It’s all about story.
Humans are wired for story. Our brains think in cause + effect, and our minds constantly scan for connections. We are meaning-making machines who love a beginning, middle, and end.
When we understand this as writers, our drafts come alive. And when we master this as memoirists, our books get read.
My goal as a developmental editor is to help writers organize their story for maximum impact. This means:
Centering the memoir with theme
Shaping a coherent structure
Layering the narrative with tension
Completing character arcs
Enriching scenes with detail
Borrowing from conventional storytelling techniques, I help them craft memoirs that read like fiction.
Craft your story with purpose.
Developmental editing is like seeing your draft from 30,000 feet. You peer down at your story and analyze its shape and structure.
What’s working well?
What needs strengthening?
Where are the gaps?
Is there enough tension?
A good developmental editing session should leave you feeling clear, inspired, and energized.
The Memoir Map guides you through this process.
As a book coach, I noticed the same pitfalls with each of my clients as we developed their memoirs. The familiar overwhelm. The same confusion. Turns out exasperation is a required part of first drafts.
The Memoir Map was born from those struggles. It is an easy-to-follow, five-step roadmap for developing your draft with the reader in mind.
The Five Steps of the Memoir Map:
Orient
Orientation gives the story its internal compass and helps every later decision make sense. You begin by clarifying the emotional center of the book. This includes identifying the central question, the core themes, and the ideal reader.Select
Selection brings focus, helping the narrative feel intentional rather than exhaustive. In this phase, you choose the moments, memories, and scenes that serve the story’s purpose. This the checklist you’ll build your chapters from.Shape
Structure creates safety and trust with the reader. At this point the story takes on a clear arc. You build a beginning, middle, and end that track emotional movement and change over time.Enliven
This phase brings the story fully onto the page. You deepen scenes with specificity, dialogue, sensory detail, and clear timelines. The goal is presence and immediacy, helping the reader feel oriented inside the experience.Review
This is the cooling off periods. You step back and read with distance and perspective. This is where clarity sharpens. Loose threads are addressed, narrative turns are strengthened, and the story is refined with the reader in mind.
The reader is the secret ingredient.
The Memoir Map lays the path, but the reader is the compass. Without the reader, your story isn’t a memoir; it’s a journal entry.
The reader is that invisible force beyond the fourth wall. When you consider their experience, their questions, and their need to know more, you understand what path to lay next in your story.
When I read pages for my clients, I do so as a reader, not an editor. I’m not thinking about plot points and scene structure. I’m noticing my feelings, my niggling curiosities, the places in the narrative where I feel frustrated or let down. I’m taking the ride and scanning the landscape for potholes.
As a writer, this is the ultimate cheat code.
Join the conversation.
Here at The Memoir Map, we’ll be marching through the weeds of memoir together. Machetes in hand, we’ll explore deep into the jungles of story structure and writing craft and forage new paths on the journey to shaping magnetic narratives that readers love.
If you’re feeling adventurous, I invite you to join the conversation.
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