Make a Difference: Write Your Memoir

Hello, friend.

If you’re reading this article, you might be thinking about writing a memoir.

I understand. I’ve been there.

You probably feel like you’ve been through an intense personal experience of some kind, and you think maybe you just might have something insightful to say about it. There might even be people out there somewhere who would take solace from your insight and find comfort and companionship by reading your story.

But then again, you probably also worry that the people who read your story — the random twitter trolls and internet haters — will find your story trivial, or even worse, that people will ridicule you for your weaknesses and laugh at your failures.

Trust me, I’ve been there.

I invite you to take a look at a few of the customer reviews — especially the one-star reviews — of my own personal memoir on Amazon:

Abandoned Ship: An Intimate Account of the Costa Concordia Shipwreck

I’ve been called “whiny” and “entitled” and even a “liar”, and I agree that many of the negative reviews of my memoir point out legitimate flaws in my my memory, or my writing style, or my ability to proofread a hundred-thousand words of prose…

But in the face of all that, I still have always felt like my personal story was worth telling. And the other people, the ones who left positive reviews of my book, or emailed me personally, told me in such kind words why my writing made a difference to them.

I’m not a perfect person, but I told my story as truthfully and dutifully as I could, accurately conveying as much about my experience surviving the creeping onset of PTSD as I could possibly recall. I knew I could never truly evade all the haters, but in the long run, I ended up receiving more messages of kindness and support than I received of criticism and contempt.

People out there, in the real world, resonated with my story.

So here’s my message to you. This is the reason I wrote my story:

Not everyone climbs off a sinking ship. Not everyone gets stranded overseas, with their nights haunted by nightmares of drowning and death and failure and regret... But everyone — every human being in the world — has a personal experience of pain and loss, somewhere in their lives… some experience that shook them to their core. Either as a victim of a car accident, violent crime, natural disaster, regret, revenge, neglect or abuse… no matter what the experience, every story tells a unique perspective on the human experience.

No matter what your experience, the storytelling process can give your life depth and meaning, far beyond the experience itself.

That’s why I started Shaxpir: because telling each other stories is the most human thing we do.

And I can’t wait to hear your story. Write that memoir!

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Sign up for our latest release, Shaxpir 4: Everyone, which gives any author the power to brainstorm, outline, write, revise, and publish a complete novel or memoir. Free for anyone, anywhere. For free, forever.