If You are Writing a Micro Memoir What You Need to Know

Don't put it down on paper till you understand the premise.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

When it comes to writer’s block, many writers seem to have it. But even when writing small, you can still be tortured by it. So what is the secret? It all comes down to lists.

That’s right. Unlocking your memories can be as simple as making a list, so you can form a whole out of many halves. Here, I’m going to share several writing tricks to allow you to access your deepest memories and emotions, with a few Estelle’s Edge sprinkled in (aka pro tips,) and I’m also going to show you my final Tiny Love Story, and for paying subscribers the backstory; the earlier iteration of my piece, before I made changes, bonus clips from my podcast, Freelance Writing Direct, and a writing opportunity.

Accessing (and Writing) Your Memories in 4 Steps

As in one of my favorite musicals, The Sound of Music, says in a song, Let’s start at the very beginning.

Get a legal pad, or just a white pad (thanks to Joanna Rakoff from episode #87 of Freelance writing Direct Writing Memoir That Reads Like a Novel and Captivates on Every Page for that advice. I’m now surrounded by legal pads).

STEP 1: Put the first word down that comes to mind when accessing your memories. That will be your launching point.

Estelle’s Edge: It can be a place (Paris), a season (Spring), a year (1985), a first (kiss), an experience (attending an auction), or an action verb (propose, as in when someone proposed to you).

STEP 2: Start writing for 5 minutes (use a timer, or your watch), but instead of writing a full piece, just list scenes from your memory.

Estelle’s Edge: This is a time to let your intuition guide you. It’s all there in the storage container of your mind. Don’t censor yourself. Even if you write something that startles you.

STEP 3: Then pick just one of your scenes and try to write it out for five minutes.

Estelle’s Edge: Focus on a moment when something changed. There has been some transformation in you, the situation, or your thinking because of what happened. That’s what you can shine your spotlight on. Don’t forget to include sensual language, which is the language of the senses: touch, smell, hearing, taste.

STEP 4: Before you even try to break it down into micro memoir, do a quick check to make sure the words are “juicy” that you’ll eventually use, by taking ordinary, everyday words and finding substitutions for them. For example, the word miraculous can be the word otherworldly. The word odd can become the word uncanny. Aren’t those substitutions more poetic? With micro memoir, every word counts, so make them count.

Estelle’s Edge: Instead of using a thesaurus, sometimes I like to scroll through TikTok (check out mine), and see what words jump out at me. I note them on my phone if I don’t have a pad handy.

As I say in my writing craft book with stories from my life as a magazine editor-in-chief, Writing That Gets Noticed

“Start a word bank and make deposits in it every week, or every day if possible. Whenever I see an interesting or unusual word, I check out the definition and add it to the word bank I keep on my computer. Soon you will be rich in words that can enliven your essays and articles.” — Estelle Erasmus

STEP 5: Now, take your enhanced scene and truncate it into a micro memoir with a narrative arc — a beginning, middle and end.

Estelle’s Edge: If you don’t like what you came up with, try it by writing another scene. Or scour through your unpublished personal essays (I know I have a ton), and try to truncate any one of them into a micro memoir.

New Class Alert

I will be running my first ever fiction Zoom class this winter for current or former students. My nonfiction Zoom class for Fall is sold out. I keep them small for optimum interaction. Email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com for information and to have me hold a spot for you. You must have already studied with me through a Writer’s Digest class, or NYU class. See my classes here.

Special Offer

If you become a paid subscriber (monthly or yearly) to my Substack, and email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com (put Micro Memoir Offer in the subject line), I will send you a substantive list of places to submit micro memoir. If you become a paid yearly subscriber, I will even edit your first micro memoir piece that is 100 words or less.

I will be running my first ever fiction Zoom class this winter for current or former students. My nonfiction Zoom classes for Fall are sold out. I keep them small for optimum interaction. Email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com for information and to have me hold a spot for you. You must have already studied with me through a Writer’s Digest class, or NYU class. See my classes here.

As added incentive, here is my Tiny Love Story from the New York Times’ Styles Section that ran on April 21, 2021

Maybe More Than Slightly

“Why can’t you find someone?” my parents asked when I was 26.” He’s not here yet,” I said. “He’s in Africa.” (I’ve always been slightly psychic; my parents have always been slightly skeptical.) As the “Dating Diva” at Manhattan’s Learning Annex, I felt confident in my ability to help myself and others “find a mate or just a date.” In my 40s, I still felt confident but relied less on my “dating tricks.” One rainy night, I bumped into a tall man who rolled his R’s. Today, my South African husband says he loves me and our daughter in Afrikaans. — Estelle Erasmus

If you are struggling with editing, you can check out this article I wrote for Writer’s Digest, where I’m now Contributing Editor on polishing your prose. I also have a whole chapter on editing in my book.

Latest Podcast Episode

Don’t forget to check out my recent podcast episode #96 with novelist Jessica Strawser, editor-at-large for Writer’s Digest about her novel, The Last Caretaker. Here it is on YouTube, and please follow me there. As my guest on Freelance Writing Direct, Jessica talked about how she came up with the concept for the novel based on her life experiences, how she used nature as a setting, her decision process for writing the POV of one character, ending chapters with emotional beats, raising the stakes by bringing out tension in relationships and so much more. I loved our conversation.

Here is just a snippet of writing advice from Jessica.

“It's actually good to end when you know what comes next and not end when you're stuck.” — Jessica Strawser

And Ann Hood recently came on to the podcast for the second time in episode #95 The Catalysts and Craft for Charting and Plotting Novels talking about her fascinating novel The Stolen Child. We talked about the elements of research in historical novels, how Ann tracks timelines, finding patterns throughout a book, and her favorite part of the publishing process (it might surprise you).]

Here is something that Ann told me on the podcast:

“Food is a really good objective correlative and it stands in for almost every emotion You know when I teach nonfiction or memoir writing one assignment I always give them without any further instruction family dinner And what comes out is how much they loved their grandmother how their father was abusive to their mother, fear in the household confusion in the household drinking in the household…” — Ann Hood

I will be doing an upcoming live coaching session on the podcast. If you have a question you’d like me to address in an upcoming session or newsletter, you can message me here or find me on my Instagram or on TikTok

If you read and loved my book as much as I loved writing it, please leave a review on Amazon. It helps spread the word, and builds that all-important algorithm.

Analyzing The Early Version of My Tiny Love Story

When writing, it’s important to question every sentence by asking yourself “so what?” That will make the difference.

So, in the spirit of education, here is an early iteration of the piece that got published, and how and why it changed.