Translating Journal Entries Into Memoir Stories

For the writer that continues down the memoir writing journey and eventually chooses to publish her work, at some point her intention shifts from sorting out her past and understanding key moments in her life to thinking about the reader that will hold her story in their hands, feeling seen and motivated to make shifts in their own lives.

In most of the drafting stage, the focus remains on you, as the writer. You stay rooted in your experience, capturing the moments in a way that allows the future reader to relive them with you. This is one of the downsides of using journal entries directly in your memoir. Oftentimes when we journal, we are "reporting" what happened and capturing some of our thoughts and emotions around the event. Old journals are an incredible reference to jog our memories, but doesn't translate well to the page without some editing and enhancement.

I'm talking about the VAKS method - something I heard discussed on a podcast with guest Vinh Giang, a communication and speaking coach - and that's the way to transform your words from "reporting" to "reliving". The acronym stands for Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Smell. These are some of the relatable and tangible aspects you inject into your story to place the reader in the room with you. Like I said before, these are often not captured in our journal ruminations. They are pieces you bring in from your actual memories. What did Grandma's house smell like, how did the horse move his body, what words were exchanged between you and your best friend in that moment?

This may not come naturally for you. It didn't for me as a serial journal-er. It was a technique I had to practice and teach myself. As I was doing a full read through of my manuscript earlier this year, I realized some of my early chapters - the ones I wrote first and quite some time ago - were filled with reporting, simple regurgitation of a sequence of events with some remarks about the importance of them. But I wasn't engaged as I reread these chapters because the words didn't bring me into that moment. As I went back through with edits, I made sure to inject more sensory, more scene setting and description, and more dialogue. Those simple changes made the words come alive!

It's these writing technique and others like them that I lead participants through in the Memoir Master Plan Cohort Parts 1 & 2. We cover story structure and outlining in the first series, then go deeper in the second series as writers begin drafting. We dig into how to engage the reader with relatable metaphors, visceral sensations, and sensory details. Now you don't simply have words on a page - you have an experience!