The Memoir I Wrote—and the Novel That Emerged from It

book inc writer Michele Cantos explains how writing her memoir about her family's immigrant journey led unexpectedly to a parallel creative awakening as she found refuge in writing a novel.

Michele Cantos Garcia

February 26, 2025

My dream of writing my memoir, Reunion: An Immigrant Daughter Memoir, began in childhood, just as the painful fallout of my family’s split between the US and Ecuador unfolded. I didn’t know then that this life-altering event was larger than my family, that it would require a painful excavation of decades of repressed trauma, and that writing about the US immigration system with objectivity would be a monumental challenge. I also had no idea how much time, sweat, and tears the process would demand.

By the time I turned 28, I had two failed attempts behind me—one academic manuscript and one autofiction—more questions than when I started, and a jaded, weakening resolve.

It wasn’t until I joined book inc’s Memoir Incubator last January and embarked on the drafting journey with 10 other writers that I finally achieved the goal as I had conceived of it. By the end of the program, I had written a 43,407-word manuscript, a 15-page outline, and even had an additional 16,789 words that I scrapped from this version—three prologues, an epilogue, and several chapters reflecting on the beauty of the Andes, all of which felt irrelevant by the time I finished drafting.

There is still so much to revise, but I expected that.

What I didn’t expect while writing my memoir was that one morning I’d wake up in a sweat from a dream about immaculate conceptions, jolt out of bed to write down the basic premise, and later expand it into a romantasy novel manuscript.

You never know, I thought, reading back what I’d written before closing my laptop and going back to sleep. A year later, I’ve written over 10,000 words, the first four chapters, the last two chapters, a 20-page outline, and another 20-page research document.

As the months of memoir drafting wore on and the high emotional stakes grew, I began drifting toward my “novel idea” document. Instead of wrestling with my weighty and controversial past, I sketched out scenes and built a world that ran parallel to the one in my memoir. While I still faced similar craft challenges and drew inspiration from real life for the novel, the personal stakes felt lighter, making the writing more effortless—less about wrestling with the past and more about playing in the present.

A sentence, a joke, a name at a time, the idea grew—first into an outline and then into chapters. Before I knew it, the novel felt just as real and meaningful to me as the memoir. The process felt more enjoyable, even fun—a reminder of how I’d imagined writing would be when I was a child. Wandering through a new idea, discovering characters, landscapes, and side stories. Plus, the consistent writing habit I’d adopted in the incubator had instilled in me the discipline of writing a complete manuscript. So, I let my creativity roam, giving me a productive and playful type of rest that replenished me for writing the last chapters of the memoir and meeting my deadline.

None of this means that my memoir will be taking a back seat. In fact, I’m currently revising it in book inc’s Book Revision Lab to enjoy the same community, structure, and accountability that helped me finish my first draft. But now I have this new dream I want to pursue: writing a purely creative and fun novel for no other reason than my own pleasure.

I’ve learned that feeding the muse daily, even with something unrelated to your main project, fuels creativity in unexpected ways. “It’s a good way to procrastinate productively,” fellow writers have shared. And while I now catch myself fantasizing about debuting with fiction to build interest in the memoir—a seemingly reasonable marketing strategy—I know the two are deeply intertwined. This memoirist needed a creative refuge to sustain herself as she finished her memoir and what she hoped would be her life’s work.

To get in touch and follow my writing journey, please visit my website and sign up for my annual newsletter: www.michelecantosgarcia.com/newsletter.

About the Author

Michele Cantos Garcia is a writer and editor with experience in print and digital features, including profiles on U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and top Latina executives. Based in New Jersey, she is currently revising her memoir, Reunion: An Immigrant Daughter Memoir, writing a novel, and teaching.

About book inc

book inc is a writing collective dedicated to helping writers draft, revise, and publish memoirs and novels. Our book incubators and revision workshops help writers realize their artistic and commercial potential.