Customer Reviews

Write Your Memoir: The Soul Work of Telling Your Story

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I've read--and reread--this book. I'm writing a memoir and am one of those people whose inner critic sometimes gets the better of me. If you've ever said to yourself, "Is my stuff boring? Why would anyone ever want to read this?!" Dr. Hunter's book is for you.

I never understood before the power of the unconscious in helping me to find a regular writing rhythm, one that keeps me going. And when I do get stuck, when that inner critic wins, I open this book to almost any page, read for ten minutes and get writing again.

The pages are full of wise advice from someone who really believes in memoir as something that benefits the writer, in the first place, and the reader, in the second. I highly recommend this book.

I loved this book. Having once attempted to write a memoir, I now see how I failed to go beyond the surface story and into the realm of deep personal revelation. Allan Hunter shows us how memoir is the story of what happened in our lives and also the story of how we perceive what happened now. He takes us to the place of reflection with great clarity and compassion, I think. I really see how just writing about our lives in this rigorously honest way helps us grow our souls and become more fully who we are. It offers us a way to rise above the past with all of its events into place of clarity and strength.

There are lots of writing tips in the book as well--tips on how to start the memoir and how to let the story guide you, to ways to structure what you've written by selecting key events that have emotional resonance. The author addresses the always pesky question of how to deal with delicate subject matter that involves the other people in our story and gives some good advice about research and choosing the most telling details. I found it particularly helpful when he talked about the six archetypal stages of life and how we can see our story as one of personal growth through these stages.

I really came away feeling that writing a memoir is something that every person interested in personal growth could benefit from. Just reading the book will give the reader much to ponder and some fine insight into the human journey. A real treasure.

Before you even finish reading this book, you will be making plans to buy it for a relative or a friend. You will want the people you love to share the soul work of telling their stories and you will want to tell them your story also. Even those of us who have had the privilege of attending Dr. Hunter's writing courses will find new inspiration and reassurance in these pages as we continue our memoir process.

In this book Allan Hunter has given his readers a wonderful opportunity. He offers to guide us through the labyrinth of our lives and to help us bring our recollections, our musings, our soul stories to the page. Reading the book is like having a comfortable conversation with a caring and compassionate friend. With his inspiring prompts and his solid practical advice, Dr. Hunter provides us with a plan to make memoir writing an integral part of our daily lives. He teaches us that through this process of writing and sharing our life stories, the soul work of memoir evolves and begins to transform both the memoir writer and the reader.

When you travel with Allan Hunter on this journey through the labyrinth of memoir, you will begin to agree with him that "Mystery, Beauty, and Passion are everywhere" and you will certainly find exquisite moments of deep abiding peace.
Dr. Hunter is the right person to guide you through this challenging and rewarding process. His gentle wisdom and kindness are clearly evident in the pages of this lovely life affirming book.

First of all, I like what Catherine B. wrote in her review and are my sentiments as well. I've been wanting to write my memoir for years, but I never really knew how to choose what to put in and what to leave out. Most other books explained the structure of writing but not what to write and why. When I first picked up this book I didn't take notice that is was also a 'self help' book, and I wouldn't have put the two together, but the author strives to pull the very best from the reader in their writing--the stuff that really counts, which may not be what you originally believed would be the content. And along the way it becomes of journey of healing.

Also, when I sat down to write, the perspective of what I would write would change over time. This confused me, because then I never really knew what the point to my story would be, and so I would stop writing. I knew I wanted to help the reader feel empowered once they read my story, but I seemed to get stuck on what I needed to say and how much detail to reveal. After reading about the archetypes/phases, I realized why I was feeling ambiguity about what to write, and then the author makes an interesting point about how much detail to include in writing.

The author attempts to pull the best out of you in your writing and has you do many different exercises to help you become aware of different aspects of events in your life. One of the reasons I held back with my writing was because sometimes I just didn't want to go to some of the places I had to go to in my head. The author addresses that and knows this is what happens and he shows you a way to grow from your experience and even transcend it. I found that some of the things I originally wanted to write about shifted for me and I no longer had the desire to write about it or it turned into something else that I preferred to write about with the same event/experience. This confused me and stopped me from writing as well, but now I understand why I was doing that and that it is actually a good thing.

The author says that 'Memoir' gives an opportunity to examine our lives in depth and it truly does, and you don't have to be a trained writer. This book is exactly what I was looking for to help me understand the many questions I had running through my head and that were keeping me back from moving forward with my memoir. It's like reading his book gave me permission to move forward--it helped me give validity to what I have to say. He made me realize what was important to include in my writing and why. The author is a very intuitive and gifted writer/teacher/philosopher.

Another hurdle to my writing was not knowing how to end my story. I would think of what I would want to say in the end, and then suddenly find myself thinking that no one wants to hear this or that I wasn't sure what the "moral" of the story was so I would just stop writing. After reading this book I realize now that the reason for that may be because I didn't' excavate enough of the story to come to any one conclusion, or I can't make full connections to all the parts of my story.

I've just completed reading the book, and now I will have to refer to it over and over as I continue to write. Thank you for writing such a thoughtful and intuitive book. I'm also going to pick up your book 'Stories We Need to Know: Reading Your Life Path in Literature' to help me with my writing.

In case anyone is wondering, I do not personally know Dr. Hunter, nor was I familiar with his work before picking up this book.