Leaving Out What Isn’t a Story

“The best memoirs, I think, forge their own forms. The writer of any work, and particularly nonfiction work, must decide two crucial things: what to put in and what to leave out.”

—Annie Dillard, An American Childhood

If you were to write the story of your life today, what would you put in and what would you leave out? Draw a line vertically down a sheet of paper. Write “What I’d Put In” on one side and “What I’d Leave Out” on the other. Spend equal time on both lists.

When you’ve completed your lists, go back and check off the things on your “what I’d put in” list that you’ve already written about. Circle the things you have yet to commit to paper. These are topics you’ll want to circle back to.