I am mostly just a blog writer, but have done some freelance writing in the past. I might do more freelance writing in the future for some extra cash. In the meantime, I am also casually writing my memoir. I've written some chunks of it, but have encountered some challenges. They are as follows: 1. My husband reads portions of my memoir, and asks me not to post them on my blog. These portions have mostly included stories of romance with him, which he thinks are "private". He has also criticized some of my writing about the very first love in my life. In the latter case, he didn't want me to write about my sex life with my very first love. Again, he doesn't want these stories on my blog, but I think he won't want them in a printed memoir either, unless it's just a private memoir. I'm thinking that if the finished memoir is reasonably good, why not try to have it published? 2. I need some help with character development. I don't think I fully paint the other people in my memoir writing well enough. I find it difficult, maybe because I'm a tad too inwardly focused. I know how they've come across to me, but obviously I don't fully know what they're thinking. I am better at writing about others' thoughts when things go wrong in my relationships, but not as much when I'm caught up in the newness of them. I've been married for 20 years now, and still ask my husband why he loves me. He has never answered seriously. I can only guess why. I do know personality characteristics of people, and can express them as I have seen them, but is it OK not to develop characters in a memoir as fully as you'd need to in a fictional novel?
What is your memoir about? Is it about love and sex? Is it about your marriage? How necessary are the details you want to expose to the actual story you are telling, because a memoir still has a story to it. I have published some person essay/short memoir pieces in a few magazines and not everyone has been happy with me. I have also held back from submitting some pieces because I didn't feel right about some of the personal details I was exposing about loved ones even with their permission and blessings to publish. It's tricky. That being said, everyone I know knows I'm a writer and I feel like my life is fair game to write about. Yes, you need to develop your characters the same way they would be fleshed out in a novel. Essentially, this is a story you are writing it just happens to be true.
Thank you, deadrats. I will work harder at developing my characters. I know I need to dedicate more time to writing the pieces in order to do that. Ultimately my memoir will be a bipolar disorder life memoir, but I don't want all of the chapters to mainly focus on my disorder. Obviously some will, but in some I'd like it to be secondary. My idea is for the chapters to be stories of significant and/or interesting times or events in my life. Not a chronological autobiography. For example, I may not even mention all of my family if they don't happen to be included in a particular story I want to include, so I guess I wouldn't have to worry about character development for all of them. I'm thinking these individual story chapters will be between 4,000 to 6,000 words long. Right now I have ideas for 10-12 chapters.
