Finish Your Life-Changing Memoir: a 3-Step System to Cut Through Confusion and Write a Memoir Readers Can’t Put Down (Ep. 10)

Why do so many writers fall off track when writing their memoir? 

It’s rarely a lack of passion. It’s usually a cloud of confusion. Somewhere in the "messy middle," the lights go out. 

You get pulled in 17 different directions, the words blur, and you realize you don’t actually know where the story is headed. When you can’t see the path forward—aren’t even sure there IS a path—it’s far easier to just . . . stop. 

If you want to finish, you have to outsmart the confusion. You need a way to light the path forward when the sky grows dark. 

That is exactly why I created the ARC Framework. It’s a three-step system that addresses both the soul and the science of finishing your memoir—strategies to master the self-doubt that derails your storytelling + techniques to find your way back to the page when you feel lost. 

Plus, those same strategies are the key to making your memoir jump off the page and into your reader’s hearts.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing the replay of Tuesday’s free training, Finish Your Life-Changing Memoir, where I teach my brand-new ARC Framework.

You’ll learn: 

• Why fear is actually a green light, a sign that your story needs to be written
• What your memoir is REALLY about—and why knowing that will unleash your best writing 
• The key to deciding what goes in, what gets cut, and how it all connects so you know exactly what to write next 
• How to tell if what you’ve written is actually landing so you can stop tweaking endlessly and start revising with intention

By the end, you’ll know what to do any time doubt or confusion tempts you to abandon your story—whether you’re on page 1 or page 301.

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Transcript

0:02

Welcome to the Soul and Science of Great Writing, where the mastery of craft meets the mystery of creation. I'm your host, Mara, er, freelance editor, book coach, and writing teacher with over 16 years of experience. Today I'm sharing the replay of the free training I led yesterday. Finish Your Life-Changing memoir. Of course you won't be able to see my gorgeous and informational slides this way, But if you'd like to, you can still sign up for free at the link in the show notes to receive the replay in video form. It will be up through the end of March. In this training, you'll learn what your memoir is really about. The key to deciding what goes in, what gets cut, and how it all connects, and how to tell if what you've written is actually landing so you can stop tweaking and start revising with intention. It's all about. The three kinds of support that every writer needs in order to keep making progress and to ensure that your memoir resonates with readers. plus, I'm sharing more about my program, unearthing Beauty which is now open for enrollment. So you'll get to hear all about that And you know, even if this is not the right option for you, I think it can be really valuable to hear what I'm doing in that program to help you know what to look for, because. There are a lot of programs out there, and they do not all give you the kind of support, particularly the feedback as you'll hear about today, that is really essential for moving you forward as a writer. So, Without further ado, well, let's get started. Welcome to Finish Your Life Changing Memoir. We are here because you are either working on a memoir, dreaming of a memoir, or maybe just here to support me. but you wanna learn something about memoir. And in the next 90 minutes you will learn a repeatable process to help you move through self-doubt. Keep centered on your story's purpose and making progress towards a memoir that matters. No matter where you are in that process, you'll learn what your memoir is really about. And why? Knowing that will unleash your best writing. You'll learn the key to deciding what goes in and what stays out and how it all connects, so you know what to write next and how to tell if what you've written is actually landing so you can stop tweaking endlessly and start revising with intention. I will share my framework and then you'll have a chance to ask questions at the end. And I'll also be inviting you to join me for five months of hands-on support in my unearthing beauty writing program. Doors will open at the end of this training, including a special bonus that you can only get for the next 48 hours. So, I wanna make sure that you know about that and only five spots remain as of today. So if that is something that is appealing to you, calling to you, be sure to, well stay to the end if you can. Otherwise you can always email me questions, but I'll have time for questions at the end and you can decide if that is right for you. All right. So as we've already been hearing in the comments, I'm gonna guess that you've felt it for years. The quiet but persistent voice telling you that your story needs to be told. Or maybe it's your friends chiming in and telling you, you sometimes maybe you feel like the words are just pouring out of you and you just have so much to say. It's just in a gush faster than your fingers can type. And other times maybe not so much, other times, maybe you are feeling scattered or uncertain or overwhelmed. And too often you sit down to write or don't even sit down to write. Just think about writing and self-doubt sets in. Who am I to write a book? Would anyone even care about this? What if I spend years trying to write it and never finish, or I do finish and it's not any good? What if it's all a waste of time? What if I don't have what it takes to write a memoir worth reading? These are all extremely common forms of self-doubt that come up for, I think all writers, but especially for memoirs. You've probably read all the books on memoir and listened to all the podcasts and prayed for a sort of inspiration and confidence, but you might feel like you're still wandering through the desert with no idea how to get from where you are to the beautiful finished memoir that you envision. Maybe right now you have a collection of journal entries, or maybe you've even written several chapters or even a full draft, but you know, in your bones, it's just still lacking that through line or the clarity and coherence that will make it truly impactful. If you're like most of the people I work with, you don't just want to finish a book. You want that. You also want to finish a great book one that will do justice to the story God's given you and reach the readers who need it most. A book that people will read and love, which triggers that fear all over again. What if I do all this and no one wants to read it? You know, you're called to write this story. You want to do it, but you just don't feel fully ready because deep down, you don't think you have what it takes to write a whole book. Much less when anyone would want to actually read. So you hope the confidence will magically come to you. You buy more books on the craft of memoir. You pray for an epiphany about what your story is really about. You wait for something more interesting to happen in your life, that will maybe make the book compelling just because it's such a crazy adventure. Maybe you force yourself to write something, anything, hate it, and then feel even less confident. So then you decide not to write a memoir at all. Only you can't shake that feeling that you're supposed to or that you need to, or you tell yourself, I'll write it when, fill in the blank. All the while you're feeling less and less confident and more and more guilty about not making progress. I see Anne nodding, and I know that these things, if you are feeling any of these, you are far from alone because I hear them from my clients and I have felt them all myself. So what is hiding underneath that need to feel ready? Beneath that avoidance and procrastination and obsessive revisions of the chapter you did manage to write is fear. You are afraid your story isn't interesting enough that no one will care. You're afraid that you aren't a good enough writer. You're afraid of doing it badly. Afraid you won't be able to finish, or that you will finish and it won't be good enough you know enough, whatever that is. Or maybe you're afraid of what you'll find of the personal vulnerability of writing about hard things. And again, I get it. Writing a book, especially a memoir, can feel incredibly intimidating. But what if I told you that fear isn't a sign you should stop, but exactly the reason you need to keep going. It's proof that your story matters. That you care about this project, that writing this memoir might lead to something powerful. Your fear is actually a green light, but you keep thinking it's a stop sign, so you keep waiting or slowing down. And I'll add, most of this is probably not conscious, right? It's happening at the subconscious level. You keep seeing it as a stop sign when your fear is actually trying to show you the way to a truly life changing memoir. Think about it. If you weren't writing about something important, you wouldn't feel afraid, right? As Memoirist Maya SBA writes, the most necessary stories are the ones we think we can't tell. The fact that it scares you is exactly why you must write it. Carl Young has the famous quote that I love, where your fear is there lies your task. Fear isn't actually a problem. It's information. It only becomes a problem when we try to pretend that we're not feeling it when we run from it. Running from fear only makes it stronger. It tells your brain, this is worth fearing. I was right. It's a good thing. I ran away, or it would've, you know, the tiger would've eaten me. Only you're not conscious of that happening, which is why it morphs into self-sabotage. You want to do something, IE write a memoir or write a once a week, but you keep doing the opposite. Why? Why do we do the things that we don't want to do and not do the things that we want to do? Because some part of us is giving opposite signals, and that part is very strong. But it's only strong when we don't recognize it. When we don't acknowledge it. So the way to overcome fear is to face it. When you acknowledge your fear, when you lean into it and say, okay, this is my task. You name what it's showing you, and you take away its power. It's like popping a balloon. It's still there, but it's not blocking you anymore. When you become aware of it, your fear becomes a lighthouse. Imagine you're sailing at night. Maybe there's a storm, rough seas. You're trying to reach land, but the ocean is dark and uncertain. Suddenly you see a lighthouse. The lighthouse doesn't mean turn around. It means pay attention. You're getting close to something dangerous, rocks, but also close to your destination land. Your fear works the same way. It tells you, pay attention. This matters. You're close. You're getting close to the heart of your story. There are some rocks. So, you know, there's some risks. So navigate carefully, but you're almost deport. So when you feel fear around your memoir, it's usually pointing to one of three things. A truth you're afraid to say, a memory that still has emotional power or, and or it can be all of these, a personal goal that really matters to you. That's why it feels risky, and that's exactly why you have to keep going instead of running away. The key is to use that fear to help you navigate the process so you can avoid crashing or sinking, but still make progress toward the harbor. That is so close. I love this idea of the lighthouse because again, it's, it's a beacon, right? When we don't allow ourselves to acknowledge it, it's scary and it stops us. But if we can recognize it and use it to guide us, it completely changes how we think about that fear. So the secret to writing about writing through fear is cultivating curiosity. When fear flashes, get curious. What is it trying to show you? So when you find yourself thinking, I have no idea what I'm doing, no one's ever gonna wanna read this. You can pause and notice. This is something I care about deeply. I want to do this well. It makes sense that I would feel worried that I would feel some fear about this. What else might your fear be trying to show you at what's at stake for you either in that moment or in this project more broadly? Then use that clarity to push you into action. Have you ever noticed that excitement feels a lot like fear, that they both give you that racing heartbeat, the sweaty palms, the butterflies in your stomach? The difference is just this curiosity and maybe a little bit of confidence that takes you from, I'm scared this is a bad idea to, I'm excited to see what will happen. Is a dramatically different posture when you can approach your writing as a process of discovery with excitement instead of fear. Once you know how to forge that fear into fuel, by recognizing it as a lighthouse pointing to what matters, you stop drifting or panicking and you start steering. Suddenly the waves don't feel so wild because you can see where you're headed and you understand the source of the storm. It is time to chart your course home and to chart that course. You need a navigation system. You need to know where you're going, how you'll get there, and how to tell if you have veered off course. When you have a proven navigation system, instead of feeling lost, overwhelmed, or afraid, you feel confident that something beautiful will come. Every time you write, instead of avoiding or dreading your designated writing time, you look forward to it because you're excited to see what will come out. You know exactly what to work on and how to overcome blocks if they arise. And suddenly finishing your book is no longer a far off possibility. It's simply inevitable. It's a journey home to the truth You've been trying to tell all along. When that happens, you're no longer staring at a blank page wondering what to write about. You're no longer crafting a whole scene only to realize it's not actually relevant. You're no longer wasting time revising based on feedback that doesn't make sense. It might actually be making the book worse. Instead, you're watching the pages pile up pages that you can't wait to share with the world. Imagine yourself in six months or a year, whatever it might be, holding a finished copy of your memoir in your hands, and hearing from readers whose lives have been changed by your story. I still remember the first time that I felt that, that I heard that feedback. Um, if you don't know me, I'm Mara. I'm a writing teacher, editor and book coach with 16 years of experience. I'm also a writer, and I remember still the first time somebody told me that their life, that, that their life had been changed by my words. I think it was about, well, I know it was about when I was writing a, about my experience in the postpartum stage of I have three still fairly young girls and there's now a word for it. They're trying to get it into the dictionary. Officially it's called Trence. The process of becoming a woman, and I mean, becoming a mother process of becoming a mother. And that was a difficult process for me, and I was blindsided by that. So that was something that I felt passionate about. This is not always, you know, you don't always immediately fall in love with your baby and you don't always love every moment of it. And in fact, it can be really hard. And so I wrote a series of articles, essays about that. I shared them on my blog and I remember the first time somebody, Nicole told me that this was life changing for her because it named something that she felt and never been able to articulate. Never felt like it was okay to articulate and it's just the best feeling, but it wasn't always like that for me. I actually spent years not writing, paralyzed by the same fears that I've just been describing. I felt that pain of sitting down to write this thing I know is so important to me. That's a life goal, to be a writer. And yet I had no idea what to say, how to begin, what the best way would be to approach the topic or even what the topic should be. At times it felt physically painful, like it felt like torture to try to sit down and make myself do it. And so for years, I basically didn't write. I was full of excuses for why I wasn't writing. Many of them valid. I was in grad school, then teaching full-time, then teaching part-time while pregnant and parenting, and then had two kids and my writing dream sat on the back burner until about six years ago, pregnant with my third child. I realized life is not going to get easier, less busy, or magically perfect so that I just can't help but write. If I want to pursue this dream, I have to make time for it. Now, what I didn't realize at the time, of course, was that. Fear was the biggest thing, keeping me stuck subconsciously. I was afraid that if I really tried, I might fail. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I still struggle with that fear, but I finally decided that the worst failure of all is to never try to look back at my life and wonder what could have been. So I started writing just one sentence a day on my phone, because that made it feel less like the scary writing. And in the Instagram app, that's how I started because it also felt motivational to me to share it somewhere. And sometimes that sentence was like pulling teeth. Other times I would write several sentences, but day after day, week after week, suddenly, or not, maybe not suddenly, gradually it got easier. Now. You know, six years later, but I've, I've shared dozens of personal essays online, and I'm making consistent, slow, but consistent progress on a novel using the same three steps I'm about to share with you. I've also helped close to a hundred writers make progress on their memoirs, and I regularly, regularly hear from clients whose work is impacting their readers. And that's what I would dream of for you. Now, you might be thinking at this point, but I'm not a real writer. I don't have an English degree or fill in the blank. This might work for some people, but what if I can't do it? Well, I believe this passionately anyone can learn to write well in five cohorts of Unearth honor, earthing Beauty, my memoir writing program. I've coached 34 writers and counting to write the story that's been on their heart. Some had been working on their memoir for 10 years. Some weren't sure they had a book in them at all when they started. Some had never shown their writing to anyone before. Others had taken a dozen writing classes, but still felt stuck. They all found new clarity, deeper courage, and most importantly, the belief in the importance of their story to fuel their writing journey. So you can too. While there are a lot of strategies that I teach my students and clients getting unstuck comes down to three simple steps. But remember, before you can get into any practical strategies like this, you have to start by addressing that underlying emotional reality. Your fear, as we just saw, fear isn't the problem. It's the signal that you're getting close to what matters. Once you know how to forge that fear into fuel, it can light the way. But even the brightest lighthouse can't finish the journey for you. So to reach your destination, you need to know three things, where you're headed, how to get there, and how to tell if you're off course, which is exactly what my ARC framework provides. And you can return to this anytime. Self-doubt or confusion start bogging you down. The first step is to anchor into the heart of your memoir. This is the A of the ARC framework, a RC, what it's really about and why that matters both to you and to your reader. You need a purpose statement for your book. You need to know where you're going and why you want to get there so badly. This will help you overcome fear, and it ensures that the memoir delivers a powerful, meaningful message to readers. Most people get an idea for a memoir and start writing down what happened, like a diary. But when you mistake a sequence of events for a meaningful narrative like this happened, this happened, this happened. It is not a story and it's not interesting. Even the most interesting life is not going to be interesting if it's told that way. When you do that, you don't know what is actually relevant, so you waste time writing stuff you don't need. The reader is left wondering why this matters and what your point is and you are too, which connects to the second mistake though. I'll pause here and just say, you know, if you are here and you're not necessarily thinking about wanting to captivate readers or publish one thing that's always been clear to me, but is becoming more and more clear. Is that the same things that make a book captivating to readers also make the personal transformation more powerful. So maybe you don't need to. Spend as much money on, the final editing if you're not gonna publish it. But all of this shaping work is going to pay off whether you share it with anyone or not. Okay? So that leads to the second mistake, which is not knowing your why. Not knowing why you're writing the book in the first place. You probably have a vague sense of it. You feel called to it. People keep telling you you should write it. Maybe you have a great story or you've always wanted to write a book, and maybe this is the one. But writing a memoir, as you know, is a big commitment. It will require a lot from you. It's like a marathon. There will come a time when you hit a wall, maybe more than one, and if you don't have a really good reason to keep going, you're gonna give up. If you're missing that deeper sense of purpose, it's easy to give up, but purpose is more powerful than fear. So you wanna ask yourself like, what is your book going to do for the reader that's tied to the deeper meaning we talked about in mistake number one, without a clear message you're trying to get across. It's easy to get lost in the story itself, the events, the details, but miss the reason your memoir matters. You don't know why a reader would care, which feeds your self-doubt. Who am I to write a book anyway? And if you do manage to finish without that deeper purpose, you offer the reader a collection of memories, but no clear takeaway for their own life. Your plot is what happens. Your why is the reason it matters. One captures your history, but the other captures your reader's heart and gives you the strength to keep going at its root. The problem is that when you're not anchored into the heart of your story, your memoir will lack a sense of purpose and so will you. You're writing drifts and circles and never finds its true, true direction. Every scene feels aimless. You risk drowning in a sea of irrelevant detail. You feel lost, which creates an easy foothold for fear. And if you do manage to finish anyway, the reader will be left feeling as lost. Reading it as you were writing it, you need a clearer sense of direction of where you're going and. Why it's worth the journey, and that can't be just to prove to yourself that you can write a book or even to record your memories. As valuable as both of those things can be. If you really wanna finish a memoir, what you need to know is this. While you are the main character of your memoir, your memoir is about something larger than you. The truth is, your reader isn't picking up your book to learn what happened to you. They're picking it up to discover something about themselves. If you don't know the deeper about ness of your story, you can't give them that central insight that has the power to change their life. Without that anchor, you're handing them an itinerary when what they need is a transformation. You have to have a central unifying theme, an insight about life. That is the most important thing you're trying to communicate to the reader. The thing that your experiences illustrate. Something that can reach beyond the particulars of your individual situation and connect with the reader, and it needs to matter. Otherwise, why bother? So you want to write a life changing memoir, you know that's the title of the workshop. Well, how is it going to change someone's life? That's what you're writing toward. That is your destination, not a number of words or a certain moment or event from your past. It's all working toward that central unifying insight. The heart of your story. I. It starts with getting clear about your transformation, how your life was changed as a result of the most important insight that you learned as a result of the things that happened. Then the purpose of your memoir is to offer the reader that life changing insight illustrated by your own transformation, even if that reader is primarily or only you. You as the reader also need that transformation articulated, and that is the heart of your story. When you know the heart of your story, you have a filter for deciding what is relevant and what isn't, so there's no more time wasted on scenes you don't need. Okay. You know why your story will matter to the reader, and you can intentionally highlight those insights on the page through word choice, symbolism, and metaphor. It also helps you ground into your purpose, which is more powerful than fear. That purpose becomes your north star, pulling you back when the storms of self-doubt threatened to throw you off course. Instead of being tempted to give up, you can remind yourself of why this book matters, why you decided to write it, and what is at stake if you don't finish it. It changes the focus from abstract and performative to specific and relational. Essentially, this shifts you out of fear, into love. Which is far more powerful. That's why the first module of my program starts by digging deep into exactly this, finding that beating heart of each person's memoir so they are grounded into purpose and have a clear direction for the rest of their work. Christina, was part of last year's unearthing beauty cohort. Um, she had never shared anything she had written since she was a child, I believe, but she felt called to write even if it was just for herself. But by the end of the program, as a result of honing in on the heart of her story, and of course other exercises that we did as well, she had mapped an entire memoir and shared a vulnerable chapter with the group She's now sharing her words publicly on Substack because she knows how to write something that resonates. Both for herself and for others. Step two, with that anchor in place, you know where you're going, but you still need to know how you're going to get there. You know your point A, your point B, but you still need to chart the course to, to define the path. You know, there could be lots of different ways to get from point A to point B. So step two is roadmap or transformation, so you know exactly what to write next and readers can follow the journey. I'll just make a side note. I try to keep this one nautical, but route your transformation was like the only R verb I could find, which felt like potentially confusing. So I went with the roadmap. Which, you know, clear, maybe not as poetic as I would love, but clarity matters more. So you need a simple but clear narrative structure with enough detail to keep you focused, but enough flexibility to allow your story to develop naturally. Because if you know where you're going but not how to get there, it doesn't do you much good. You'll get overwhelmed and lost and so will the reader. Writers tend to either love or hate outlines. Maybe you can't put in the chat which one you are, or you pro outline or anti outline. We got two anti outlines. Awesome. Okay, so mistake number one, you two might fall into this one and before you, you know, turn this off and never come back, don't worry, I'm not gonna make you do a super detailed outline. That's not what we're going, that's not where we're going here, but I want you to hear this. Like not using a structure at all is a mistake. Ann says she wishes she'd had one earlier in the writing process. Okay? Yeah. So the most common mistake here is not using a structure at all. You're just listing events, telling the reader what happened. Maybe in chronological order or maybe however the memories happen to come to you with no internal logic to create momentum. Even if you know what you're, where you're going with that heart of your story without a map forgetting there, you end up taking the scenic route and getting distracted or lost. Is this relevant to the theme? Maybe, I'm not sure. Maybe it's not relevant to the theme, but isn't it important for context, for following what's happening? Wait, where was I going here? This is the kind of thing that can easily happen without a structure. You might know that you need to be heading north, but you take too many detours and soon that bearing will no longer guide you accurately. Your reader also needs to sense some order in your story's movement. It doesn't have to be perfectly linear, but too many side quests and too much looping back will leave them feeling lost and confused. Plus, a story is like a multi-stop road trip. I know we're sort of going from sailing to now road trip, but you know, roadmap. Where are you heading the first night and the second? What do you wanna make sure to see on the way? What do you want to avoid? You know which paths are gonna be faster or more enjoyable? You've gotta plan your journey. If you don't want it to be total chaos, and if you don't want it to feel totally overwhelming, you need milestones to keep you motivated and focused. The other mistake is having a structure that is too detailed. This is the over-planning trap. Sun writers want to have everything figured out before they write a single word. This looks like creating a 10 page outline with every scene and beat diagrammed, which quickly becomes a distraction from the real work of writing. Or they try to force their story into a rigid structure like the 12 point hero's journey. Some have more than 40 points. This over outlining leaves no room for the story to develop naturally for the writer to listen to the story and learn what it's trying to show them as they go. The truth is that we can't fully see our stories before we write them. So when we plan every detail beforehand, we miss out on the power of writing to transform us through that process, and we end up trying to force things to fit even if they don't actually quite belong there, instead of leaving room for the narrative to develop organically. I can't tell you how many times students will think they know the turning point of their story, only to realize that it actually came earlier or later than that. It's like planning a road trip down to the minute, including exactly when you'll stop to pee, and the precise number of miles you'll go until you need gas and what you'll order for dinner. First of all, you'll waste so much time planning more than is necessary, and second, you'll take all the fun out of it. A road trip like writing a memoir is supposed to be an adventure. You have to leave room for some spontaneity for discovery. Over planning a memoir will give you a false sense of confidence that actually takes all the joy and creativity out of the process for you and results in a mechanical, soulless narrative for the reader. The problem in essence is that without a clear yet simple roadmap to structure your story, you risk either losing your way in a sea of memories. Or strangling the life out of your story. With a rigid plan, Your writing process becomes either a series of aimless detours or a joyless military grade itinerary that leaves no room for adventure. Without the right roadmap, your memoir will fluctuate between those two extremes. The chaos of a memory dump and the cold rigidity of a 40 point plot diagram, and either one will leave you feeling like you're fighting the waves instead of riding them. And to use a sailing metaphor, again, the over outlining, I think is like trying to sail directly into the wind. You can't do it right sometimes. You gotta, you gotta attack back and forth, and that is actually the faster, more efficient. Path. The shift is to understand that the right structure doesn't confine your story. It sets your story free. You need a roadmap that's detailed enough to keep you focused, but flexible enough to let the story unfold naturally. The key is finding that sweet spot, not too detailed and not too vague, a Goldilocks roadmap. This will vary a little from person to person, depending on preference. So the people who hate outlines will want a little less stricture. People who love outlines will want a little more, but I find it helpful to focus on the hero's transformation, which of course, in a memoir, the hero is you. And to use a simple three part structure, great memoirs always move through a clear arc of transformation. How did the hero of this story change and why? To reveal that transformation effectively, you need to have a before and after and the process of change in the middle. When you identify those key milestones, you write with purpose through every leg of the journey, and your reader stays engaged. I recommend keeping it simple. A three part structure is enough to get started in my program. I expand it to six parts, but beyond that, it usually starts to get a little overwhelming. It all starts by getting really clear on your destination. That central overarching transformation, the universal insight, your story illustrates that heart of your memoir. What everything is building toward. The journey to that insight is the plot, the challenges, turning points and moments that forced change. So you have the before, the middle, and the end, or the after. Part one is about who you were before, what you believed, and how your life looked. Then part two focuses on the struggle, the obstacles, conflicts, and experiences that sparked or forced your transformation. And then part three, it shows the after what you learned and how your life is different. This gives you a framework to start writing with focus and purpose. Of course, a great memoir also includes essential milestones like an inciting incident and a turning point, and a clear climax that keep the reader engaged and guide the purpose of each scene. All elements I guide writers through in unearthing beauty, along with how to shape individual chapters and layer in themes and weave together multiple timelines that can get. More complex, but it all begins with this three part structure. It's the building block for every unit of storytelling. When you have the right roadmap, you stop second guessing where your story is going. You know what each chapter needs to accomplish. Every scene clearly connects to the transformation you're revealing. You know the emotional and narrative beats that you need to hit, and that gives you the freedom to write with confidence and flow. Your story builds the kind of tension that readers want, that keeps them turning the pages, and the book feels manageable because you're writing one purposeful step at a time. Writing becomes focused, not forced. You write with confidence and curiosity, one scene at a time, building steadily toward that finished memoir. That's why creating a roadmap is one of the most valuable services book coaches like myself offer. Everything else builds from there, so if you nail your structure, everything after that is way easier. And the reverse is true as well. Start out with a faulty structure or no structure at all. And it's virtually impossible to end up with a solid draft without going through rounds and rounds of drastic revisions. See and nodding there. That's what Megan found. She wanted to write a memoir about a certain aspect of her life and expected to tell the story chronologically. Seems straightforward, right? but Once we started digging in, we discovered that she really had no idea what it was truly about, what the story was that she wanted to tell. She had a hundred pages of writing, but no story. What unlocked it for her was focusing on the transformation she underwent, finding that heart of her story, and then playing around with how the most important events for that transformation could fit into a narrative structure until the pieces started to fall into place. Now she has a beginning and middle and end, and she knows what aspects of her experience are relevant, which means she knows what to include and what to leave out. She's using that same three part structure to help her write powerful substack essays as well. So again, this structure is not just for a book, it's also for a shorter piece and even for every individual scene. The other thing that's been extremely helpful for Megan is getting targeted feedback on her writing, which is our third part of the ARC framework. So we had anchor roadmap and now calibrate. Calibrate your writing. Once you know your destination and have a map for getting there, you need to have a system in place to let you know when you're getting off track and how to get back on course, how to improve your writing. So step three is calibrate your writing with targeted feedback so you can make sure it's landing and continue it with confidence. you know, this is the classic problem for writers. You know what you're trying to say, but whether that's coming across to the reader is an entirely different question. You need a way to find out that doesn't crush your confidence or leave you more confused than before. You need a system to help you get the exact kind of feedback you need and to know how to implement it effectively. People go wrong here again in two ways. Either they aren't getting any feedback. At all, or they're getting feedback that isn't actually helpful. Okay, So mistake number one is not getting any feedback. Writing it without useful feedback is like playing the violin with noise canceling headphones or cello. That's what I played. How do you know if you're playing in tune? You know, there's no frets. It's feel and it's sound, but if you can't hear it, you would never know if you were in tune or not. That's what it's like to write without getting any feedback. You're just guessing and hoping that the ideas in your head are translating on the page, and since you don't know how it's landing, you tweak endlessly, but you aren't sure if you're making it better or worse. To use our nautical analogy, the ties of memory can easily push you off course without you even noticing. So you risk ending up with a manuscript that doesn't come close to accomplishing what you set out to communicate. And all of that can make you lose sight of why you're writing this in the first place to connect with and help our reader. You start to feel like you're writing and to a void and question whether your story matters to anyone by you. Well, it's time to stop sailing blind, but just because you seek feedback doesn't necessarily mean it's actually going to help. Most people think that feedback is feedback, but there are actually three types of feedback the way I teach it. And if you don't know the difference, you can end up asking for the wrong thing at the wrong time. So let's say that you do get someone to read your work, but then the comments are so vague, they're not useful at all. You'll hear things like it's good or a little wordy on You're left thinking, okay, but what am I supposed to do with that? Other times the advice might be constructive that you get, but it's about the wrong things. Someone starts fixing commas and sentence structure when you're still trying to figure out the story itself. Or worse, you get feedback from someone who's completely confident about what you should do with your story, but it actually pushes you further off course. Have you thought about doing it this way? Their excitement is contagious. So you start considering it and soon you've rewritten an entire chapter before realizing that was the absolute wrong direction and a big waste of time, which is. A little bit something that, um, someone who just joined on her thing, beauty that I was able to talk to last week, said that she's gotten so much feedback on her first chapter now that it's just totally lifeless. She said she used the word sterile, which I thought was such a great word for that. Um, and so the first assignment that I gave her in the weeks leading up to the program is rewrite chapter one, start from scratch and write from your truest self, you know, your true as your truest self. Grounded in that heart of her story, which is the first exercise she did, and she said already unlocked so much for her. and then the worst kind of feedback of all is. When you get critical feedback that lands right in that tender spot from years ago when that teacher tore apart your s sa A with red ink or whatever your version of that is. And now all you want to do is give up or maybe you power through anyway, but you're stuck in a loop of endless revising, second guessing every sentence, and then wondering if anything your writing is working at all. You might be better off with no feedback than to be there. The problem is that without a system to help you calibrate your writing without actionable feedback, you can't tell if you're drifting off course or how to adjust when you are. And you can get very discouraged. You're either sail blind or navigating with unreliable instruments and neither one is gonna make you wanna keep going. The shift here is that the feedback you get is only as good as the instructions you give, and no one knows your story better than you. Writers often think the quality of feedback depends on who they ask, which does matter, but the real secret is how you ask. Most writers ask, what do you think, which will only get you vague, unhelpful answers, maybe some general encouragement. At best. It's exactly the same when you're using ai, but easier to see. You give it a vague prompt, and you'll get a vague and usually extremely flattering chantic answer. If you want useful feedback, you have to get really specific and precise about what you want it to consider and what your goal is. Instead, when you give really clear instructions exactly what kind of feedback you want, you turn feedback into a precision tool. But you also have to take every piece of feedback as opinion, not gospel truth, and this is really important. Most writers treat feedback like a verdict, good or bad, pass or fail. But the truth is feedback is just data. It tells you how your story is landing with one reader, so you can decide what to adjust. When you know what kind of feedback you need, how to ask and how to apply it, you stop taking it personally and start using it powerfully. That shift from seeking approval to gathering information changes the experience entirely. Feedback stops feeling random or discouraging, and becomes a precision instrument that tells you. What you're doing, right, where you're going wrong and exactly how to improve. So you always want to be specific about what kind of feedback you want and ask for encouragement. The key is to engineer your feedback by being specific. I break it down into three main types, impact, story, and language. And again, always ask for encouragement. No matter what else you're asking for. Always include a specific request for positive reinforcement. That way you know what you're doing well, like what's already working, not just what to change, which feeds your confidence and helps balance the constructive criticism. So positive feedback, you know, sometimes that's all you want and that's fine too, but positive feedback. Isn't going to help you improve as much as constructive criticism, but without some of that, it can be easy for someone to overlook it. So you always wanna ask what is working here and ask them to be specific about where and what is working. When you do that, feedback becomes a sensitive instrument that detects whether your story is on track or not. Whether that scene is landing, whether you need to give more detail or less, whether that thing you're experimenting with makes the story better or worse. So you can make small adjustments to calibrate your story and your writing based on real data. That kind of feedback again, also builds your confidence because you can make sure you're getting encouragement when you need it and avoid unsolicited advice that might bruise your tender ego, the tender artist ego that we all have when it's feeling sensitive. It'll give you the specific criticism, constructive criticism you need in order to improve which kind of feedback you request will change. But you do need a steady drip of feedback so that you can calibrate your writing based on real data. Okay, sure. Sometimes you have to write a messy first draft just for you. That's fine. If you're like, I just need to get it out and it's getting and it's coming out, then go for it. But once you're ready to actually like work on it, you need that regular input of data. Then instead of guessing, you start making precise adjustments based on data. Not doubt. You can see exactly what's resonating with readers and what needs strengthening. You can find out if the theme you're trying to convey is actually coming across, or if there might be another theme surfacing that's even more resonant. You can identify gaps, trim, unnecessary backstory, and tighten your pacing. You can ensure you also get a steady stream of encouragement again about exactly what you're doing. Well, buoying, buoying, I can't say that word, but you know, using my ocean metaphor, A buoy buoy, BUOY, buoying your confidence and you can evaluate each suggestion you receive against your anchor and roadmap, and only implement what actually supports your story's goal. Then feedback feels life giving instead of soul crushing. the better your instructions, the better your insights and the faster your story gets stronger. There is a reason I spend an entire module in Earthing Beauty on seeking and receiving feedback. I provide a detailed framework for how to ask for feedback and how to receive it well.'cause both of those are skills and we talk about specific things that we're looking for in our stories that we can then look for in each other's stories. The peer feedback weeks are some of my favorites because of how encouraging they are to the writers and because of the insights that come out of it. You know, I'm a pretty good editor, but I don't see everything that other people see, and I'm only one person, so I just love seeing how much can come out of that peer feedback time. I'm giving feedback Through Google Docs every other week. So they're constantly getting actionable data to help my students calibrate their writing. And they often comment on just how helpful this is. Like Carrie, who had a degree in journalism already, but felt shaky when it came to personal writing. She had the basics down, but knowing whether her words were actually communicating what she intended was a different thing. She needed that feedback to boost her confidence and help her go deeper with her insights. That's why I'm really passionate about the importance of feedback in helping writers grow, not just one round of feedback, but multiple rounds. So you can ideally get feedback, implement it, and then get feedback on that implementation. And I'll add here that if at all possible, it's really important to get some professional feedback at least once in the process. With clear instructions, you can get useful feedback from friends and family, but nothing replaces the I Am an expert, especially when it comes to telling you how to make your work better. Not just what's not working, but why and how to fix it. So in order to finish your life-changing memoir, to summarize, you need to ground yourself in the unique purpose of your memoir, create and then revise your roadmap so you know how each part builds towards that ultimate transformation. And then implement targeted specific feedback in order to make the words on the page better match the vision you just laid out. Remember, in order to reach your destination, a finished life-changing memoir you're genuinely proud of. You always need to know these three things where you're headed, that central insight that forms the heart of your story, how to get there, your Goldilocks story structure that breaks down the journey into manageable parts, but leaves room for discovery along the way, and how to tell if you're off course. That actionable feedback that you engineer by asking specific questions, including what's already working well, you should return to these steps as many times as you need to. Making intentional adjustments as your story evolves, but always keeping an eye on that ultimate destination. Once you know how to do these three things effectively, it's just rinse and repeat. Using this system to move through the messy middle toward that finished book, those three steps are the essential support you need. The arc that will carry you all the way to a finished memoir. What keeps you from drifting, stalling, or giving up halfway through? And what makes for a compelling memoir that readers can't stop talking about? So can you really write your life changing memoir? Finally get that book out of your head and into your reader's hands. 100%. Yes. And I created a program to give you hands-on support exactly for that. So if you are interested in professional support to help you identify that heart of your story, nail your structure, polish your prose, and navigate all the complexities of crafting a great memoir, I invite you to join me for Unearthing Beauty memoir edition. It's a high touch, live, personal, online narrative writing program focused on giving you everything you need to write a book length memoir full of beauty and meaning. It is a five month transformational writing experience to unearth the beauty of your story, craft it into a powerful narrative, and use it to change the world one heart at a time, starting with your own. It actually started as a five week experiment, focus on helping people see their lives in a fresh way, by writing a personal essay, essentially a mini memoir of a few thousand words. But it was so rich and so transformative that I kept adding on, and it was seven weeks and then 10 weeks, and then 12 weeks now five cohorts later. I'm expanding it to a five month program, and I added, starting last year, another layer of content all about how to plan and execute a book length memoir, hence the memoir edition. An intimate group of no more than seven other writers. I'll teach you how to articulate the heart of your memoir, map it onto a simple structure that can hold any story, that six part structure that I mentioned, and practice all the essential techniques for vivid compelling prose with lots of detailed feedback. And we ground the whole process in powerful soul work, examining the stories that you've been believing about your life and unearthing fresh redemptive perspective. I will walk you through a proven process to identify the most impactful events from your life and map them onto that narrative structure. Figure out where your memoir needs to start, where it should end, and create a clear outline for you to follow so that when you finish, you'll know exactly what to write each step of the way, and you'll have the confidence you need to show up to the page each week excited about what you'll discover. Through the process of writing, you'll walk away with the core of your memoir, fully written and refined, a chapter by chapter roadmap for the entire book and the tools you need to finish your memoir and share it with the world. Again, this is our sixth cohort coming up, and the transformations I've been a part of are so inspiring. Carolyn took Unearthing beauty in 2021 because she knew she wanted to write a book, but she wasn't sure what it should focus on or how to get there. She ended up deciding to make it a hybrid memoir, weaving together personal stories and encouraging advice, and she produced an Amazon bestseller called Above a Turbulence, and that was before I focused the program on full length memoirs. We were just working on a personal essay, but that's what came out of it anyways, in the program, you'll benefit from personal guidance every week, alternating between group calls. Editorial feedback. So one week there's a group call, a live call, and the other week you get my feedback on your work and back and forth to help you gain fresh perspective and reveal profound insight. You get 10 rounds of that feedback from me directly on your work. Two, one-on-one coaching sessions to go deeper into your story and work through any blocks, something I'm adding this time. And lots of time for live q and a and interactive workshopping with 12 live sessions total of 90 minutes each. And they're, of course, record it in case you can't make it live. Plus tailored exercises to help you unearth the heart of your story specific prompts, frameworks, and strategies to. Spark new ideas and bring your writing to life. Plus that expert feedback from me every step of the way to encourage you and guide you toward deeper insights and more powerful writing. And you'll have the support of an intimate community of like-minded writers. Here is how my process works. You might notice it mirrors exactly what we talked about today, part one, anchoring into your memoir's purpose, we use exercises to help you clarify your core values, uncover your stories of becoming like the, the stories that define your life. Identify promising story seeds. lots of ideas that you could write about in the future, maybe in this memoir, maybe in something else, and then discover that heart of the memoir. In part two, we hone in on your transformation mapping, your memoir's narrative arc, identifying and drafting the pivotal or core scene that you'll develop during the program, and we begin rewriting your stories of becoming with intention and authority. Then in part three, we refine your coine to deepen its insight, eliminate distractions, and make each moment shimmer with beauty and meaning, using powerful narrative techniques while fine tuning your memoir blueprint, or I should say, roadmap, not to mix my metaphors. And so that's where you can calibrate your writing with that feedback, both from me and from your peers. Spread over 10 modules each spanning approximately two weeks. It looks like this. And then our last two weeks are devoted to giving you whatever you need to make your book outline pop and your core scene shine. You'll get live workshopping with peers and those last couple weeks more individual feedback and you'll walk away with everything you need to finish writing your life changing memoir. Katie was one of the students, I think in the second cohort who is actually a writing coach herself, but she said that she learned something new every week and grew as a writer through the process. Learned how to elevate the reader's experience by engaging in motion and using details. And you'll hear a little bit more about her experience in just a minute, but this is delivered through. Those 12 live sessions recorded in case you can't make it. Prerecorded teachings as well that you can watch at your own pace. PDF worksheets and reference pages, plus that individual editorial feedback from me on your work every other week, and opportunities for peer feedback. Something that I never require, but that I recommend and that everyone has always decided to take advantage of by the end. What makes the program uniquely valuable that I'm really proud of is the level of support. So you get direct access to me every week, either through those live sessions or the editorial feedback. And with a five month schedule, we will have like plenty of time for you to work on things. That feedback has just helped writers grow exponentially. again, I've already said how important I think that is, but it propels people not only towards growth as a writer, but growth, um, as a person that helps them see things about their stories that they didn't, you know, they hadn't thought of before. And I ask a lot of questions to help you discover more than you might do on your own. My feedback is always honest and encouraging. So one of the things like that I'll say is like, I'm basically incapable of lying, so you'll never get fake positive feedback. Instead, I'll guide you to take your piece to the next level with specific constructive questions that prompt you to see your writing from a different perspective and uncover that deeper, clearer, truer version of what you were originally trying to say. You also get access to ongoing support between sessions via a private Voxer channel for questions, insights, and encouragement. So the other students will be in the group too, so you can hear each other's questions. And group coaching can be really powerful. Marlon was was part of an unearthing beauty last time and she had never taken a writing class before and was very hesitant to share, but she ended up writing about some of the most vulnerable parts of her story and even sharing them with the group. She said that it was really life changing and that she felt so much more comfortable expressing herself. and I loved hearing that I was able to offer support that she said felt like a virtual hugs to keep her focused and moving forward. Again, it's an intimate cohort of no more than eight writers. I do cap it there. might change in the future, but that's my current limit to ensure depth, safety and individual attention. So it's a great idea if you're interested to take advantage of this small cohort now. I find that that community, it really is powerful and I'm, it's only, you know, last time it was 12 weeks, so this time it's gonna be five months. And I'm really excited for these writers to get five months not just with me, but with each other, and to have that community grow even deeper. We're always sad when it ends and kinda keep the Voxer channel open. but that's something that Christina found really encouraging. Reading each other's work towards the end feels just so satisfying. the other thing that I think is really unique about it is that it's this rare integration of writing craft and soul work. So your memoir emerges with both technical excellence and emotional truth. It's not one of the other, it's both. If you are familiar with my podcast, the soul and science are great writing. You know, this is what I really care about. I think you need both. You need the soul work and the science. And this program brings both, of course, it's adjusted to each person. So if you're more interested in one or the other, then you know, you can lean more heavily into those aspects. Carrie, I mentioned before who majored in journalism with an English minor, and she said this was the most helpful thing she had done for her craft since her college. Career. but what was most powerful for her was that she learned so much about herself, figuring out the stories that have shaped her. She said it was better than most therapy she's invested in, which it's not a replacement for therapy, but personal writing is powerful and doing it in community is even more powerful. She said it was like I was her adventure guide for the journey, that each time she would trip and fall, I'd pick her up and dust her off and say, you're doing fine, keep going. And that I would gently help her choose her next right step when she wasn't sure where to go next. Katie I mentioned before was already a writing coach, but she found the soul work really powerful as well. She said that. She worked through a painful memory, developed empathy for people, she had cast as villains and truly forgave everyone involved, including herself. And last on this list of what makes it uniquely valuable is the two private, one-on-one coaching sessions that I've added this year to deepen your work and support your creative process. actually incorporated one last year and I loved it so much because the chance to connect one-on-one was so powerful. Like the group calls are also powerful, but there's something special about being able to talk about your book and your questions as long as you want. Serena is actually one of the three people who have already joined this cohort from the wait list. And we had a bonus coaching call just last week and she did the first exercise in the program for that finding the heart of your story. and she said it unlocked her whole book, even though she'd been working on it for four years and already done similar exercises, which I found really cool. But what stood out to me the most was that she said just how helpful it was to just talk about her book to someone for 45 minutes. You know, that like she had not done that before. And that just, that process without me even speaking into it was really, empowering and really encouraging and just clarifying melody she's actually taken it twice. she had been journaling since she was seven, and her experience was the catalyst that she needed to finally start taking her writing public, that it brought up the process, brought about life changing revelations and her confidence. And sharing. Her writing has grown so much. She's now published several personal essays and is working on a memoir. She took it before I had the memoir, layer. you will receive two one-on-one coaching sessions, 12 live sessions, group sessions, 10 rounds of expert feedback, eyes on your memoir structure, 24 video trainings and worksheets, plus that accountability and community. altogether it's a value of like over$5,000. For comparison, I charge a thousand dollars a month for one-on-one book coaching in a six month package. But in unearthing beauty, I provide a similar level of support and community. Plus you get that community aspect for a fraction of the price focused specifically on memoir. You'll walk away with the hardest part of your memoir done an expert approved map for the rest, and a confidence and connection of five months in community with other writers, which really can't be overestimated. The investment for those five months is 1997 or five payments of$400. It really is an incredible value for the level of support you receive. Many similar programs cost upwards of double this amount, and it is capped at eight writers because the intimate experience is foundational to the program. and it's already almost half full thanks to three amazing women who joined early from the wait list. So I do expect it to sell out. so if this is calling to you, don't wait. Whether you're an experienced writer looking for inspiration. And guidance or just a normal person who knows in her bones that she has a story to tell This program will spark new ideas, boost your confidence, and turn your past into a powerful illustration of God's grace. again, there's only five spots left as of today, and it is first come, first served. and don't you miss this. If you sign up by Thursday, midnight ish, you'll get an extra round of editorial feedback to use after the program ends. So anytime in the next three months, that's just like a little extra incentive to help you take the plunge if you're on the fence. I keep you from spending another week agonizing over the decision as one overthinker to another. Can we help you out sweeten the pot? do check out the unearthing beauty link you can learn more about the program, including more testimonials and a course outline. and there's FAQs there as well. So what feedback, I mean, sorry, what questions do you have? I can stay. As long as we need to Oh, you're welcome, Anne. Okay, so Liz asked when seeking, I think she had to go. Oh, you're still here. Great. When seeking feedback, do you suggest people who know you and or parts of your story or someone neutral who knows Little to nothing or both? Okay. That's a good question. I mean, short answer both. I think it depends what you're going for, right? So, uh, you are welcome Michelle. Okay, so who to ask. Again, it all depends on what kind of feedback you are wanting. Like what is your purpose in getting the feedback and what kind of feedback are you asking for? So if you want to know if your story on the page is making sense, then you're gonna need to probably ask someone who doesn't already know your story, So that's gonna be really important. Other times, could be a great idea to ask someone who does know you as long as they are someone that you really trust with something so vulnerable, so that you can maybe just mostly get encouragement. Which is on its own, very valuable. I would say in general, probably people who don't know you is gonna be better just because the waters can get sort of muddied when A, they know your story already or B, they already have ideas of what it means or, or know you're worried about them knowing things or, you know. So if you had to like make a blanket statement for which one is better in general, I would probably say, Go with people who don't know you, which is hard to find if you don't have a community. honestly, that's definitely a very valuable part of joining any kind of writing program. I did a fiction program last summer through Story Grid, which is very sciency in case you're interested, like very formulaic. If you don't like outline type things, probably don't do that. But I learned a lot and one of the best things that came out of it was a scene, a critique partner. So we've been going back and forth every three weeks, and that's basically the key to making progress on my novel, even with everything that I've got going on. All right, any other questions? Anne, you're welcome. you were drifting without a chart, nautical term. Oh yeah. For the roadmap. Thank you for your encouragement and I love your memoir. It turned out so beautiful. I'm gonna answer a couple of these questions that I commonly get. So you might be wondering what are the live sessions? I always work with enrolled students to find the best possible time that accommodates their schedules. goal is to make sure that everyone can attend those sessions live. But if it doesn't work out, you always get the recordings and you can still make a ton of progress without attending live. I had someone last time that was never able to make it live, which honestly I was like, Ugh, I hated that for her. But it ended up being great. Like she chimed in on the Voxer channel, she watched the replays, she caught, you know, she stayed up to date on everything, and it really was not a problem at all. Another question I get is, do I have to share my writing with the group? I already alluded to this a little bit, but absolutely not. You don't have to share your words with me if you don't want to, although definitely recommend that, and I also recommend that you share it with the group, but that's gonna be towards the end. Sometimes I've had students who want to share and sort of do that informally with each other, more towards the middle. But by the end of the course, we will have built in peer workshopping time, and it can be so affirming and even transformational to just have people hold space for your story, you know? And we do, what I said to do here with feedback is we always ask the writer what kind of feedback do you want? And sometimes people just want you know, to know what's working and they're like, I honestly am not ready for any. Constructive criticism or any kind of criticism, you know, this is already scary for me. I just wanna know if there's anything I'm doing well and maybe what you think it's about. And that has been super powerful. so we always, again, start with what does the person want out of the feedback? And it's still up to you whether you wanna share. And everything you share with me is completely confidential unless you give me permission to share it. Another question I get is, is the program religious?'cause I do talk about God, as you heard a few times today already. for me, like my faith, I call it sort of an edgy Christian faith. I became a Christian as an adult. I make faces now with that word because I don't align with a lot of what that term has started to mean in culture. American culture recently. so while my faith informs my understanding of narrative beauty and meaning, and while that understanding informs the way I teach the course, it is never pushy or preachy. My students come from varied spiritual backgrounds, and diversity is welcome. Past students have confirmed that it is a safe space for people of all backgrounds and ideologies. another question you might be thinking is, what if I'm super busy this summer? It's gonna run from the first full week of April. So starting after Easter, doors close on April 2nd. And then we'll have about a week to get everyone set up and then we'll have our kickoff call and it will wrap up around the first week of September. So it's gonna run through the summer. So what if you have a really busy summer? Well, As I mentioned, I just extended the program by two months so that you'll have plenty of time to write. People were able to make a ton of progress before when it was 12 weeks. Now it's almost double. So I am confident that even if you have some weeks here and there where you can't do much, you'll still be able to make a ton of progress. And again, it always comes back to like there's no perfect time. There's no time when life is gonna not be busy, we just have to do it anyway. And last, you might be wondering, well, couldn't I just write this book for free? You know, maybe use help from Jet GPD or podcasts or other free resources. Maybe some people do, but everyone has to get professional help at some point, and the best time to do it is really at the beginning where you're still shaping the story. It can be much harder to fix a draft once it's written. And this is about so much more than just writing a book as important and challenging and meaningful as that is. It's about so much more than that, and I can guarantee that you won't get this kind of spiritual and personal transformation alongside the writing, basically anywhere else. So those are my FAQs. I am gonna wrap up but remember, space is limited. Last I checked, we had five spots remaining. You have through April 2nd to enroll and then you have just through this Thursday, to get that bonus round of feedback that you can use anytime in 2026. if you are feeling called to this work and you want this kind of guidance community and feedback on your writing, check it out. and always feel free to reach out with any questions you might have. I am here. to clarify and, uh, to help you determine if this would be a good fit for you. Either way, I wish you all godspeed on your journey towards a Finish memoir, and I would love to hear about your progress, so please let me know. and Thanks for listening. That's it for today's episode. If you are interested in joining me for Unearthing Beauty, you can find the link in the show notes or go to mara er.com/unearthing beauty. doors close April 2nd, but if you reach out anytime between now and Thursday night, you can still get that bonus even if you don't sign up until. The following week. I hope you've been enjoying our series on memoir. Next week we'll be wrapping it up with another interview with Ariel Curry, editor at Source Books. We'll be talking about. What we carry, the memoir I've invited you to do a close reading of. So if you've been doing that or if you still want to, it's not too late. Next week we'll be giving all the spoilers and discussing what makes that memoir so great. And how you can create an extraordinary memoir even if you have a very ordinary life. Until then, remember, your words are more than ink on a page. They are a path to wholeness.