Writing Your Memoir

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Everyone has a story to tell. Our lives are a compilation of experiences as seen through our own individual lenses. We experience joy and tragedy, love and loss and adventure, and just the day to day living of life. We navigate through families, romantic partners, and careers. We are affected by life altering political and cultural events. It’s natural to want to put our unique experiences down on paper, to share with the public, with our families, or, simply for our own satisfaction.

Memoirs can take many different forms. Some can be a compilation of short stories exploring unlinked life events. They can be told with humour, or not. David Sedaris’ hilarious Me Talk Pretty One Day is a collection of short stories based on events in his life. Sometimes an author will take autobiographical events, and change some aspects of it, and present it as a novel, such as Miriam Toew’s brilliant All My Puny Sorrows. There are so many ways to approach writing your story.

Start writing your memoir

Memoirs can be written by the young, or the old. Any life experience that’s pivotal or meaningful to the author can be explored.  After all, a memoir is not necessarily an autobiography; a memoir is a collection of memories, and it’s never too late, or too early, to explore those. The Globe and Mail recently published an interesting article: Why So Many Retirees Are Writing Memoirs. This Independent article notes: Best Millennial Memoirs Written by Women.

Perhaps now is the time to begin writing your memoir!

Allegra Huston will be teaching her highly regarded memoir-writing workshop at the Bluenose Lodge, in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, from May 22 to May 27, 2023. 

The Guardian called Allegra’s Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, “A beautifully crafted memoir, written with both tenderness and unsparing honesty.” Kirkus Reviews described the memoir as “A graceful, surprisingly tender account of a life lived at the edge of fame.”

Sign up for Allegra’s workshop in beautiful Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, this coming May 2023.

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