Memoir Star

This book invites you to begin writing your memoir, in four simple steps. It came about totally by chance. One day not long ago, two women, Susan Bowman and Erika Karres, who had never met, realized they had a profound connection. How could that be? You see, the two women couldn’t have been more different. For example, they were born on different continents, spoke different languages and belong to different generations. One grew up in the city, the other one in a small town. One hailed from Northern Europe, the other from the American Northeast. There were more huge differences: One woman came from a highly educated family with her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all having obtained doctorate degrees. The other came from a family where education wasn’t a priority. So it was no wonder that the first woman went to an accelerated high school that taught Latin, advanced chemistry, and physics and the second woman became a middle school dropout. There aren’t many aspects in life that the two women don’t differ on, but they do have something huge in common. They are both runaways. One ran away from her home, hid out in the woods and struggled to survive. The other had to run away from her war-torn country and eventually scratched out a brand-new life. And they have something else in common, something that is the point of this book. After all the trouble and turmoil of their youth, after all the suffering and disgrace, both women are now unabashed and triumphant conquerors. How did they manage to do that? It was simple. One day they both just took a deep breath and started to pour their stories out on paper, for everyone to read about. One woman wrote the memoir “A German Tale” and the other wrote the memoir “Breaking Free.” And only after they did that, could they feel a special calm settle over them and a surge of power. Yes, through writing about their experiences they were able to share their life with the world. And it was miraculous. By pouring out their souls both women learned how to deal with and heal their deep inner wounds, of which they had so many, and then to go on to flourish. And that’s the real message of this book. Once you get started telling some of your stories, you also will notice a peaceful feeling settling over you and renewed strength. A doctor can’t cure what ails you unless you tell her/him about it, right? Similarly, you can’t really understand what you went through, where you came from, what made you who you are, and what special gifts you have to share now unless you begin to look back and inside yourself. You may need to contact family members or other people to help you recall past events. But once these memories come to mind, start to let them out, a little at a time, or a lot. Then record them so you can start the process of writing your memoir. That way, you can start to clear the slate, if you will. You may even overcome whatever small and large obstacles may stand in your way, whatever negatives in your past shadow you still, and perhaps whatever hurdles you think might loom in your future. So take heart—you can do it. You can begin to tell your life story and most likely improve the quality of your life in the process. All you have to do is get started. And you’re not alone. You have the best assistants in this process. These two tough runaways who are so different will be your friends and guides. They will show you how they did it, how they told what happened to them. And how, by putting their experiences on paper, they freed themselves of the minus-points of the past and fashioned a very productive life out of poverty, filth, tragedy, death, and destruction. Yes, as you read all about their pains and pangs, their angst and agonies, their hurts and heart-rending experiences, which they are sharing in their raw and unvarnished reality, you almost feel their hands reaching out to you and empowering you to just say yes. Say yes to airing out your own yesterdays, so that your todays and tomorrows can be filled with peace, acceptance, and freed-up energy for your best life ahead. To start your memoir just get some paper and pencil and start jotting down whatever comes to your mind. Or boot up your computer and hit the keys on the keyboard. Or get a tape recorder and on your morning commute, talk into it. Then at some other time, type up what you have recorded, if you feel like it. Jot down what exactly? you ask. Type up what? Record what? All excellent questions, but don’t worry, here’s a simple step-by-step plan, item by item, guaranteed to help you draft your memoir in a very short time. Ready? The prompts listed below are tried and true. They, or similar ones, have been used in some form or other by creative writing teachers and in many English classes, from basic to advanced. But this is no class. There will be no grades. You are in a program of one, where you call all the shots. So you can respond to one prompt a day in sequence—or you can space your answers out over several time periods. Or you can skip around, responding to whatever prompt grabs you. It’s entirely up to you. The important thing is to just get started. Don’t worry about spelling and punctuation. Hey, this is your life you’re talking about and you are a special person, one who’s not afraid to examine your life. In short, a Memoir Star is about to be born.