"Kill Your Little Darlings!" Excise what's not needed.

Опубликовано: 05 Август 2026
на канале: Better Memoir Writing Master Classes
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Download YOUR FREE COPY: "21 Must Do Memoir-Writing Tasks / Best Practices / How to Write Quickly and Well”: http://eepurl.com/iuZwsE

Having finished my childhood memoir, "French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood," of course, I have been thinking of all the things that I did not put into the memoir!

Some of these omissions, I would say, were interesting and might have contributed to my story’s theme and plot line. However, the memoir had reached 350 pages, and I knew it was imperative to limit any further lengthening of the story.

Many writers have said—and I paraphrase—“a work of art is never finished. It is merely abandoned.”

Keeping this observation in mind, I understood, as every writer must, that I needed to choose the point of abandonment carefully. Cut back too early, and you don't make your point—establish the importance of your theme—in your memoir. Abandon too late, and you risk having too much in your memoir and turning your reader off.

In his video, I walk you through the process that many writers refer to as "killing your little darlings."

To read the text of this video as a post, go to: https://thememoirnetwork.com/how-to-c...

Below is a FREE video e-course I have curated just for you on how to better self-edit your memoir.

~ Do This Before Sending a Memoir to an Editor    • Improve your text every time—proven self-e...  
~ Best Practices to Self-Edit Your Memoir    • SELF-EDITING IS NOT OPTIONAL  
~ 7 Basic Elements of A Memoir You Must Ace    • DO THESE WRITING "MUST DO." (Building bloc...  
~ How to Write a Better Memoir: Seven Proven Tips    • WRITE WITH IMPROVED RESULTS! (THESE SKILLS...  
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DEAR MEMOIR WRITER:

There are many reasons to write a memoir, but not all of them will see you through to a successful completion of your book.

~ FOR YOUR FREE COPY of "21 Must Do Memoir-Writing Tasks / Best Practices / How to Write Quickly and Well”: http://eepurl.com/iuZwsE

~ FOR A DEEPER DIVE INTO THE BASICS OF MEMOIR WRITING, check out: THE MEMORABLE STORY / WRITE YOUR FIRST MEMOIR DRAFT at
https://thememoirnetwork.com/write-yo...


"Ledoux has written another super useful book ["21 Must Do Memoir-Writing Tasks / Best Practices]. He leads the memoir writer to the most important tasks to tackle right away. My hat’s off again to this master writer. He always saves me a lot of time and bother."
— Patrick Greenleaf

~ WANT TO GET FOCUSED ABOUT YOUR MEMOIR? Check out:
~ coaching: https://thememoirnetwork.com/memoir-w...
~ editing: https://thememoirnetwork.com/memoir-w...

~ FOR A FREE MEMOIR-WRITING MEMBERSHIP to help you write to the end, go to: http://thememoirnetwork.com/register/

LASTLY:

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Thank you, and whatever you do today, write a bit on your memoir.