Each week someone (or several someones) writes me with something similar to the following:

“I want to write about my life. It is very colorful and . . .”

That color consists of abuse, drugs, alcohol, homelessness, bad marriages, adoption, traveling, rags to riches . . . you get the idea. Someone has overcome an obstacle and wants to shout it to the world if not teach others how to do it.

The requests are usually:

1) How do I publish the story?
2) How do I get funds to pay for me to spend time writing my story?
3) How do I get funds to hire someone to write my story?

No one has ever asked me how to learn how to write to get the story recorded properly. The assumption is if the story is a good one, it will sell. Trust me . . . it will not.

Novice writers want to start with writing about themselves. The problem with writing memoir is the lack of market. My first question to anyone who wants to write memoir is, “How many memoirs have you read to learn how a successful memoir is constructed?” To this date, nobody has answered that they have indeed studied other memoirs.

For a memoir to find success, it must have at least two of these three traits:

1) Be written brilliantly, especially if the author is an unknown. Someone will read Ron Howard’s, Michelle Obama’s, or Frank McCourt’s memoir because of their name. If you have no name to prime the pump with, so to speak, no one will see the incentive to buy it. Therefore, the writing must be incredible, the lyrical prose captivating. That is not a God-given talent. That is a well-honed skill that doesn’t happen overnight.

2) Be written by someone who has credentials or has been in the spotlight. In other words, famous in some capacity.

3) Be an incredible story that can barely be imagined it is so unique. The intrigue of the situation draws in the reader with a one-liner that takes one’s break away. Like Captain Chesley Sullenberger’s memoir Sully: My Search for What Really Matters, by a man catapulted into the limelight by his landing of Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, saving all 155 passengers. Before that event, in spite of his admirable career, why would anyone want to read about him?

Before writing a memoir do the following:

1) Learn how to write.
2) Read dozens of memoirs.
3) Try to write something else first.

We are all special, of course, but not everyone wants to read a book-length about the journey . . . unless the author goes all out to make the WRITING special first.