We Love Memoirs Day
Delving into someone else's life story, wrapped in their adventures and life lessons, can be a captivating journey worth taking.
Celebrate memoir authors and readers by hosting writing workshops, book clubs, and community meet-ups that drive engagement and foster a loyal reading/writing community.
- Share memoir writing tips and success stories from Victoria Twead and Alan Parks
- Highlight global We Love Memoirs meet-ups and community friendships formed through the platform
- Create 'memoir slice' writing challenges encouraging readers to share their own life stories
- Feature bestselling memoirs and author interviews to inspire memoir readers and aspiring writers
We Love Memoirs was set up on August 31st, 2013, by two memoir authors, Victoria Twead and Alan Parks, who wanted to create a place where memoir readers and authors could come together and chat.
Victoria Twead is a New York Times bestselling author of “Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools” and the “Old Fools” series, while Alan Parks is the author of “Seriously Mum, What’s an Alpaca?” and the “Seriously Mum” series. Victoria and Alan were determined to foster a warm community and have always discouraged authors from pushing their own books at readers.
The results have been astounding, and WLM has grown quickly. New friendships are formed every day, and WLM meet-ups across the globe have become common. Small wonder that the We Love Memoirs community – which can be found here – is often described as “the friendliest group on Facebook”.
Not only is it important to understand the history of We Love Memoirs Day, but it helps to know about the history of the memoir itself. This can be dated to 397 AD, when The Confessions of Saint Augustine was written by St. Augustine of Hippo. He used this as an opportunity to tell the world about his sins. Ever since then, getting to know a stranger intimately is something that we have all had a bit of an obsession with, especially when this stranger is someone famous or has been involved in a well-known incident.
Tips on writing a memoir
If you are interested in writing a memoir on this date, we have a number of different tips that can help you. Firstly, you need to narrow your focus. It is vital to recognize that a memoir is not an autobiography. This means that it needs to be a snapshot of one theme of your life, rather than telling people about your life from the moment you were born. Think about a cake. A memoir is simply one slice of the cake, rather than being the entire bake. Although your focus should be narrow, you also need to think about the bigger picture when you are writing your memoir. A memoir that Hillary Clinton wrote is a prime example of this. She wrote a memoir detailing bringing up a child in the White House. While this was the focus, she also pulled in different tidbits to make the story more exciting. This includes information on how she dealt with the politics of parenting while in the White House, as well as details on who she let visit her daughter during sleepovers and how she handled the media during this time. Of course, all of this information is relevant to the period of time she is focusing on, yet it helps to create the full picture and give more details. Tap into your thoughts and feelings, not just the facts of what happened. Aside from this, it is important to make sure that you tell the truth when you are writing a memoir. A lot of people are tempted to bend the truth or even tell an outright lie because they want to make the story as interesting as possible. However, a memoir is only going to be powerful if it is genuine and honest. Needless to say, this can also be difficult because you may be worried about hurting people along the way. Nevertheless, as an author, telling your truth is imperative, even if the journey is a difficult one. This is what people are going to relate with and, ultimately, this is what is going to make your memoir a success. The final tip that we are going to give you is to create an emotional journey when you write your memoir. Taking your readers on an emotional journey is what is going to encourage them to turn the page and read the next one. The most effective way of evoking these feelings in your audience is by connecting your emotions with key events that occur during your narrative.