Memoirists have plenty of opportunities to step outside their specific story and comment on the larger situation they are describing–and these are the kinds of insights agents and publishers are looking for. Whether you’re writing about losing a loved one, being Black in America, surviving a climate-change disaster, or being an aging woman in an ageist and sexist society, you’ll want to weave in insights that touch the reader and cause them to think about the larger theme in a new way.

If you’ve been struggling to identify the larger universal story in your memoir, join us at the next meeting of the Memoir Collective. The topic: Takeaways–what they are and how to use them.