Personal narratives and practical guidance on memoir writing. These articles explore how to capture life experiences in compelling narrative form, drawing from ghostwriting memoir projects including working with clients ranging from a ninety-two-year-old resort developer to professionals documenting their career journeys.
MemoirsA memoir can cite research without reading like a journal article. Here's how I handle sources in memoirs and ghostwritten books: endnotes in Chicago style, footnotes for asides, citations collected as I go, and my rule on quoting.
MemoirsMemoirs from writers who aren't famous rarely sell to traditional publishers right now. Self-publishing gives you complete freedom and hands you every job in the process. Here's how to weigh it, hire help without getting scammed, and decide whether you…
GhostwritingJames Fox read Keith Richards's manuscript aloud so Richards could edit by ear. J.R. Moehringer turned down cover credit on Open. The best-known memoirs were written the same way: long interviews, real access and a draft the subject recognized as…
MemoirsThe autobiography of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, written with Peter Petre, covering his childhood, two tours in Vietnam and his command of the 1991 Gulf War from Central Command at MacDill. He retired to Tampa afterward.
MemoirsGeneral Tommy Franks's memoir, written with Malcolm McConnell, runs from an enlisted soldier in 1965 to the commander of U.S. Central Command who led the 2001 Afghanistan campaign and the 2003 invasion of Iraq from MacDill. It debuted at number…
MemoirsGeneral Frank McKenzie's account of commanding U.S. Central Command from MacDill between 2019 and 2022, a stretch that included the Soleimani strike, the fight against ISIS and the withdrawal from Afghanistan. He now leads a national security institute at the…
MemoirsAdmiral William McRaven's memoir of a life in special operations, from a childhood in France through SEAL training to the capture of Saddam Hussein, the Captain Phillips rescue and the bin Laden raid. He later commanded U.S. Special Operations Command…
MemoirsGeneral Stanley McChrystal's career memoir, from West Point to commanding Joint Special Operations Command in Iraq and the international force in Afghanistan. It's a long, detailed account of how he changed the way his task force fought.
MemoirsThe account of the November 1965 Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, written by the battalion commander who led it, Hal Moore, and Joseph Galloway, the reporter who fought beside his men. It became the 2002 film We Were Soldiers.
MemoirsThe autobiography of William Bainbridge, the fifth Sergeant Major of the Army, written with retired Sergeant Major Dan Cragg. It runs from a World War II prison camp to the Army's top enlisted post.
MemoirsMedal of Honor recipient Bennie Adkins, a retired command sergeant major, tells the story of the 1966 fight for Camp A Shau, where 17 Green Berets held out against a far larger North Vietnamese force. He wrote it with journalist…
MemoirsSam Walton's own account of building Walmart from a variety store in Arkansas, written with Fortune editor John Huey and published shortly after Walton died in 1992. It's the founder's memoir of the biggest family business story in American retail.
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