Want To Know If Your Memoir Has Legs? Start Here

People say all the time:

“I want to write a memoir.”

“I think my story matters.”

“I just don’t know where to start.”

But what they’re often really asking is:

“Does anyone else care about this? Is it publishable?”

I understand that question because I’ve lived it.

While working on my film, Return of the Black Madonna, I had an idea for a memoir called Water in My Bones. I believed in it. People said they were interested. But I didn’t have proof — not just that the story mattered emotionally, but that it had market traction.

So, I took one chapter, an excerpt called "The Water Spirits Will Carry Us, and I reworked it into a standalone personal essay. I shaped it. Edited it. Made sure it could carry its own weight.

Then I submitted it to Memoir Land.

They published it.

And that’s when everything shifted.

The piece gained attention. People resonated. Industry eyes landed on it. Narratively, an outlet I respected, saw it, and reached out. They asked if I wanted to teach memoir writing.

It wasn’t a book deal.

It wasn’t an agent.

But it was proof of concept, and it opened doors.

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Here’s the part most aspiring memoirists miss:

You don’t need to write the whole book to know if your story has legs.

You need to shape one part of it into a strong, standalone essay and submit it — not for validation, but for information.

A published excerpt becomes:

• A market signal: real editors accepted it.

• A calling card: something to include when pitching agents.

• A foundation: not just for confidence, but for industry conversation.

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I won’t tell you where to publish. That’s paid guidance.

But I will tell you this:

If your story can’t hold at 2,000 words, it won’t hold at 70,000.

So before you pour months or years into a manuscript, test the idea. Shape a chapter. Submit the piece.

Let the world show you what’s possible.

If you need help identifying what chapter to shape, how to find the structure inside it, or how to get it submission-ready — that’s what my mentorship is for.

You don’t have to guess your way through this.