On Wednesday, I again picked up “The Memoir Project,” by Marion Roach Smith. I had started reading it before – when I’d picked it up from the library but then decided I wanted my own copy that I could mark in since it was so good. So I stopped reading it at that time. I have now started it again from the beginning and I finished it on Thursday. And it is really a wonderful little book. It is very clear and straightforward and the writing is lovely.
I think the most important thing I gained from this book is the idea that a memoir basically consists of writing a collection of personal essays which become scenes in the book. So instead of trying to view writing the whole thing in its overwhelming entirety, you just start with an essay. That makes it feel much more doable.
So what I have gotten from the writing books I’ve recently read so far is this:
From Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones,” I have learned about writing “from your bones,” so to speak. From the “Memoir Project,” I have learned about how to structure a memoir by way of 
personal essays, and from “Make a Scene,” I have learned how those essays become scenes.
After reading “Memoir Project” I’ve been feeling ready to start working on my “Bugwump” project. I pulled out the box that contains all my various drafts with the goal of going through it. I got some colored index cards to follow the instructions in the book and I’m feeling very good about this and very inspired.
But I have a couple more books I want to read about writing memoir. So I plan to start on this one today: “Old Friend from Far Away,” by Natalie Goldberg, followed by:
“Writing & Selling Your Memoir: How to Craft Your Life Story So That Somebody Else Will Actually Want to Read It,” by Paula Balzer.
And in the meantime, perhaps I can actually start WRITING.