How to Find the Perfect Starting Point for Your Memoir

Staring at a blank page is intimidating enough, but staring at it while wondering how to begin can make even the most determined writer freeze.

Here’s a secret: memoir doesn’t start at birth. It doesn’t even start chronologically. A powerful memoir begins where something shifts.

Start with the Spark

The best entry point is not “the beginning.” It’s the spark. or an inciting moment that still vibrates with emotional truth for you. Ask yourself: What memory tugs at me every time I revisit it? That’s where your story wants to breathe.

For example, Tara Westover’s Educated doesn’t begin with her as a newborn. It begins with a scene of her father’s survivalist paranoia, instantly dropping readers into the world she grew up in. One vivid moment tells us everything we need to know about what’s at stake.

Find the Turning Point

Memoir thrives on transformation. Where were you when you realized life was shifting beneath your feet? What moment split your life into “before” and “after?”

Put this in action by writing down three such moments. Circle the one that stirs something in your chest even now. That’s your likely starting place.

Use Prompts to Break Through Overwhelm

I’m a propenent of what some might deem old-fashioned, or even out of date: the writing prompt. Think back to grade school or middle school English or Composition classes. Do you remember walking in, looking at the blackboard (I’m dating myself here!) or the white board and seeing a statement. Your assignment was to use that statement as a prompt to spark your writing.

It worked, didn’t it? And not only because it may been a required assignment for which you needed a satisfactory grade, but because a prompt starts the wheels turning, the words churning, the fingers typing, or pen writing.

If you’re still skeptical on the value of a writing prompt as a mechanism for transferring our thoughts and ideas in to words on the page, try one of the prompts below.

• The day everything changed for me was…

• If I could go back and relive one conversation, it would be…

• The moment I realized I couldn’t go back to the way things were was…

Don’t worry if it feels messy. Don’t worry if it’s not “the perfect page one.” The act of writing uncovers the entry point.

Give Yourself Permission to Begin

Many writers think they have to get the opening exactly right before they can move forward. But here’s the truth: you’ll likely revise your opening after the rest of your story takes shape. The important thing is to start. Choose one powerful doorway into your story and walk through it.

Your memoir deserves to be written. Your only job is to give it a beginning, however imperfect, and trust the process to guide you the rest of the way.

If you’d like to use writing prompts to jumpstart your writing, download my free writing prompts HERE.

Let me know which one resonates most with you. Feel free to reply here, or send me an email at www.kerrykriseman.com with your writing. I’d love to see it.