Is your story special enough to write?

As the publication date for The Only Way Through Is Out approached, excitement—and fear—bubbled up inside me:

Would anyone want to read another coming-out-later-in-life story?

Maybe this was just normal nerves on the cusp of a book launch.

But there was another writer I knew with a later-in-life story who just published her memoir.

And damn—there was Untamed by Glennon Doyle that had sold over two million copies.

As a memoir writer, it's easy to get caught up in a "compare and despair" cycle and ask yourself: Should I even bother?

Here's the truth about comparing your memoir to bestsellers:

No one wants to read just another coming out story (later in life or otherwise).

Or just another cancer journey story.

Or just another "I lost my husband" grief story.

You may be thinking: What? That's what I'm writing about ...

Stay with me:

No one wants to read a story about any subject that is simply a recitation of the facts: "This happened and then this happened and then this happened."

What they DO want to read is a fresh take, a fresh angle, a fresh perspective on a subject that's universal to the human experience, whether that's about grief, loss, love, identity, or another common human experience.

So how do you find "a fresh way in" to your material to avoid the "this happened and then this happened" trap?

One way is to think about your material conceptually.

My mentor Jennie Nash beautifully lays out this idea of a "concept" in her book Blueprint for a Memoir: How to Write a Memoir for the Marketplace.

Here's what we mean by defining the concept of your book:

If you tell me you're writing a book about how hard it was when your husband was diagnosed with a terminal disease, I will feel bad for you but I’m not likely to be interested in picking up that book.

But if you tell me that you created an ambitious art project to explore and process your grief and you want to use that art project as the lens through which to tell your grief story, now I’m interested.*

*This is a real project from one of my memoir clients!

Here are some other examples of memoirs with compelling concepts:

• In the Dream House: Relationship abuse is explored through the concept of narrative tropes: “Dream House as …”
• The End of Your Life Book: Grief over losing a parent is explored through the concept of a mother-son book club.
• Dear Senthuran: The unfolding of self and identity is explored through the concept of letters addressed to various important people in the author’s life.
• The Suicide Index: The author chooses an index, the most formal and orderly of structures, to explore the chaotic and incomprehensible reality of suicide.
• Supremely Tiny Acts: A Memoir of a Day: Here “time” serves as the concept; a single day to tell the story of a life.

A “concept” should not be performative or gimmicky; it should feel organic and central to the telling of the story.

Do you NEED a concept to write a successful—and marketable—memoir? No. Sometimes a straightforward narrative can work just fine.

But if you're concerned that you're falling into the dreaded "then this happened" trap, using a concept could help elevate your memoir and ensure that it will stand out.