Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on that blog:

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The A to Z Challenge asks bloggers to post 26 articles on a themed topic. It’s supposed to be every day in April except Sundays, but I find that too busy and decided to post mine ‘about’ once a month. Yes, it’ll take me a couple of years. Sigh.

My topic, like the last three times, will be writing genres.

This genre:

Quiet Memoir

Definition

a memoir where the story may not be dramatic but the authors voice is

Tips

1. Dorothy Rice says, “Memories…are often quiet, more echo than boom, more lingering sense than clamor, more subtext than headline.”
2. nothing really dramatic, often a bunch of scenes organized around a time frame, family, ordinary events.
3. The energy in Quiet Memoirs is smaller than other memoirs.
4. It isn’t an autobiography.
5. It doesn’t require a traumatic event nor single incident at its center.
6. Your audience is ordinary people who identify with similar, ordinary challenges.
7. Show readers, by your example, how to manage ordinary life events, navigate through similar challenges.

Popular Books

1. Arranging a Dream by J.Q. Rose
2. Be a Happier Parent or Laugh Trying by Betsy Kerekes
3. Building a Midshipman by Jacqui Murray
4. Plunge: One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary by Liesbet Collaert
5. PS I Forgive You by D.G. Kaye
6. Songs of Heartstrings by Miriam Hurdle–memoir in poems
7. They Call Me Mom by Pete Springer

Here’s a less-than-10-minute video example of Quiet Memoir:

BTW: If the book you’ve written fits into any of these U-Z genres, let me know in the comments and I’ll include you, the book title, and where to purchase it.

Click for complete list of these 26 genres

Click for a complete list of all genres I’ve written about

More Q Genres:

• Quantum Fiction
• Quick Fiction
• Quiet Horror

—Click here for a ton of comments on this genre of writing–that may be perfect for you.

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Man vs. Nature saga, and the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice,  a columnist for NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Laws of Nature, Summer 2021.