Memoir Groups

How to start your own Memoir Writing Club

It’s pretty straightforward, but you’ll need a few basic ground rules to start or your group may not endure for very long.

To start with I’d suggest taking my book and working through one chapter at a time, doing the exercises. This will liberate your creative juices until you find you are writing things that have bubbled up spontaneously in your memory. If you hit a dry patch, you can always go back to the book for more inspiration.

So – how do you make a Memoir writing group work?

Here are the Seven Golden Rules:

(There may be more, but seven is quite enough for now)

1. Invite people you think will be good memoir writing buddies. Don’t just invite people because you like them. Your group can meet anywhere – coffee shops, libraries often have rooms for free for writers, or in your homes. If you meet in someone’s home you can take turns in being the host. Some people like to meet as pairs, others prefer groups of 5 or 6 or more. A private space usually works better than a public space, I’ve found.

2. Meet for about 60 to 90 minutes maximum; meeting every two weeks is a good average.

3. Respect the starting times and the ending times. This is important.

4. Give everyone equal ‘air time’.

5. If you give an opinion about someone’s writing, talk about what you liked. Don’t talk about what you don’t like in someone’s writing. It doesn’t do any good, and the person concerned won’t listen anyway. You will all learn far more by focusing on what is good, I promise you.

6. Don’t get sidetracked into chit-chat. You can do that later, after the memoir discussion time is up.

7. Be compassionate. Some people will be writing about difficult and emotionally-charged material. Honor their courage. Respecting another’s courage allows you to grow your own.