Congratulations! You can finally hold your first memoir in your hands.

Now you need to tackle that pile of paper you generated. Because it will get worse! If you use the steps in Lessons 1-5 to write every one of your memoirs, you’ll accumulate a huge pile of paper¹. And you’re not finished with how to write memoirs yet. If you don’t organize your papers now, you’ll never be able to find your notes when it comes time to revise. Fortunately, if you start now, it’s easy to get and stay organized.

You will need about $15 worth of materials:

• A 3-ring binder, 1-1½ inches thick
• Ruled notebook paper
• Divider tabs (10-12)
• Some pocket inserts

Put the dividers, notebook paper, and pocket inserts in the binder in that order. Think of a topic heading for your first memoir. This is your first step in organizing the “body of work” that your collected memoirs will become. Some sample topic headings are:

• Childhood
• Parenthood
• School
• Places I’ve lived
• Relationships
• Business/Career
• Vacation/Travel
• Accomplishments
• Military service
• Religion

For now, just categorize your first memoir and make that the first tab. Don’t name the other tabs yet. You might decide on different names by the time you write a memoir in that category.

Put your Lesson 1 Worksheet in front of the first tab. Put all other lessons, worksheets and papers related to your first memoir behind the first tab. If you still need additional worksheets, they can all be found at Remembers When Worksheets.

That’s it. You’re organized and ready to start writing your next memoir!

¹If you learned to write with a pen or pencil instead of a computer, your memories may be linked to the physical motion of writing. Even if you use a computer, you may prefer a print version for reading and revising. During the How to Write Memoirs lessons, we will discuss several ways of writing, including typing, dictating, and video-taping. We’ve chosen to start with handwritten text simply because it is likely that many of your memories pre-date keyboards.