How to Write Your Truth Without Losing Sleep Over It
Write like nobody’s watching
Before my memoir was published, I would go over it in my head late at night, mentally scanning the pages I’d handed over to my publisher.
On one of those nights, I kept coming back to certain sections, putting myself in the shoes of the people I was writing about.
I decided to edit those passages because I felt something landed too harshly or felt too revealing, so I called my publisher the next morning.
You might fear how your memoir is going to land with readers, especially those who might be in your book. I hear this sentiment a lot when I talk to people about writing their stories. I hear them self-censoring before they’ve even put pen to paper.
But in order to write something emotionally resonant, you have to shift out of that mindset and remember that you’re writing your story just for you.
Many writers hesitate because they think their first draft needs to be flawless. But first drafts are just containers for your thoughts — they are meant to be edited.
If you can accept that imperfection is part of the process, you’ll write with more freedom.
Write for yourself first
When I created the first draft of what would become my memoir, I didn’t even know that what I was writing was publishable.
I was driven by a need to tell my story. So more by intuition than instruction, I wrote like I had horse blinders on, without thinking about agents, editors, family, friends or readers.
It was only when my book was with the publisher that I had enough distance from the story and could allow myself to finally think about certain potential readers, including those who might recognize themselves in the narrative.
If I had led with fear, I probably wouldn’t have found the poignancy that made the manuscript publishable.
So trust your intuition and write whatever needs to come out.
Write without thinking about the reader — any reader, whether it’s the person you’re writing about, strangers, agents or publishers.
You can always think about those readers later.
You don’t need to do it late at night like I did. You can even schedule an editing session where you read your manuscript imagining yourself in a specific person’s shoes.
Your story deserves to be written freely. So write bravely. Write like nobody’s watching—because, at this stage, nobody is.
What’s one truth you’ve been afraid to write?
Ready to stop holding back?
If fear is getting in the way of you starting your memoir, I created my 12-week memoir coaching program to help writers move past these blocks, trust their intuition, and write the story only they can tell.
Book a discovery call with me today to learn more.