iA Writer
everything else I’ve tried gets too in the way of what really matters: putting words down

at least for the first draft you need something with max flexibility and least distraction

I've been a ghostwriter since 2008 and have written 26 books for clients, and I've coached dozens of people how to structure, write, publish, and market their books.

All that said, a memoir is VERY different from fiction or non-fiction (informational NF, anyway).

How I've taught (and was taught) memoirs is:

1. Choose your themes. What really matters most to communicate to your reader? (In this case, your son.) What do you want him to walk away with and remember?

• do you want to focus on a pivotal experience in your life?

• do you want it to be more autobiographical where you write about your whole life?

There are no wrong answers.

(For example, if I were writing a memoir, I might want to highlight overcoming addiction or being a single parent or creating on my own terms. Those actually link together pretty well, though, but let's pretend they're wildly unconnected.)

1. Brain dump stories about whatever you chose (or make a timeline of your life if autobiographical).

You can use Notion and it'd be really easy, but I've always used Scrivener since I like the software and had been using it since it came out.

Either way, make sure you have a system to document and keep track of things.

1. Decide how you want to tell the stories.

Chronological order? Past and future?

1. Organize the stories however you chose.

I'm weird and like to buy a huge stack of index cards, write out a story description on one side and notes on the other (what happened, what I learned, what changed, etc.). Then I like to reorder the index cards til I'm happy. It's really visual and easy to move things around.

1. Write.

There are lots of little things I didn't include because it'd be way too long (it always is), but don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions :)

I recently wrote a small eBook and was asking about its distribution here: wip.co/posts/what-is-the-best….

I was writing it in Notion but eventually moved everything to Google Docs because it was much better to convert to PDF from it, and you can easily sell access to Google Docs.
If you don't need to sell it, it doesn't really matter what tool you use; just make sure it converts in the desired format.

From an organizational standpoint, I drafted the table of contents first and then basically wrote it chapter by chapter.
I spend 1-2 hours each day in the morning writing. In total, it took me 45 hours, and the book has 54 pages, but half of the time was probably research.

Good luck!

Why do you want to write it anyway? If it feels daunting it doesn't sound like you're up to writing it.

I haven't written a book yet, but I keep writing my journal and blog. I've created #slowtracker app that helps me keep all of my little wins and lessons learned.

I review them every day and pick one or more to write a blog post from it. After a while it accumulates and you can find patterns to write about or track how your life changed.