“You can also never forget that you are the protagonist in your story. Not the hero; most writers are uncomfortable with that– they weren’t trying to be a hero and they don’t feel like a hero. But you are the central actor in your story.” (William Zinsser. Writing About Your Life, p. 163)

Don’t usually disagree with the king of style and craft. But I do on this one. What’s the use in writing about a loser. You can. Most memoirs are sad. But in the good ones, the central figure — you — winds up looking at a rising sun or a flower beginning to bloom. There is hope. Someone’s getting out of something, beginning to believe again, and beginning to hope. Life can rise up out of the depths. No matter what you’ve had to go through to get to this point. John