The Memoir Map

A 12-Week Book Coaching Experience

It’s time to tell your story.

You’ve felt the call to write, and you know the power of story. How it unites us, heals us, inspires us. And yet, writing yours feels daunting.

How do you distill a lifetime into a single book? How do you convert meandering journal writing into captivating prose? How do you bang out tens of thousands of words when you don’t know the first thing about story structure?

Whether your story is trapped on your computer in one, long run-on sentence or clattering around your head in bursts of inspiration that only seem to come when your head hits the pillow, I can help. Together, we’ll map your memoir, wrangle your narrative, and draft your way to DONE.

The Memoir Map is a 12-week book coaching experience designed to help you dissolve blocks, build skills, and receive support to finally write your memoir.

Taught by me, developmental editor Kayla Floyd, you’ll receive the training, tools, and accountability you need to get a solid start on writing your book with a well-laid plan for finishing. 

During our 12 weeks together, we will: 

• Clarify Your Why. Understanding your motivation for telling your story is paramount for getting you across the finish line. Together we’ll craft your “Why Statement” and then use it to fuel your writing sessions. 

• Hone Your Message. Unfinished drafts are often less about stick-to-it-ativeness and more about meandering focus. When you are clear on your message, your writing flows. 

• Dissolve Your Blocks. Through 1:1 coaching, I’ll help you quiet the voices that say you can’t and connect you with the ones that know you can. You’ll be able to clearly visualize your finished book in your hands.  

• Develop Your Story Arc. We’ll demystify the craft of writing and break your story into beats. By defining a beginning, middle, and end, we’ll simplify the drafting process and create a guiding structure.

• Build Your Outline. Regardless of your writing style (plotter/pantser), a solid plan is the key to productive writing sessions. I’ll teach you how to organize your scene list and use it to stay on track.

• Write Your Draft. Big projects are completed through small steps. Through bite-sized tips, tricks, and tools, we’ll train your mind how to write your book one word at a time.

The Memoir Map Method

The Memoir Map Method is a five-part process I created for shaping lived experience into a coherent, compelling story.

1. Orient
   Orientation is like seeing the story from 30,000 feet. By identifying the central question, core themes, and ideal reader, we can easily map the path the story needs to take.

2. Select
   Selection means choosing the moments, memories, and scenes that serve the story’s purpose. This is the brainstorm phase where you create the checklist you’ll build your chapters from.

3. Shape
   Shaping the story is all about creating an arc. This is where narrative structure guides our curation, and we identify a beginning, middle, and end. Hitting the beats of traditional storytelling helps hook the reader and keep them engaged.

4. Enliven
   Enlivening scenes happens through specificity, dialogue, sensory detail, and clear timelines. We want the reader feel to immersed in the world of the story while needing to turn the page.

5. Review
   The review stage comes just after the cooling off period. We take a break from your draft before returning with new eyes. We address plot holes, add easter eggs, and generally tighten the prose.

The Secret Ingredient

While The Memoir Map Method lays the path, the reader is the secret ingredient. They are that invisible force beyond the fourth wall.

When we consider their experience, their questions, and their motivations, we understand where to go next in your story. It’s all about balancing the story’s engine with the reader’s fuel. When we center reader experience alongside narrative convention, we up-level your storytelling and thus your draft.

As an editor, I come to your pages as a reader first. I notice my feelings, my niggling curiosities, and the places in the narrative where I feel frustrated or let down. I take the ride, scan the landscape for potholes, and show you how to approach your story like a reader.

As a writer, this is the ultimate cheat code.

As an author in The Memoir Map, you will receive: 

• 6 One-Hour Book Coaching Sessions with Kayla generally scheduled every other week

• Editorial Feedback on your draft up to 30 pages per book coaching session

• Digital Training Materials to print and keep

Our goal is forward motion. While you may not complete your entire draft in our 12 weeks together, you will develop a well-laid plan for moving forward. Students often enroll in subsequent sessions of The Memoir Map to continue our work together as needed to complete their manuscript.

Meet your book coach.

My background is in story.

I earned a degree in Film Studies from the University of Texas at Austin (Hook ‘em!) and have spent my career honing my understanding of narrative structure and story. I see life through the lens of catalysts, midpoints, and character arcs and can talk your ear off about the Save the Cat plotting method.

I am a 5/1 Manifesting Generator in Human Design and a longtime student of To Be Magnetic. I believe that meditation, authenticity, and self-awareness are the secret weapons of great writers, and I love working with women who feel called to tell their story and know the power of having an experienced guide.

I genuinely look forward to every session I have with my clients, and I love, love, LOVE talking with you about your story. My favorite moment when working with new clients is that first meeting when I’ve read your pages and that rush of joy, disbelief, and excitement comes over you as it lands that someone has read your draft. I would bottle that feeling if I could.

How to Enroll and Other FAQs

Let’s shape your story!

You have a story to tell, and I’m here to make it as readable, binge-worthy, and entertaining as possible.

Using my five-step memoir mapping framework, we’ll turn your story into a page-turning draft worthy of your beautiful life.

Your story is my passion, and I can’t wait to help you tell it!