Twenty Writing Tips to Make a Page Dent on My Memoir

By now, I am convinced that memoir writing is an art of excavation with honesty and precision. In writing, I strive to make a dent on the page - achieve an intended impact. I aim to ensure that my words will be felt and resonate well with readers.

So, I have come up with twenty strategies – yes, too many. Although I will be unable to implement all of them immediately, I will keep letting them guide me at any point in my writing. So in no particular order,

here are my twenty writing tips to make a mark on the page

1. How do I hook readers and make a strong impression? I am working on my openings because all writer feeds teach me to grab the reader. How do I recreate that vivid scene from memory, and what is a striking line I can use, or what other provocative question can I ask – these are real writing challenges.

2. How do I confront my pains? This is begging the question since writing this memoir will come face to face with all of my traumas. Whether it’s a death in the family, an unrequited love, or a mismanaged career, recounting events is not enough, capturing my emotion on those pivotal moments is what matters.

3. How do I express my unique voice? Writing feeds keep on and on about the voice of the writer. I interpret ‘my voice’ as ‘how I talk’ – but how do I know how I am talking? But whatever it is, a consistent voice, a writer feed tells me, will make a dent on the page. “Write with authority. Let your individuality shine through.”

4. How about a structure for the memoir? Right now, my way is the way of the inductive essay. There is a main thought that is supported by relevant details. I am keeping to the rule of one: one sentence, one main point, one paragraph, one main idea, one essay, one theme thesis. A writer's feed tells me I can braid my narratives, reflect using fragments, and circularly tell the story. But before I experiment, I should write my story as basic as it should be, with a beginning, middle, and end.

5. How do I reflect oscillating between the past and the present?

The memoir will not mean much to the present if the past is irrelevant. This is very philosophical, and one of my constantly pounding writing challenges. Reading the Bible, writing devotionals, praying – all of these are crucial to this purpose-driven exercise.

6. How do I engage the senses and imagine vividly? Descriptions are crucial, so how to make readers see, hear, taste, and feel and create a palpable world is a craft discipline. A more focused observation, with sharpened sensorial faculties is the key to this exercise. To stop, look, and listen however also need more reading to expand my vocabulary.

7. How do I filter the details to leave some for the reader to interpret? A memoir I’m reading makes me realize that what’s unsaid can be as powerful as what's written. It is powerful in translating silence and omissions into making me empathize with the story on its pages. But this is rather an advanced writing challenge for me.

8. How do I not stray away from my theme? This is a follow-through from number 7. I have to be deliberate about the images that will reinforce my story's emotional undertow. The writer’s feed I’m studying is big on ‘motif’ so I have taken note of it.

9. How do I transport the readers inside those moments on the page? This is like a time-machine device that is aimed at here. The shifts in setting and atmosphere, the movements and transitions, pacing in the action – I think I need to read more “whodunnits.”

10. How do I reveal my authentic self?

What does this even mean? A book by Vicente Garcia Groyon tells me that ‘Everything is Fiction’. This is a wonderful read so I’m sharing my notes here in Librokado because I got excited writing the memoir after reading this book.

11. How do I stay transparent even with the small details? Are those details too small that I took them for granted or should I have included them for their metonymic effect? What do these include? Body language perhaps? Ways of speaking? Subtle quirks? Until I’ve written I really won’t know what I’ve overlooked, would I? I find some clues on how to do this in Beverly Siy’s memoir ‘It’s a Men's World.’

12. How do I write conversations? This is something I just encountered while writing a page. My writer’s feed tells me that dialogue must reveal character, tension, and emotion. Should I go back to reading and studying drama? Or I can try letting somebody else read my page aloud so I can hear the utterances.

13. How do I keep the reader reading? Answers are found in numbers 1-12 and from 14 to 20.

14. When do I stop revising? I could get lost in the process! But I know this is where the magic happens – my 'artist-self' at play, shaping and refining the words. It's a tricky balance between perfecting the piece and actually finishing it.

15. How should I end, finish, and close the parts? One way is by circling back to the beginning as the writer’s feed tells me, but its point is that my ending should feel inevitable. There is also the challenge of writing cliff-hangers -- this reminds me again that I should read more mystery-suspense books.

16. How do I apply storytelling devices for added nuance?

This will involve using letters, diary entries, anecdotes, notes, and relevant quotations from readings. Where to insert these when, and how to get them to perform on the page.

17. How can I balance the seriousness with laughter? To paraphrase from the writer’s feed “Even in memoirs about a painful subject laughter is necessary to create lightness. Humor relieves the reader of a heaviness that can choke breathing.” So serious. I think this can answer question number 13 as well.

18. How do I keep the creative juices flowing? This is a cliché question to ask but writing requires too much self-awareness. I have been struggling to recall, interpret, and shape this memoir and this twenty-point list is one of my meta-approaches to this question.

19. How do I settle with an unfinished life on the page? My life goes on so I should not be writing like I am leaving this earth. I shall live with the truth that I won’t be able to wrap everything up neatly even on the final page of the memoir. This story will probably make a dent on the page of a reader’s life. But I should not always count on it.

20. How do I write now? This should be my urgent call – instead of writing this list, I should write the memoir pronto.