I\u2019ve been obsessed with beginnings for as long as I can remember. A beginning serves as a kind of overture, setting the tone for everything that follows. So naturally, I\u2019ve always adored a good dedication page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A book\u2019s dedication page precedes the narrative, serving as a threshold between the reader and the story. It primes the emotional register before the reader truly gets started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I keep a note of my favourite dedications in a special folder. Among them is this one by poet and memoirist Joy Harjo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“For the water spider, who, when the earth was covered with water, carried an ember on her back so we could make fire to keep the story going.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Though often only a single line, a dedication at the beginning of your life story has the power to be transcendent, even mythic. But it can also be grounded and simple, if you choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dedications can also be funny! I love this one by award-winning author T Kingfisher:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Dedicated to a strong independent chicken, a bird in a million.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n My point is that you don\u2019t have to take the exercise too seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re currently working on your private memoir or autobiography and feeling stuck about composing a dedication, breathe. You’re in exactly the right place. The following exercise and examples will help you reach inward to pull out the unifying golden thread you\u2019re searching for. Maybe it’s a single line. Maybe it’s a paragraph or a poem. Either way, it\u2019s totally up to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Short. One to three lines is standard. The dedication page is not the place for explanation or elaboration. Its power comes from precision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A dedication is emphatically not <\/em>an Oscar acceptance speech. You don’t need to list every person who comes to mind. That’s what the Acknowledgements section is for \u2013 and yes, LifeBook offers a dedicated space for exactly that kind of litany too, if you want it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The question of who your life story should be dedicated to is a deeply personal one. I won’t pretend that I can answer it for you, but I can give you an exercise to try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Daniel Coyle’s Flourish: The Art of Building Meaning, Joy and Fulfillment<\/em>, he describes an activity called the Mental Round Table. Here\u2019s how it works\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Picture yourself sitting at an empty round table, then ask yourself: who are the people who most want to see me flourish?<\/em> Visualise them pulling up their chairs and taking a seat at the table with you. These <\/em>are your people \u2013 the ones who genuinely want you to succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about the people in your life who have seen you at your worst and stayed or the mentors who may never know how much they helped shape the person you became. There are also the people who mirror your best qualities back to you, reminding you who you truly are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a simple, undemanding exercise, but I like it because it quickly narrows the whole wide world of faces down to a precious, trusted few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look at the faces now seated around the table with you. Who among them made your life story possible? Who sat with you and believed in you across your journey? Whoever they are, those <\/em>are the people who have earned a place in your dedication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my years of ghostwriting memoirs, I have often seen the dedication page treated as an afterthought. Authors sometimes assume it will write itself once everything else is done. (It rarely does.) In practice, many authors find that it\u2019s actually the hardest sentence in the entire book to compose, and that\u2019s not because it requires the most skill but because it requires the purest clarity. The best dedications are honest, direct and specific enough to be unmistakably personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, take pen to paper and see what you come up with. You can start with For <\/em>or To <\/em>and then name someone from your round table, if you like. You could leave it there, with just a name, or you can add another line or two that says something true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember that a dedication often cannot be prepared in the traditional sense. Instead, it has to be found<\/em>. The process may require going past the first several answers that suggest themselves, past the polite and the obvious, until the one true sentence you\u2019re looking for finally arrives. And when it does, it will carry a quality of inevitability. It will sound as though it could not have been otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes, the fastest way to find your own words is to draw inspiration from someone else’s. Below are a variety of dedication page examples to get you started. Read them slowly, and something will catch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “For Robert, who knows that I must go but waits for me to return.” “For my mother, who taught me to look, and for my father, who taught me to see.” “For my children \u2013<\/em> and their children’s children \u2013<\/em> in the hope that they will always be able to hear the birds sing.” “To my parents, for the first stories. To my son, for the future ones.” “To John, for convincing me that everyone who is interesting has a past.” \u201cTo Pat Covici, a great editor, and better yet, a generous friend, this book is affectionately dedicated.\u201d “For the ones who didn’t make it. And for the ones who did.” “\u2026 for the child I once was.” “For those who have struggled to find a seat at the table.” “For the girl outsiders.” Our LifeBook authors frequently tell us that writing their dedication page was the moment when a memoir stopped feeling like a project and started feeling like a gift. If you would like to learn about the writing experience from people who have already been through it, take a look at our testimonials<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The chapters of a private memoir or autobiography tell your life story, which begins to pour out (trust me on that) once you get going, but the dedication page tells the reader why<\/em> it was told in the first place and who <\/em>it\u2019s really for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, you own the territory of your memory. If a family member tells you that it didn’t happen that way, you can honestly say, “You’re right \u2013 it didn’t happen that way to you. But it happened that way to me<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow long should a dedication page be?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Who should you dedicate your life story to?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How do you write a dedication page?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What’s your dedication style?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Anchor (for a partner, parent or grandparent)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2013<\/em> Jill Heinerth, <\/em>Into the Planet (a memoir about cave diving)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013<\/em> Jackie Higgins, <\/em>Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Legacy (for future generations)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2013<\/em> Stephen Moss, <\/em>Ten Birds that Changed the World<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013<\/em> Irene Vallejo, <\/em>Papyrus<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Debt (for a mentor or someone who changed your path)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2013<\/em> Jeannette Walls, <\/em>The Glass Castle (a memoir about homelessness)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013<\/em> Saul Bellow, <\/em>Herzog<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Elegy (for those who are gone)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2013<\/em> Edgar Gomez, <\/em>High-Risk Homosexual (a memoir about the queer community)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013<\/em> Cheryl Strayed, <\/em>Wild (a memoir about grief)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Witness (for those who are misunderstood)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2013<\/em> Patric Gagne, <\/em>Sociopath: A Memoir<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013<\/em> Tiya Miles, <\/em>Wild Girls<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat do other LifeBook authors say?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Ready to begin writing your own dedication page?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n