The Hardest Part of Writing a Memoir? The Cuts

Mary Ghostwriting
Aug 10
3 min read

Many mistake a memoir for a diary or an unedited brain dump. It's neither.

It’s a deliberate, ruthless act of storytelling. And the hardest part is deciding what earns its place on the page.

That’s where I come in.

Choosing What to Include

Your memoir is the sharp, focused version of your life, and it requires a thread that pulls a reader from page one to the end without losing them.

But when it’s your life, everything feels important. That’s why you need someone who can see the big picture and call out what actually drives the story.

For example, if your memoir’s about building a business from nothing, we’re not wasting pages on every job you’ve ever had. But if one high school teacher told you you’d never make it, and that moment still lit a fire in your gut twenty years later—it stays. Not because it happened, but because it fuels this story.

If it doesn’t push the story forward or make the reader understand you better, it’s gone.

Choosing What to Leave Out

This one stings. Some of your favorite stories won’t make the cut. They might be funny, heartbreaking, or perfectly “you," but if they don’t serve the arc, they go.

You want to include that epic road trip with your best friend? It might be a great story for a dinner party, but only rate as a one-liner in your memoir unless it ties directly to the core of the book.

A memoir isn’t a storage unit for your life stories. It’s a showcase for the ones that matter.

Choosing What to Risk Sharing

The scenes that make readers lean in are usually the ones that make you think, Can I really say this?

We’ll talk through those moments. I’ll help you decide how to tell them with honesty, impact, and zero recklessness.

Maybe you need to write about a family fallout, but you’re worried about the reaction. There’s a way to do it that’s truthful, powerful, and still protects you legally and personally.

Memoir isn’t about telling every last detail of everything. It’s about telling the truth in a way that hits, and lasts. It's selective in its retelling or readers will run the other way.

Seeing Your Story Like a Reader

You know your story inside out, as you’ve lived every scene in surround sound. The reader only has the words you give them, so you better make them pop.

My job is to strip away the excess and build an entry point that hooks them immediately, and keeps them there.

If your memoir’s about reinvention in your 40s, we don’t start with “I was born…” We start where their curiosity ignites, and that's the moment the change began.

Your reader’s not here for your timeline. They’re here for your transformation.

Why the Right Partner Matters

This is not a “sit down and spill” job. It’s a collaboration. You bring the story and I bring the structure, the voice capture, the editing knife, and the ability to make your book impossible to put down.

I've taken thousands of hours of raw story and cut it into memoirs that move, with tight pacing, true voice, and emotional hits that land exactly where they should.

A good ghostwriter doesn’t just help you tell your story. They make sure it’s one people can’t stop talking about.