Should I write a memoir?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I feel arrogant when I consider writing a memoir. Like, who am I? But I've had some pretty unique experiences (as all nurses do), but I'm also a writer. I've written several books. So, I know how to write and publish a memoir, just in general.

Is it arrogant to do something like that? On the one hand, I think it is--on the other, I think it's almost a sin if I don't. Like, if I've been given the ability to write and the experience to write about, to keep it all to myself would be totally selfish--to just let it all die with me.

What do you think?

Here's what I wrote just to jot down my reason for writing:

A very honest memoir of my life as a nurse. I discuss the things I've seen, experienced, and done in hopes that others who read this and are starting their own journey in nursing will find the understanding I've found to be a light that helps them find their own understanding. I hope that this will be a book I can share with future students that I teach, perhaps CNAs, perhaps LPNs.

Or maybe I should just keep my head down, shut up, and be glad to have a job. I just don't know what to do.

Hey its a free country. If you think you have something to add to an audience that wants to hear it then go for it

If you enjoy it, and have the time, why not?

I regularly email my sister about different things, many of them nursing related, and she constantly tells me I should "write a book".

There are several of these types of books already on the market. Theresa Brown has written two such books. And she writes a column for the NY Times.

A publisher would ask: What is different about yours?

If you think you have something different to add to the conversation, then go for it!

Write a proposal, and sent it to publishers and see if you get any interest.

There are several of these types of books already on the market. Theresa Brown has written two such books. And she writes a column for the NY Times.

A publisher would ask: What is different about yours?

If you think you have something different to add to the conversation, then go for it!

Write a proposal, and sent it to publishers and see if you get any interest.

I don't think I'd really be that interested in marketing it. It would be more what I might give to students or friends and family, or just something left over when I exit this mortal cage. Non-celebrity memoirs are rarely marketable. I'd just self-publish it through CreateSpace and Kindle.

If you enjoy it, and have the time, why not?

I regularly email my sister about different things, many of them nursing related, and she constantly tells me I should "write a book".

See, I think you should. You never know who may read it in the future.

Definitely go for it. I love medical memiors. I have a stack of medical memiors by doctors and nurses that I bought and read before I went to school. Now obviously I live it everyday I think I could write my own!

It's probably time for that, you know? I had a dream last night after posting this, and I was in my basement, and I had uncovered all these things I thought I had lost, and I gathered them all in a pile. And I thought to myself, "Oh my God, look at all these things!"

I think that was kind of a message, you know? Like, if you don't uncover the good things you've gained in the past, no one else will, no one else will ever find them.

I've been a factory worker, horse trainer, waitress and nurse. I'm gonna do that, too. I've got stories, I tell ya..

Definitely sounds interesting.

If you have interesting stories to tell, that could be really cool. I personally love reading nursing stories or memoirs- like the Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul series, or "I Wasn't Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse" and "The Shift," for example.

If you have interesting stories to tell, that could be really cool. I personally love reading nursing stories or memoirs- like the Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul series, or "I Wasn't Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse" and "The Shift," for example.

Thanks, Opalbee. That's encouraging.

Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.

Why not write a memoir? If for no other reason, then for yourself and for your descendants - they will love having those written memories from you.

By the way, when I first saw this post title, my first thought was "if this is RubyVee asking, then YES 100% write your crazy nursing stories down in a book."

Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

I've thought of the same thing re: my LTC experiences. I should've been keeping notes all along, though ... but I'm sure I could conjure up many, many memories if I sat down & thought about it.

I've thought of the same thing re: my LTC experiences. I should've been keeping notes all along, though ... but I'm sure I could conjure up many, many memories if I sat down & thought about it.

Oh, for sure you could. A memoir is not a biography and it's not history, per se, nor is it a confessional--or at least it doesn't have to be any of those things. It tells of one's experiences in such a way as to make some point or moral. If you can think of ten things that happened and how that illustrates a point you want to make, you can probably write enough of a story to fill 145 pages, and that's about as much as most people want to read these days anyway. So, you should go for it, my friend. I'd read it! :)

Specializes in ambulant care.

Good idea !

Writing your experiences (in any way) down, is a clever solusion for mental health.

No matter if you publish it - or not...

It helps you to reduce your pantoprazole dissolved in ethanol.:cool:

Tell it, EGspirit, RN! :woot::nurse::inlove:

I can see the appeal of a memoir, though, since, in your own book, people wouldn't get to repeatedly disagree with you and call you out the way they do here. That would be a lot more satisfying, I imagine. You could rant to your heart's content about your retro views on nursing without getting any feedback, and members of the general public who don't know any better might even fall for it.

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