“Name him. Tell everything.” That’s what the friends say, and most memoir clients writing about a divorce or a bad marriage arrive having heard it for months. They start in the same place: hurt, upset and wanting revenge. Divorces and bad marriages come up in my memoir work all the time.
Part of my job is talking them down a little.
Constantly disparaging someone makes the author look like the problem, and it hands the ex a lawsuit. So I have them reword it, and I talk them through it until the account is balanced. Clients like the result. The book reads better, and it’s on firmer legal ground.
Can a ghostwriter help me write about my divorce?
Yes. A ghostwriter can help you tell the story of your marriage and its end with the distance you don’t have yet: finding the shape of what happened, the moments that mattered, and the person you became on the other side. They’ll help you say hard things clearly, protect the people who need protecting, and keep the book from becoming an argument.
Divorce memoirs take many forms: stories of rebuilding, of leaving a harmful relationship, or of a long marriage that ran out. The ones worth writing are centered on the author’s experience. The ones built around the ex’s failures read like a court filing, and readers who’ve been through their own divorces can smell it from the first page.
Can I write about my ex in my ghostwritten memoir?
Yes, within limits. Your marriage is part of your life story, and your ex is part of it. You’re allowed to tell what happened from your point of view.
The limits come from two places. Legally, anything you state as fact about your ex needs to be true and provable, and settlements can include confidentiality or non-disparagement terms. Personally, how you portray your ex affects your children, your co-parenting relationship and how readers see you.
Many strong divorce memoirs describe the ex briefly and fairly, focus on the author’s experience, and leave the other person’s worst moments mostly offstage. My article on writing about your ex without getting sued covers the legal side.
Does my divorce settlement limit what my ghostwriter can write?
It can. Divorce settlements can include confidentiality provisions covering finances, the reasons for the divorce or other private matters, and non-disparagement clauses. Depending on your state, custody orders can limit what parents can say publicly about each other or about the children.
Before the first interview, find your settlement agreement and any custody orders and have your family lawyer review them for anything that affects a book. You’ll learn whether you can write almost everything, or whether certain topics need to wait or stay out. Either way, you want to know before you pay a ghostwriter to write chapters you can’t publish.
How does a ghostwritten divorce memoir protect my children?
Assume they’ll read it, because they will. If not this year, then someday, at an age when they’re trying to understand their own family.
I push hard on this one. A parent who writes their ex as a villain is writing about half of their child’s family, and the child will carry that book long after the divorce stops hurting. I don’t think any grievance is worth that trade.
Write nothing about their other parent that you wouldn’t want them to read. Tell the truth, and choose what serves the story, leaving out what only wounds. Protect their privacy, too: their names, their struggles, their reactions to the divorce. Their story is theirs to tell someday.
One option is to write the book now and publish once the children are older. Another is to share relevant chapters with adult children before publication. A good ghostwriter will help you think through what’s right for your family.
How does a ghostwriter keep a divorce memoir from turning into revenge?
Center it on yourself. The book is about what you went through, what it cost you, what you learned, and who you became. The ex appears as part of that story and stays secondary. The friends who urged you to name and shame won’t be the ones answering the lawyer’s letter or explaining the chapter to your kids, so weigh their advice with that in mind.
By centering the book on the author, with the ex present but secondary. That’s the direction I steer every divorce memoir, and I haven’t met a client yet who regretted it.
Own your part, too. Very few marriages end with all the fault on one side, and readers know it. A divorce memoir that admits the author’s mistakes, even small ones, earns trust that a one-sided account never will. My article on why revenge memoirs backfire goes deeper into this.
If you’re still too angry to see your own part, that’s a sign to wait. Anger narrows what you can see, and a memoir needs the whole picture: the good years before the end, the complicated middle, and the life after.
When is the right time for a ghostwritten divorce memoir?
A divorce memoir that admits the author’s mistakes, even small ones, earns trust that a one-sided account never will.
When you can talk about the marriage without every conversation turning into a case against your ex. That can be a year after the divorce, or five. There’s no deadline, and I’d much prefer a client who waits another year to one who rushes in and spends every interview relitigating the settlement.
If legal proceedings are still active, such as a custody dispute or a contested settlement, wait until they’re resolved, and talk to your lawyer before you start. Conversations with a ghostwriter aren’t legally privileged, and you don’t want your interview notes involved in a court case.
What should a ghostwritten divorce memoir include?
The strongest ones cover the whole arc:
- ► The beginning of the relationship, so readers understand what was lost.
- ► The good years, told truthfully, without erasing them in hindsight.
- ► How things changed, including the signs you saw and the ones you missed.
- ► The end, told with care for everyone involved.
- ► What it did to you, emotionally and practically.
- ► How you rebuilt, and who you are now.
The rebuilding section is what readers going through their own divorces are looking for. Give it room.
A divorce memoir covers the whole arc, from the start of the relationship to the rebuilding readers look for.
My take
Your kids will read this book someday. Write it with that in mind, and keep your ex’s worst moments offstage. Check the settlement and custody orders before the first interview, and wait if anything is still in court. If every conversation turns into a case against your ex, you’re not ready. Give the rebuilding more room than anything else, because readers going through their own divorce bought the book to see how you got through it.
What should you check before writing about your divorce?
Pull out the settlement agreement and any custody orders and have your family lawyer read them for anything that touches a book. Ask yourself how old your children will be when they read it. Write down the good years before you write the bad ones. A divorce memoir written to punish someone hurts the author more than anyone, and I won’t write one. A memoir about how you got through it helps the next person going through theirs, and that’s the book I want to write with you.
| Step | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Check legal papers | Have your family lawyer review the settlement and custody orders. | They can restrict what you say publicly. |
| Wait out active cases | Let custody disputes or contested settlements resolve first. | Conversations with a ghostwriter aren’t legally privileged. |
| Write for your children | Write nothing about their other parent you wouldn’t want them to read. | They’ll read it someday. |
| Center it on yourself | Keep the ex present but secondary. | Ex-centered books read like a court filing. |
| Own your part | Admit your mistakes, even small ones. | It earns trust a one-sided account never will. |
| Check your anger | Wait if every conversation becomes a case against your ex. | Anger narrows what you can see. |
| Give rebuilding room | Make the rebuilding section substantial. | Readers in their own divorces are looking for it. |
The Book Discovery Intensive is a confidential way to find the book inside the divorce, and my memoir ghostwriting page walks through how a memoir comes together with me. What a full engagement looks like is on my ghostwriting services page.
Divorce stories need a steady hand and a clear purpose. The Ghostwriting Advantage covers how to get your book written for you, so you can decide what the book is for before you begin.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Mass. high court invalidates non-disparagement orders, finds no “extreme circumstances” justifying a prior restraint on speech, The Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University
