Power Editing For Memoir Writers, includes the #1 Secret to Power Up Your Writing Now!

By Carolyn V. Hamilton

Finished writing your memoir? Get ready for EDITING, where your major work begins. This short guide covers everything you need to know to edit your book like a pro, and take your story and your writing from good to POWERFUL!

POWER EDITING FOR MEMOIR WRITERS helps you look at every aspect of your writing--from your initial story concept, through the telling of your story, to how you craft your sentences.

This short, concise, no-nonsense guide makes the editing process easy. It introduces you to a fantastically easy editing system, shows you how to use powerful word arrangements called "rhetorical devices", and how to use the NUMBER ONE SECRET to power up your writing today!

POWER EDITING FOR MEMOIR WRITERS is arranged in two sections: Part One addresses the elements of your story, and how you have used them. Part Two addresses your sentence structure, grammar and word usage, with tips and tricks professional writers and editors use every day to write and market best-sellers.

By editing as well as possible yourself, you can drastically reduce, or even eliminate, professional editing costs.

The author has purposefully kept this book as simple and concise as possible--under three hours to read--with practical information you can APPLY RIGHT NOW to your manuscript.

Carolyn V. Hamilton is a former marketing, advertising and copywriting executive with several published books, including fiction, non-fiction and memoir.

In her private coaching program, "Memoir to Legacy", she helps aspiring memoir writers share their stories of adventure, adversity, personal challenges, trauma and redemption.

"Power Editing for Memoir Writers is the perfect name for this helpful book. Whether you're writing a memoir or fiction, this little book is filled with tips on putting the story together and then editing it. Ms. Hamilton explains each point in simple, to-the-point language. I appreciated the resources she offered to look deeper into her points. All writers, new and experienced, will find gems within the pages of this book." - Janet Glaser

"Carolyn V. Hamilton has written a wonderfully practical how-to book for memoirists: Power Editing for Memoir Writers. In succinct chapters, she gives answers to questions that plague both beginners and veterans of the genre, questions such as “What font type should I use?” “How do I avoid rooky mistakes?” “What questions should I be asking myself and others to create powerful scenes that will appeal to readers?” She also inserts other helpful sources, including web sites and books. In this advice-filled tome, it was easy, too, to jump ahead or backwards to sections that were most pertinent. The book is practical with do-able tips. For instance, she suggests edit/find searches for words that slow down the story. Or, she advises, read the manuscript aloud to avoid awkward phrasing. She cites ways to comb through your work to pinpoint and highlight problems.In short, this is a vastly helpful guide for anyone who writes memoir or, frankly, those who write in any genre." - N. Dorman-Hickson

"Carolyn Hamilton's book was amazingly complete. I felt like I was getting infomercial add-ons with each additional chapter I read. It's easy to understand, nicely written, very complete, and oh-so-useful. Hopefully, this will save me some $$ when I submit to my editor. In my opinion, this book is great for writers in any genre." - Braveheart

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carolyn V. Hamilton
• Release date: May 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463280508

Carolyn V. Hamilton

My first creative writing class was in my junior year in high school. I loved it so much (thank you, Miss Dearborn) that I repeated it in my senior year.Forty years passed before I wrote any more short stories, poetry, or fiction.In the meantime, I wrote just about every kind of advertising copy you can imagine: brochures, traditional print ads, speeches, radio & television commercials, direct mail letters, white papers and news releases.From 1999 to 2001 I served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Suriname, South America. My assignment was “rural community development.” To tell the truth, I had a lot of down time in the village, where I laid happily in my hammock and read a lot of novels. Finally it struck me: why not write one?Ever since I’d met the editor of Romantic Times on a cruise to Bermuda, I’d thought about writing a romance. After all, what could be easier? I thought.I plunged into writing my eco-adventure romance, Hard Amazon Rain.Little did I know that romance is perhaps the toughest genre to write. Those romance readers have real strong ideas about what they want and what they don’t want in their stories!In Suriname, I was intrigued by the story of Elisabeth Samson, the first black woman in the country in the 18th century to get legal permission from the Dutch to marry white. I started out to tell her story in third person, but along the way this “voice” emerged. I have no idea where it came from.Elisabeth Samson, Forbidden Bride was published by a small press in 2004. It subsequently created a furor in Suriname, where I was publicly accused of “stealing (their) black culture”.....and that’s a whole different story for another time.By that time I was hooked on writing books. I’ve learned a lot along the way, book/tape/seminar/conference junkie that I am.Where do I get my story ideas?I’ve been blessed in my life with jobs and adventures that have taken me to many countries in the world and led me to meet a lot of interesting people. I take two or three of them, put them in a bottle, shake it up, and ask myself, “What if?”I’m sure you’ve also found yourself on occasion in a situation where you thought, “You just can’t make this stuff up!”For the record, I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington--hence the “webbed” feet-- and spent most of my adult life and career in Las Vegas, Nevada.In Los Angeles in the 60s I got an A.A. degree in Commercial Art from Los Angeles Trade Technical College, and began my career as a Graphic Designer in the world of “Mad Men.” In the 80s I finished a B.A. degree in Liberal Arts at Antioch Seattle.Among other things, I’ve been a secretary, sold radio time, owned an ad agency, won a bunch of awards for both advertising and community service, and am a Vintage Playboy Bunny.Besides writing fiction, I have an internet magazine for women over 50 doing fun things: www.adventuress-travel-magazine.comEnough about me....what do you like to read?You can e-mail me any time at [e-mail]’d love to hear from you.

Book preview

POWER EDITING

FOR MEMOIR

WRITERS

Carolyn V. Hamilton

Copyright © 2020 by Carolyn V. Hamilton

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART ONE: YOUR STORY

Chapter 1 – Why a memoir is just like a novel

Chapter 2 – Goal, motivation, and conflict

Chapter 3 – The structure of your memoir

Chapter 4 – About your people

Chapter 5 – The power of the five senses

Chapter 6 – Developmental/content editing vs. copy/line editing

PART TWO: YOUR WRITING

Chapter 7 – Five edit searches that will strengthen your writing

Chapter 8 – A powerful, magical editing system

Chapter 9 – Those boring, tiresome clichés

Chapter 10 – Tautologies – a big no no

Chapter 11 – The power of rhetorical devices

Chapter 12 – How active is your voice?

Chapter 13 – Those nettlesome numbers

Chapter 14 – Names of books, plays, publications, songs, movies & TV shows

Chapter 15 – That pesky punctuation

Chapter 16 – How to do a line edit

Chapter 17 – Boo-boos that mark you as an amateur

Chapter 18 – Here’s the NUMBER ONE SECRET you’ve been waiting for!

BONUS – Seven Secrets For Memoir Writing Success

In Conclusion

Afterword

List of Recommended Resources Mentioned In This Book

About the Author

Other Books by Carolyn V. Hamilton

Connect with Carolyn V. Hamilton

PART ONE: YOUR STORY

CHAPTER 1 – Why a memoir is just like a novel

Your memoir will contain many of the same elements you would use to write a novel. There will be interesting characters, snappy dialogue, breathtaking scenes, emotional shares—as well as a beginning, middle, and end.

Here are some questions to ask yourself about what you have written:

Do I have a strong inciting incident? This is the first scene of your story, where you introduce yourself as the main character and hook your reader to care about what happens to you.

Is there action in the scene that leaves the reader thinking, OMB, what will he/she do?

Does my story have a strong middle, full of challenges and obstacles I needed to overcome along the way?

Have I shown (not told) clearly all the things I did to achieve my desired outcome?

Have I been clear at the beginning of the book about what I wanted? About the situation I wanted to overcome?

Do I have a satisfying ending? One where I triumphed over what happened to me in the beginning? One with a powerful lesson or message others can learn from?

Just as in a novel, your reader wants to get to know you and care about what happens to you. Your reader wants to experience emotion and suspense. At the end of your memoir, just as in a successful novel, your reader wants to know that against all challenges, you prevailed.

Here are more questions to ask yourself—

Is my story different from everything else in the memoir genre? How?

Is there a universal theme readers can identify with? Love? Hate? Jealousy? Desperation? Revenge?

Does my story have instant emotional appeal?

Now, I don’t want you to get hung up thinking these are hard rules you must answer to. This is your story, told your way.

Asking yourself the previous questions is just a powerful way to look at your book to determine how easily a potential reader will be attracted to it—and buy it.

CHAPTER 2 – Goal, motivation, and conflict

Every story—even memoir—must contain the essential elements of good story-telling.

Characters (you and all the other people in your story) have goals they are motivated to accomplish.

Their motivations fall into one or more of