Deep Memoir: An Archetypal Approach to Deepen Your Story and Broaden Its Appeal

by Jennifer Leigh Selig

Overview

We stand at the crossroads of two remarkable eras: the golden age of memoir and the golden age of publishing. This is an exciting time for memoir readers. However, for memoir writers, it presents a formidable challenge. In a saturated market brimming with competition, how do you captivate the hearts of readers and the discerning eyes of publishers?

Cheryl Strayed, the celebrated author of the wildly successful memoir Wild, reveals a crucial secret: "The most powerful strand in memoir is . . . tapping into your universality." You mine "your" story for "our" story, the universal inside of the unique, the archetypal inside of the personal-that's where the gold lies.

While many books on memoir writing acknowledge this, none are dedicated to showing you precisely how to and where to tap into the universal. Until now. In Deep Memoir, author and popular memoir teacher Jennifer Leigh Selig distills decades of experience in writing, teaching, and research into nine chapters focused on the archetypes essential to memoir writing:

- The Storyteller

- Structure

- The Journey

- Character

- Truth

- Meaning

- Image

- Transformation

- Community

Deep Memoir is not just a book; it's an odyssey into the heart of memoir writing. Enriched with examples from over 140 memoirs and the stories of their creators, and enhanced by cutting-edge neuroscience about our brain's affinity and affection for archetypal patterns, this book is an indispensable companion for all memoir writers seeking to enrich their storytelling and expand their reach.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781950186532
Publisher:	Mandorla Books
Publication date:	01/30/2024
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.65(d)

Editorial Reviews

2024-03-01
Selig reveals the archetypes that underpin successful memoirs in this writing how-to.

Memoir is an increasingly popular genre, and many guides have been published advising would-be memoirists on how to set their own story down on paper. What makes Selig’s contribution different from the rest is the author’s particular interest in why a memoirist’s personal story can connect so deeply to readers, a process that she describes in terms of archetypes. “Archetypes are universal patterns that live in the psyche,” she writes in her introduction. “In calling them universal, I mean that all people in all cultures in all time periods recognize these patterns, though they may live in the unconscious or run like a script in the background of which we’re unaware.” Even though an author’s story is utterly unique, it can achieve a kind of universal relatability by tapping into the various archetypes that, according to Selig, all of us carry around in our heads, regardless of our history or cultural background. The author breaks down how the various elements of storytelling—structure, character, imagery—conform to these archetypes, from the “hero’s journey” or the quest to know oneself to the “loving lies” and the trickiness of metaphor. Selig is admittedly generous as to what she considers an archetype. (Is “transition” truly an archetype? Probably not.) What Selig is really discussing are genre conventions and the reasons for their familiarity and efficacy. Regardless of the terminology, however, the discussion is a worthy one, helping to frame various approaches for aspiring writers and telling them not simply how they work, but why. It’s an admirably practical approach to memoir writing and one that should appeal to those who love outlines and formulas. It will also likely engage readers curious about the memoir as a literary form, given Selig’s robust taxonomy of the genre.

A thoughtful and highly informative approach to memoir writing.

Kirkus Reviews