Hi All, I'm trying to learn if memoir about alternatives to traditional life paths are in demand and if I can can actually write one or many. It seems most memoir are about people that were abused, f-ed up, addicted or F-ed over at some point and recovered and are now pseudo heroes to have survived. The other are about women finding some path to happiness after their lives were f-ed up. Everyone loves a triumph story... my stories will be about doing things differently because of intellectual analysis (thinking) that the mainstream traditional "normal" life is also not very good at making people happy. From the perspective of someone who is/was/might be gifted and was really good at not f-ing up things. Though TBH, it's fairly impossible not to screw up a lot otherwise how does one learn. The greater question is does anyone care about doing life differently or am I pissing in the wind? Most memoir coaches will tell you nobody wants to read about your sh*t unless they can relate to it. So intellectually I'm thinking that since I'm an oddball, nobody will really want to read my sh*t. So I'm here to see if anyone cares and if not I can go play instead of all this hard work writing a memoir.
Hi TallManTod - I'm one of the forum moderators, and I want to welcome you to the forum, on this, your first day! Hmmm. Well, I believe in order to sell a memoir (unless you're a celebrity) you have to have an angle. Just a blow by blow account of your life won't attract readers, because nobody knows who you are. So you'll need to make them want to find out. I Was a Teenage Werewolf, etc. (Oop, no, that's been done before....) People will want to read that one because werewolfery is NOT what folks normally experience as teenagers. So it is already intriguing. Okay, I'm joking. But maybe play around with that approach : "I was a...whatever you were." What were/are you, that will attract people's attention and make them want to read about you? I think that's the key to getting people interested. AND it gives you a direction for what to write about. What to leave out, what was significant, etc. I wouldn't worry overmuch about whether a memoir will sell. Just get it written. I'd say you won't know if it will fly, until it does. Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... As you start to get settled in, please do read these two links. They will help you get oriented, and give you an idea of how the forum operates. What does go on here, and what doesn't. New Member Quick Start and Forum Rules Feel free to browse the forum and participate on any threads that draw your interest. We have writing contests on the go, and the writers who have entered really appreciate getting votes, so that might be a good place to start. Our members also appreciate critiques you might offer in the Workshop area as well. In fact, that's probably the most popular and the most important area of the forum. We don't have a Memoir section, as such—we've been discussing adding one—but there are a few members who do express an interest in writing Memoirs/Autobiography. If you go to the By Writing Form section, click on it, then trawl down through the list of threads, you will see some of them are tagged as 'autobiography.' Do be aware that some of them are quite old threads, but there are a couple which are relatively recent. Feel free to read and comment on them, if you want. You might also want to start your own discussion thread in the By Writing Form section, and tag it as 'autobiography.' That way, some members might come forward with some ideas to share with you. Anyway, if you encounter any difficulties getting settled, don't hesitate to contact me and I'll do what I can to help. Just click my owl avatar and 'start a conversation.' Hope you have fun getting to know us, and letting us get to know you. Cheers for now, Jan
