HOW TO WRITE A MEMOIR: Begin with a Dream

A memoir is “remembered history,” a true accounting of a slice of your life. But sometimes, the best beginning doesn’t come from absolute reality.

Mikal Gilmore’s dark and fascinating memoir Shot In the Heart begins with, “I have dreamed a terrible dream.” He then goes on to relate the dream, which introduces every member of his family, certain salient details about them, and how each one died. For example: “There is my mother, Bessie Gilmore, who lived a life of bitter losses, who died spitting blood, calling the names of her father and her husband…” “There is my brother Gary, who murdered innocent men in rage against the way life had robbed him of too much time and too much love, and who died when a volley of bullets tore his violent, tortured heart from his chest.” “There is my brother Gaylen, who died young of old wounds…” “And there is my father, Frank Sr., who died from the ravages and insults of cancer.”

In recounting this dream, Mikal sets the stage for a harrowing tale of a family gone terribly wrong, a tale that will involve many deaths, including the famous firing squad execution of his brother Gary Gilmore in Utah in 1977. Mikal reinforces his theme of death and continues the introduction of his main characters in his opening paragraph in Chapter 1: “One by one, I had watched them all die. First, my father. Then my brothers Gaylen and Gary. Finally, my mother, a bitter and ravaged woman.” He goes on to introduce himself, or at least how he felt about his family. “In the time that followed I believed I was no longer tied to the wreckage that had been my family’s spirit, and whatever devastations might come in my life, at least now they would be my own.” Dreams, ghost stories and true stories almost too terrifying to tell dominate the book, culminating in the horror of Gary Gilmore’s widely- publicized execution.

Using a “bookends” approach to beginnings and endings, Mikal ends his memoir with another dream, this one concerning Gary’s trial. In the end, he wakes up sobbing in the middle of the night, “my insides racked in a sharp pain,” when he realizes that, “It will never be all right. It will never be all right.”

We at Taylor-Fox can help you create your memoir, biography, inspirational book or other book and get it ready for publication. We’ve helped scores of people achieve their goals, and some of their books have landed on bestseller lists. Call us at 818-594-0379.