How to Write Your Memoirs: Fun Prompts to Make Writing…and Reading…Your Life Stories a Pleasure!
Ina Hillebrandt’s Memoir Writing guide book that helps you “Just do it!”
How to Write Your Memoirs has grown out of workshops I’ve been leading, for more years than I care to admit, with people from the corporate world, the world of wellness, and Footprints literacy and creative writing programs for kids, adults and seniors.
It contains organizing ideas, prompts and reminiscences from both my own and students’ lives. Use these to jump-start your own creative juices. You’ll see your musings will range from spicy, zestful and smile-inducing to calm, informative, and believe it or not, un-boring!
Is there a philosophy underlying the prompts and the whole process? Absolutely! We all need to lighten up! If my work has shown me anything, it’s that many of us fear we cannot write anything, or be creative, for a whole variety of reasons. It’s also shown me that not taking ourselves too seriously coaxes our creative genies out of their bottles. Consequently, from time to time you might find a little surprise in the pages that follow; I’m sure you’ll find many in your own memory banks.
So go ahead. Use the tips and examples in the pages of this book, and banish those “I’m not creative” and “I can’t write” monsters from your vocabulary. I’ll bet once you start jotting down your recollections, you’ll have a hard time stopping! In fact, you may wind up joining me in the Computer Cooking Club™. That’s the one that features my special breakfast recipe:
Ina’s Magic Egg
Take a small pot, just big enough for one egg
Put egg into pot
Add cold water to cover
Add ½ tsp salt to keep eggshell from cracking
Turn on heat to high
Go back to computer, resuming project
When you hear the explosion, the egg is done.
Reader Reviews
“Writing, like any creative act, takes courage, and Hillebrandt is to be commended for helping people vanquish their own fears about how to start, tap into their inner memoirist and come out with a book of their own. Although How to Write Your Memoirs is written in a clear, easy-to follow-fashion, the book is far from elementary. Accomplishing its goals in a sophisticated way, it is also a highly worthwhile guide for experienced writers who haven’t yet tackled the genre. The structure and content ideas Ina has compiled help them push past their fear of jumping into a new form.”
–Ron Kenner, editor of award winning books, rkedit.com“Ina’s a healer! When my friend talks about the stories she’s writing, she’s happier than I’ve seen her in years!”
–Diane Slade, artist and therapist, Napa California
“I find Ina Hillebrandt’s How to Write Your Memoirs to be a comprehensive and concise manual. It starts with basic information which systematically leads into a variety of ideas and examples of style and substance….a helpful tool for future writers…I believe it will even inspire some that think of themselves as not possessing writing skills. I enjoyed the book and strongly recommend it.”
–David Brook, member Footprints Writing Club, and contributing author to the group’s Amazon.com bestseller“”How to Write Your Memoirs” really sets the old brain in motion. I always remember that first prompt about what’s your earliest memory, and I flashed on that story, and the whole scene with that old truck they put me in came into my mind. It’s amazing what will pop up with just a simple prompt, and the stories just kept coming up.
–Kay Roberts, Contributing Author, “Stories From the Heart, V. 2 and 3”
