How to Overcome Fear of Exposure and Write About Strong Emotions in Your Memoir

You can learn to do this in 21 days!

“The first step to writing a memoir is getting over your fear of exposure, says memoir editor Kristin McTiernan. “That fear can be crippling.”

As a Success Coach for Memoir Writers and Admin for the Facebook group, Aspiring Memoir Writers, I hear this fear expressed in many different ways.

One big fear of exposure is sharing painful memories and emotions. How much should you tell? What you do leave out? How do you find the right words to explain your strongest, most painful — or even your happiest memory?

This may come easier for writers who have kept a personal journal for years, but what about the rest of us?

The strongest element in any memoir is in emotion.

Readers want to know how what happened to you affected you, and how it made you feel.

As human beings, we all experience similar emotions. This is what makes the experience you are writing about in your memoir personally relatable to your reader.