Photo Credit: MarkGregory007 Flickr via Compfight cc 

I distinctly remember writing an essay in a writing workshop and then thinking, “there’s more where that came from.” That’s exactly how my memoir was born. I immediately made a list of all the topics that could be part of the memoir, and spent the next several years fleshing out those ideas.

I have a couple of other writing projects in mind and for me, they always start with a list. What is everything I know, everything I remember, that relates to that topic?

If you are just in the beginning stages of writing a memoir, or you know you want to write a memoir but are not sure where to start, here are a couple of questions to contemplate:

What people keep popping up in your memories?

What are some of the major turning points in your life?

I particularly like that last question. Any time our lives “turn” is a moment ripe for contemplation. For example, the turning point in my memoir is when my dad died unexpectedly. That changed the entire course of my life, and I built the memoir around that turning point. I thought about the experiences I had related to death that came before, and how my perspective changed when I had someone close to me die.

Give it a shot! Let me know what you come up with.