Book Review: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Memoir Writing

The following is an article from Traveling Pat! Patricia is a regular contributor to The Inspirational Mom.

I thought this was a great book! Memoir writing is all the rage at the moment and the vast bulk of us “would be memoirists” could really use a comprehensive guide such as this.  We all have many stories to tell and weaving our way through the tangle of memories and emotions can sometimes seem so daunting that we don’t know where or how to start.  Guess what? Obtaining The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing a Memoir is an excellent first step.

Written by Victoria Costello, the book has clearly laid out instructions that pave the way for writing everything from your travel stories, personal memories, family secrets, research, to publishing, self-publishing and even blogging. There are lots of prompts and exercises to keep you writing and motivated to stick with it.

I particularly liked the format. At the beginning of each chapter you are told what you will be learning.  Next, the book goes through this in detail then at the end of the chapter it is summed up in point form.  (Just in case you weren’t paying attention!)  That makes it easy to go back and find something you might need to re-read.

Potential problems are identified with bold “POT HOLE AHEAD” warnings. Tips are given for getting past any sticking points or trouble.  It’s not always “smooth sailing” in the writing world so I found this extremely helpful.

This guide is user friendly and very readable. There are many examples of famous writers and how they handled certain aspects of their writing making it feel like we “budding authors” face the same challenges as “the pros”….

Rather than being a complete idiot to read this, you would be very wise indeed for giving this a go.

Disclosure: Patricia received a copy of the book for the purpose of review.