorder, and a lot of anxiety. I wanted to include him in the book, but now wondering if I should hold off since I'm not sure about how to retell certain events. Most of it is public as it happened in the school system, but I'm thinking I might write it down but hold off on publishing.

I do want to write about losing my second son to a gentic disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. I never heard of it until his diagnosis. It was grim in the fact he would probably die before 1 years old. I had to make a gut wrenching decision of prolonging his life for a few more months or to let him go. We decided to let him go. I had my first panic attack on the way home. That attack set the stage for several years of battling anxiety. I really stopped caring about myself, and gained over 100 pounds. I kept going for my oldest son, who was 2 years old at the time, but I just went through the motions. I also had a huge amount of support and kindness from complete strangers in our community and online.

I want to discuss all my fears I developed and how I basically withdrew from life. I made excuses not to go anywhere, and I was miserable. I really wanted to die. I didn't try to take my life, but I was slowly killing myself with food. I hated the person I was becoming, and did mention a few times I just wanted to die. I remember driving a couple of times thinking what would happen if I just let go of the wheel. Seriously it was scary to me.

When my oldest son started having behavior issues at school, then I had to take action. I finally got the help I needed and started taking Zoloft. It really did help me regain control of my life. I'm not advocating drugs, but I was able to lose 100 pounds in the next 14 months. I have kept it off over a year later. My son is doing so much better in school. I'm back in college finishing my Associate's Degree in General Studies. I graduate in May, and think I will go back to finish my Bachelor's degree. I am taking writing classes.

sf.writer.mdk

12-19-2011, 09:22 AM

Good luck with your story, bclause. First and foremost, I'm sorry to hear of you and your family's suffering. I'm sure writing this story will be cathartic and therapeutic for you.

bclause

12-19-2011, 05:41 PM

Thank you so much Alienus. The little bit I've written has helped. I wrote a post about the fears I had, and it felt really good to share. It's empowering but I'm just glad I am on the other side. That level of anxiety and depression can cripple you and take over your life. I did meet some wonderful people, and was able to reconnect with old friends as well.

We constantly see on the news all the bad things that happen, and we become scared and cynical. The amount of love and support I received from strangers was amazing. Our story was front page news in our little paper and picked up by another local paper. This happened about a month before my son passed away. I was truly touched by the outpouring of geniune concern and love from others. I really feel paying it forward can make the world a better place even if only for a moment. Sometimes a tragedy can tear a family apart, but it made us closer than ever. My marriage is stronger, and I cannot imagine my life without my husband and oldest son.

Again I apologize for rambling, but I'm so excited about finally having the strength and courage to write my story. It's not a super happy ending, but there is always a light or hope at the end if you choose to see.

FiveStagesToNormal

12-21-2011, 11:03 AM

Mine is the story of a breakup written from a man's perspective, something that I've found hasn't been done very often. Men don't tend to reflect, and it seems that I've stumbled upon a topic that women are interested in reading about. We'll see... that's my hope anyway!

My story starts with the breakup and then follows the steps I take to "get back to normal." In alternating chapters I review moments in the past to try to understand what happened. I have attempted to throw in a lot of self-depricating humor to lighten it up.

And I've thrown in some fiction, so while it is officially a "fictionalized memoir," I'm going to publish it as a novel. James Frey taught me that you don't want to end up on Oprah's sofa explaining yourself to a hostile audience!

ResearchGuy

01-28-2012, 03:20 AM

. . . P.S. Although the publishing agreement is not yet signed, I expect to publish a memoir by a woman who tells of her life with serious physical disability, progressive since birth. She is now in her fifties, with a bachelor's, master's, and years of employment, including as a state department director. It is an intimate, detailed, and revealing book that will open eyes. I've done a lot of preliminary work on the manuscript and design; we have just not gotten around to a signed agreement yet. Not MY memoir, but maybe of related interest here.
Update: I Can Dance: My Life with a Disability, by Laurie Hoirup, is scheduled for March 14, 2012 publication, but it has leaked out already and Amazon is shipping. BarnesAndNoble.com is taking pre-orders, but I would not bet they will fill the pre-orders. (I have prior experience with them that leaves me skeptical on that specific point.) See www.laurieslegacy.com (http://www.laurieslegacy.com) for more information. (BTW, the book is very frank, and for age 18 and up only.)

--Ken

lastdefense

02-17-2012, 08:36 PM

Chrisla

02-17-2012, 10:07 PM

Looks like no one has been here in a while, but I'm new here, so I thought I'd jump in :) My memoir is about going through some mental health crisis, in and out of psych hospitals and dealing with different psychiatrists - including one that was more concerned with handing out the medication then what that medication what capable of doing and in what quantities. I'm doing it a lot for me but I've also gained a lot from memoirs of similar topics and if I was ever able to help someone it would be an awesome bonus :)
I suspect one reason we aren't here much any more is because we have set our memoirs aside for the time being, and are working on other things. But I still take a peek every so often, and am always glad to see some familiar names. I spend most of my free time these days in the novel writing forums and with my writer's group. Everybody is encouraging me to turn my memor into a novel, and I'm tinkering with that.

dryland

03-14-2012, 11:34 PM

My WIP is about a young woman who travels to Mexico in an attempt to erase her memories of an unacknowledged family tragedy, and in the process becomes involved in a stranger's seemingly impossible quest.

MelissaMD

04-25-2012, 03:42 AM

I just read through all of the posts in this and, wow. You guys are amazing, and I want to buy and read all of your memoirs!

That being said, my memoir is a collection of the awkward situations I seem to involuntarily get myself into. As mentioned in my introduction thread, I'm literally a crazy person magnet. So by the request of everyone I've told my stories too, I'm writing them down, and hope to be published in later years, if not, well, they can still be read :)