What is Memoir Junkie Wannabe Author?

I’m Claire. In this newsletter, I share my journey to authorship and what I did to get started. I’m not published yet, but once I am, you’ll be the first to know about how I did it and my struggles along the way.

A little about me and the “why”

I’m a freelance tech writer-turned-aspiring author. I’m a sucker for memoirs and finally decided to write my own this year. But, it turns out that article writing is different than writing a book. (Just a little. And by a little, I mean a lot.)

I still have a lot to figure out about my book.

When I started this journey in 2022, I spent a lot of time researching online writing classes, webinars, and whether or not I need to hire a book coach. Since that time, I' found the things that have worked for me. Here are resources if you need this kind of help.

Grow as a writer

• Where do you start when you want to write a book? Here’s what I did

• Being in a writing group: The surprising thing that helped me improve as a writer

• Writing to decode your feelings

• When I started to see edits as love

• What’s your author ecosystem?

Bonus stuff:

• New subscribers, likes, comments and the tiny rush of dopamine

• The bad news of writing a memoir

Bits of my memoir

• The time my dad got shot

• My parents’ store burned down in the L.A. Riots

• My brother’s in prison. Could I have done more?

• Horseback riding in Alaska

Books I love

• Memoirs you should read right now

• Captivating reads I’ve gathered for you

• Unputdownable books of 2023

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I’m aiming for once a week

I used to publish once a week, but I’ve scaled it down to 2x a month. You know… life is busy and all that.

Growing your audience as a writer

I’ve never given a lot of thought to growing an audience. I’ve always wanted to write just to do it, but that doesn’t fly in the book publishing world.

Publishers want non-famous writers to have an audience, so I thought, why not document my journey to authorship through Substack and share with other aspiring writers what I’m learning along the way?

So, stay in touch, and hopefully, you like what I create.

To find out more about me:

LinkedIn, ClaireTak.com

I also have a second Substack called Stories About My Brother.