12 Reasons You Should Write Your Memoir Anyway
by Patti M Hall
It’s time, right?
You’re ready to write about your life.
You bought the gorgeous notebook, the beautiful pen, the tea is made, your butt is in the chair and then the really hard part begins…
Telling the voices of criticism, doubt and skepticism to pipe down
(especially the ones coming from inside your own head.)
Do any of these sound familiar to you?
You’re not a writer!
Who’s going to read your story?
A memoir? You aren’t famous?
You can’t write that stuff!
What if no one ever reads it?
What if someone does read it?
Here’s my first piece of memoir coachly advice:
Give the same response to every comment, from every person.
Some of clients and writer pals use this one:
I’m writing my memoir anyway.
Make it your mantra.
But when you need to, dive into these twelve reasons (and a bonus one!), every time the noise in your head challenges you for an answer to one of these questions.
Why write about your life?
12. To find you: You won’t know how brilliant you are until you see yourself on paper where you’re honest, not judging yourself and no one is watching.
Write to hear your voice.
11. To find the next step on your path: To consider where to go next, it helps to understand how your past choices got you to today.
Write where you’ve been.
10. Because there is value in remembering: You write, and you remember. Writing pulls from places we don’t visit in our daily lives.
Write to remember.
9. Because you’re bound to learn something: Writing about your life gets you to wondering why something happened, or how you got this way.
Write to dig deeper.
8. To feel better: Your story may have some pain in it. On the page the fear is gone, the sting relieved.
Write to get through the tough parts.
7. Because you have a lot to be grateful for: You’re fortunate—in your country, living in this time, being loved.
Write to tap into your gratitude.
6. To pass on some enlightenment: You’ve learned a lot in your experiences, travels, and relationships. You’re a warehouse of wisdom.
Write to share your message.
5. To show the rest of you: There is more to you than parent, worker, sibling and friend. You have opinions, feel passionately, and live with your heart.
Write to show your full self.
4. To share the strength and the failures: If you decide to let someone read your writing, (and you don’t have to) you just might spare your reader having to learn the hard way.
Write to share your story.
3. To get your side of things on the record: There is always someone who tells a version of the truth that simply isn’t how you remember it.
Write to tell it your way.
2. To leave a piece of yourself behind: Our writing lives on, is savored and treasured by others and has a depth of connection our loved ones crave.
Write to leave a piece of yourself for someone.
1. Because you can. We are the only species that can communicate this way. Studies prove that the physical experience of pulling our stories, finding our words, and sifting through our memories releases the bliss chemicals.
That’s the bonus:
Write because it feels so good.
And remember this response for all the naysayers…
“I’m writing my memoir, anyway.”
originally published in Huffington Post
