Last week, I began working my way through Jennie Nash’s new book, Blueprint for a Memoir. I have long been a fan of Jennie’s, and I read her first two books in this series, Blueprint for a Book (for fiction) and Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book. Since I am revising a memoir draft, I found this her most helpful book yet.

Fourteen steps form the blueprint. This book doesn’t apply to people who are writing memoirs for family or other personal reasons. The subtitle of the book is How to Write a Memoir for the Marketplace.

The steps are not complicated; I was able to do them all in a week, but they constitute hard thinking about your book before you begin drafting or revising. Steps include being clear on why you want to write this book, nailing down the point of the book in one or two sentences, and understanding the transformation that forms the character arc.

Some of these things I already knew, but revision for better clarity never hurts. Knowing the market you will enter is important. You should think about where your book will be shelved in the bookstore or the library. A lot of research goes into knowing what other books speak to your ideal reader. These are often called comparison or competitor books, comp books for short.

Platform and Proposal

The author’s platform, or potential marketing for the book is also addressed. How will you connect with your ideal reader? All of these questions are to be answered before addressing the structure of the book, the timeline, and the concept.

The last step in the blueprint is to write jacket copy for the book. THEN, the truly hard work begins, making sure that you draft or shape a revision that matches the tight outline you have made.

Jennie helpfully includes sections on writing a book proposal, which she recommends for memoir writers. The proposal is in addition to having a completed manuscript before you pitch. And she has a section on how to pitch to agents and publishers. It’s the longest of the three books at 250 pages, but it includes a wealth of resources.

The narrative arc of my memoir has not changed much since I started writing it. Small pieces became the long story. But the concept has changed, as has my working title. That’s why I say that writing a memoir is iterative, but each time you run a comb through it, it gets better.