Thinking of Writing a Memoir? Steal My Killer Outline Template

Nine out of ten people want to write a book, but few of them will ever do it. A memoir leaves your legacy on the world and helps you share stories with impact. But there’s a lot of work between first putting pen to paper and picking up your published memoir off the shelf. Most people’s stories never see the light of day.?

This isn’t meant to discourage you, just to say that books are hard to write (and even harder to write well). Memoirs are some of my favorite books to read, and some of my favorite client projects. I love the intimacy of a memoir; both between the author and the reader, and between the client and the ghostwriter.?

Clients often come to me curious about how I’d strategize a book for their business. How can such a personal project be both a means of self-expression and a valuable investment? I want to pull back the curtain to show you how I help my clients build a memoir that’s not just a storytelling project, but a vehicle to give value to readers.?

If you’re just starting a memoir project, or you’re bogged down in the midst of one, you might be looking for some structure. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the writing process, no matter what stage you’re in. If you want to jump right to my killer memoir outline template, here it is (make a copy to use it).

And if you want a little more information about how I start memoir projects with clients, read on to get my step-by-step process for a great biography.??

Step 1: Goals

Before you start writing, I want you to take a step back to think about the bigger goals for your memoir. It’s easy to get started in one direction, and look back to realize the pieces you’ve written aren’t aligned with your goals, or they don’t relate to the themes you want to emphasize.?

Journal or voice-record a response to each of these questions to gain that 30,000-foot perspective of your book goals:

1. How do you want your book to serve readers? What overarching messages do you want them to come away with??

1. What are three results that you want to get out of this memoir project? Do you want to connect with people who can learn from your work? Get hired to speak about your expertise??

1. What’s one moment that will happen because of your book that will be a reason you’d break out the champagne? Is it booking that TEDtalk you’ve wanted? Giving your loved ones a hard-back legacy of your life?

Get clear on what outcomes you want from your book, so you can know who you want to speak to within the pages. Now let’s talk about your audience.?

Step 2: Audience

Your book isn’t for everyone. The best authors have a specific person in mind that they’re writing for. Narrow down your ideal reader so that your book speaks to them, and them alone.?

For many memoir authors, their ideal reader is a previous version of themselves. If you’re an experienced physician writing a memoir of your work in medicine, your ideal reader might be someone in medical school or residency. If you’re a woman who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail to find herself and recover from divorce, you might write to yourself when you were in a dysfunctional marriage.?

Let’s get clear on your primary audience for your memoir, then we can zero in on a more detailed avatar reader:

1. Who is your primary audience? For example, medical students, women in their 20s, nurses working in the ICU, etc.?

1. Give a more detailed explanation of your avatar reader. Are they wealthy or dirt-poor? Motivated or apathetic??

1. Let’s think harder about the pain your reader is in. Are they worried about the future? Do they feel conflicted about choices they’ve made? We don’t define their pain to exploit it, but to be sure we’re addressing it and relating to them.?

1. What transformation do you want your reader to feel after reading your memoir? Many writers want readers to feel inspired, but I urge you to dig deeper than that. What specific action do you want them to take? What mindset shifts do you want them to experience because of your memoir?

Step 3: Big Ideas

Now let’s put all these elements together to create a Big Idea concept for your book. This is a one-sentence or short paragraph summary that you might want to have on hand. You’ll put together your ideal reader, your big goals, and the transformation you’re creating.?

Here’s a few examples of what I mean:

“My memoir inspires medical students to keep at it by teaching them that a career in medicine is whatever they want it to be.”

“This book shares my personal experiences as a nurse in the COVID-ICU to show other nurses that they’re not alone in their trauma, and to give them a community of other RNs to connect with.”

“This memoir highlights my experiences in the military and how I applied those lessons to my business. I want other veterans to know that they can transition out of the military with valuable civilan skills.”?

Once you’ve got a “Big Idea” sentence, now let’s switch that to your reader’s perspective. How would your reader describe your book to their friend? What’s the transformation they experienced because of your memoir? Here are a few examples using the Big Ideas above:

“I just read this memoir by a retired physician that made me feel a lot better about where I am in medical school. He showed me that I don’t have to go straight into a specialty or work for a major medical center to have an impactful medical career.”

“Being a nurse during the COVID pandemic was so traumatic, and my hospital never really addressed the things we saw in the ICU. This memoir was like reading my own experiences. The author reminded me that I can heal the trauma I went through, and that there’s a community of nurses I can turn to for support.”?

“If you’re a transitioning veteran, you should read this memoir. I was so intimidated by the idea of being a civilian again, but this author showed me how he adjusted and used the skills he learned from service to be successful in “normal” life.”

Now that you’ve got some perspective on how you want your book to affect the reader, you can get into the actual content of your memoir.?

Step 4: Chapter Brainstorming

Once you’ve got those Big Ideas on paper, you’ll have more direction for the stories and lessons you want to include. Memoirs (good ones that is) don’t need to include every interesting thing that’s ever happened to you. Memoirs, just like fiction, rely on theme to create focus. So let’s narrow in on the themes that are meaningful to both you and your reader.?

Jot down 10 important moments along your journey that contribute to the Big Idea of your story:

Now write 10 moments that your ideal reader is experiencing. For example, waiting on a decision for residency, or the first day of residency.

Now let’s look at both lists and see where they overlap. You and your reader’s story will have some themes in common. Is it a loss of control while waiting on a decision for residency? Is it feeling like an imposter? Write down 5 common themes between your story and your reader’s experiences.?

Now you may want to go back to your list and add more stories that lean into the themes you’ve found. You may also need to go back and prune stories that aren’t contributing to theme. In the worksheet , I’ve got an ideas parking lot that helps me compile these ideas; we’re not throwing them away, just setting them aside for a later book.?

Step 5: Outlining & Storytelling

From the stories and themes you’ve chosen, we can now start to put together a loose outline of your chapters. There are a million different ways to structure your book, whether you want to tell stories in chronological order, use flash-backs, etc. But there’s one thing I want you to have in each chapter; a key takeaway sentence at the end. These help you round out your stories, and give your reader a moment to feel the lesson of each story you share.?

If you’re ready to dive into each chapter now, go to my outline worksheet to get started defining each section of your book.?

Memoir-Building: Key Takeaways

It might feel counterintuitive to think about your reader first because this is your story after all. But I ask every client to consider their audience before thinking about the stories they want to share. Memoir can be a navel-gazing genre, and keeping your reader in mind will help you avoid writing a book that no one wants to read.?

I hope my killer outline sheet helps you get started on your memoir, and when you come up on roadblocks in the writing process, I’d love to help you problem-solve. If you're looking for more journaling prompts to get your memoir ideas flowing, check out my ChatGPT guide for memoir writers . And if you'd like feedback from a real human, shoot me a DM!