This is a short instructional YouTube video (hosted by Julie Broad of Book Launchers) advising people who want to write memoirs. The video contrasts a dull chronological opening with a vivid, scene-based opening, and then explains three common mistakes: (1) writing primarily for yourself rather than shaping the story for readers, (2) telling a life story strictly in chronological order instead of beginning with a powerful moment to hook readers, and (3) failing to define the core lesson or emotional takeaway for readers. The presenter repeatedly emphasizes thinking about the reader’s experience and crafting a clear hook and message; the video closes with encouragement, a promotional call-to-action for Book Launchers, and channel engagement prompts.
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When you tell stories from your life, do you always hear you need to write a book? Well, if you're hearing that all the time or you just know your story needs to be told, you might be thinking about writing a memoir. That might be a fantastic idea. Memoirs can be a great way to share experiences, help others see they aren't alone in their struggle, and pass on stories from generation to generation. But memoirs are very challenging to market and I think a lot of self publishing authors dive into writing their story without thinking about who will buy their book or why. And then they publish a book that nobody ever reads. So if you're working on a memoir or thinking about it, this video really is for you. Hey, I'm Julie, the book broad from Book Launchers. We're your professional self publishing team helping you write, publish and promote a nonfiction book that will impact your reader, grow your business and make you money. Our superpower is caring more about you and your book. And what we do differently is work incredibly hard to get your book into readers hands when it's done. The best part, you keep all rights and royalties and have full control over your book. Okay, no preamble here. Let me just dive right into mistake one and two with an example. Try this on for comparison. A book starting like this. I grew up in a house attached to a 20 room motel that was built on the side of Highway 1 in Alberta, Canada. I had one brother, although when I was a teenager my parents took in another kid, giving me a second brother. My parents worked hard at the motel and never really got a break from work. It was a seven day a week, 24 hour a day kind of job. I think we took three family holidays. My entire childhood. My mom was active in the community, sitting on the local school board. Typical memoir. Now compare that to this. The doorbell rang, it was the middle of the night, so I just peeked out my bedroom door to see my dad putting on his housecoat and grabbing the baseball bat. I heard him walk down the stairs so I scurried back to my room. I listened intently to hear the intercom that he had left on so my mom could also listen and call the cops if there were any problems. Most nights this happened. There was nothing to worry about. You see, my parents owned and operated a 20 room motel on the side of the highway. People would get tired of driving and need a place to stay at 2 in the morning and there we were. They would simply ask for a room pay, get their key and go to their room. But sometimes when the doorbell rang at 2 in the morning, it was someone drunk and angry or maybe even someone looking for an easy target to Rob. As an 8 year old kid, this was terrifying and exciting. Okay, which book do you want to read? They're both something I could have written. Yeah, that's my story. But the first, what most people writing a memoir do, they sit down and they literally write their story. They focus on themselves in the second version, which by the way, is. These are really rough. They're not something I'm actually writing. I did it for an example, but in the second one I started to write the story for the reader, focusing on grabbing their attention. The first mistake is writing your story and not writing the story the reader will enjoy. The second mistake is telling your story in chronological order and not starting with a powerful moment. I get it. A memoir, by definition is a historical account or biography that you've written from a personal experience or knowledge or close encounter. That's a book about your life, how you were shaped into the beautiful human that you are and the lessons you want to pass on. It's a great gift to others, but for goodness sakes, you don't need to take the reader through every darn detail. There are days you can skip in your story Darn near every single memoir that has come to us. Written out tries to play out the story of their life in chronological order, starting with their childhood, building to the pivotal moments in their life, and then trying to wrap it up in a nice neat bow. I can think of only one example that didn't start at the beginning and build their story from there. And that's so boring. Think about movies or TV shows. They usually start in the middle of a bank robbery, in the middle of a couple having a fight or somebody having an affair, or the central character being faced with a big decision. Once you see that action filled situation, things calm down and you start to learn about the person and and what's happened to make them the way they are today. Here's the challenge. Most people don't understand story arcs and the author is often too close to their story to see what makes their story good and what details just aren't that relevant for the reader. My best advice, besides hiring someone who has experience with memoirs like book launchers to guide you, is to start your story in the middle of a pivotal moment for you and hook the reader before you give them any backstory. Mistake 3 Determining what lesson you want your reader to take from the book or not doing that. Writing a memoir can be a gift to others, but only if you seriously consider what's in it for the reader. I want to help people with my story. Very common. It's very generous, but that's not enough. You went to jail for a crime you didn't commit. Powerful story, but what's the lesson? Many people write a book because they were wronged in some way, and that is the makings of a powerful story. But for it to be a book, you need to be clear on what's in in it for the reader. What's the emotional journey you're going to take the reader on, and what do you hope they take away from that story? Ultimately, you want to craft your story around giving people a reason to read it and something to say when they talk about it after they've read it. Think about how you want your reader to fill in the blanks on this statement. Oh, this was such a good book. This story taught me blank. You might have an incredible story, but without this core message you don't really have a book. What do you want them to say about your book? That's your hook, by the way, something we've talked about here on the channel a lot. I could go into more mistakes, but embedded in each of these three common mistakes are the smaller mistakes we see all the time. I have to let you know you really are brave and generous for wanting to share your story to help others. I would high five you or hug you if you were here. But when you bare your emotional soul for others to benefit, you also want to be sure that you know who you're writing for and what they need to know to get your message so that all your hard work serves the purpose you desire. Of course, if you want help developing story into a book and then publishing and promoting it, we'd love to help. Give us a few details@book launchers.com application and someone from my team will get back to you with the best next steps for you. Do you want to write a memoir? Or maybe you already have? I'd love to learn more about your story. Let's chat about it in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet noboringbookswag like our oh so soft journal or our signature mug which coffee, tea and hot chocolate all taste better in new videos every Tuesday and Friday. So make sure you subscribe and turn those notifications on so you can be here to hang out after the new video comes out. It's been really delightful hanging out with you and I would be absolutely honored to spend a little more time with you. And I think you really might like this video. On Are you writing the wrong book? But if you've seen that or you're feeling like watching the newest from the channel, then this video right here is for you. Go ahead. I'll get the coffee started and then we can hang out in the next video.
