William Zinsser's "Writing Family History and Memoir," from book, On Writing Well.

After reading William Zinsser's "Writing Family History and Memoir," a chapter from his book, On Writing Well, I enjoyed his personal advice on how to write a proper memoir. He wrote and told various stories in a humbling manner which I thought to be effective. He gives advice in stating, "Writing is a powerful search mechanism, and one if its satisfactions is to come to terms with your life narrative." (283). I find this to be true in writing, a concept that writers need to understand so there writing is strong. He then writes, "Another is to work through some of life's hardest knocks-loss, grief, illness, addiction, disappointment, failure- and to find understanding and solace. (283)." I think this to be true because some of the best memoir writing possesses all of these emotions and different states of mind, essential in telling a good and true story. I enjoyed when he wrote about the woman who went back to the Polish village that her father escaped from during the Holocaust. He pointed out that the story did not need to revolve around her father because it is her story. He writes how this type of experience can be beneficial to one's writing, "It can also be an act of healing for you. If you make an honest transactions with your own humanity and with the humanity of people who crossed your life, no matter how much pain they caused you or you caused them, readers will connect on your journey (286). Ultimately, this chapter proved to be interesting in its efforts to explain how one writes a memoir, and to not worry so much about every little detail that a family member has to say, but your own true memory.