Jerry Waxler
Six Tips to Improve First Person POV in Memoir Writing
August 14, 2026 
11 AM PDT | 12 PM MDT | 1 PM CDT | 2 PM EDT  

Memoirs invite readers to set themselves aside and enter the main character’s body and mind. To create that effect in your own memoir, you need to learn the techniques of First-Person Point of View (POV) Learning to speak from your own inner perspective is not just a literary task. It’s also an introspective one that changes you as you write your story. In this talk, Jerry Waxler will offer insights that can help you strengthen your memoir at every stage of development, from your first glimmer of “what is a memoir” to your final round of edits before publication.

You’ll learn how and why:

• To write scenes that convince the reader they are seeing the world through your character’s eyes
• To reveal your character’s deepest thoughts, beliefs, and inner conflicts.
• To create a stronger emotional bond between your reader and character by sharing your character’s bodily sensations.
• To keep your reader’s attention inside the time frame of the scene, while avoiding common phrasings that disrupt that connection.
• To use dialog to let readers experience other points-of-view, while maintaining the sensation of still being inside the main character’s mind.
• To be aware of common phrasings that could pull the reader out of the scene and into your office, looking over your shoulder while you type.

Bio
Jerry Waxler MS, LPC, writes, speaks, coaches and teaches about how to awaken human potential through life story writing. He is a therapist and the author of: Memoir Revolution, an inquiry into the social and psychological importance of the emerging genre; Learn to Write your Memoir in 4 Weeks, a step by step guide; and his latest memoir, How I Learned to Love the World, which traces his adult coming of age from the utopian promises of the sixties to the wisdom, kindness and caring he’d been seeking all along.