MEMOIRS IN REVIEW
NOTES TO WRITERS
WHAT IS A MEMOIR?
• A memoir is written in first person from the author’s
point of view.
• A memoir is non-fiction written in story form like
fiction. Dialogue can be included, but since few
people can remember precisely every word
spoken, the dialogue is often not literally true;
instead the author attempts to recreate it as
accurately as possible.
• Is a memoir non-fiction or fiction?
QUALITIES OF A MEMOIR
• Focus on a brief period of time or series of related events
• Narrative structure including many of the usual elements of
story telling such as setting, plot development, imagery,
conflict, characterization, foreshadowing, flashback, irony and
symbolism
• It includes, or as a whole is, the writer’s contemplation of the
meaning of events in retrospect
• Has a fictional quality even though the events are true
• Higher emotional level
• More personal reconstruction of the events and their impact
MEMOIR VS. AUTOBIOGRAPHY
• A memoir is a special kind of autobiography, usually
involving a public portion of the author’s life as it
relates to a person, historic event, or thing. The text
is about the personal knowledge and/or
experiences of the author.
• In contrast, an autobiography covers the author’s
entire life to the present, and is expected to include
details about his or her public and private life. A
biography is someone’s life story written by another
person.
MEMOIR: NON-FICTION OR FICTION?
• Obviously, a memoir should be true. The author should
not alter the truth in telling his or her story. In fact, Elie
Wiesel checked the text and made minor corrections in
his book, Night, before it was published in the US to make
it as truthful as possible.
• Memories are faulty, so a little leeway is given to authors
of memoirs, but they are expected to be honest and to
check their facts for accuracy. Creating fiction and
passing it off as nonfiction, as apparently was done by
James Frey in his controversial A Million Little Pieces, is
completely unacceptable.
IMPORTANT FEATURES OF A MEMOIR
• A memoir does not contain everything from this
particular slice of the author’s life, but rather, events are
selected and examined for meaning relative to the
purpose of the book.
• The author has questioned what happened and come
to some kind of new understanding or lesson learned by
it. The author shows us how he or she was affected by
this experience, how it has profoundly changed the way
he sees the world.
• And by extension, reading the book will change the way
the reader sees the world.
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO WRITE A
MEMOIR
• To write a memoir, begin by brainstorming on paper
all the events you can remember from you life that
were either very important to you in a positive way,
or very important to you in a negative way.
• Talk to other members of your family to get ideas,
help you remember events from before to help fill in
the details that might have been forgotten. Select
the event, or series of related events that will make
this turn in to an interesting memoir. Work at this
note-taking stage for a few days until you feel
you’ve got it all down on paper.
SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO WRITE A
MEMOIR CONT.
• Then begin to write. You will be surprised to see that even
more details begin to appear once you start to write. For your
first draft, write quickly to get all your ideas down from
beginning to end. Don’t worry about editing.
• Before you revise, share your first draft with someone in the
family. Consider their response but go with what feels right.
• Rewrite, and then start editing as needed.
• Note to remember while writing: Good memoirs are about
every day things, but they are interesting like a good novel,
only they must be true. Be careful not to exaggerate or
embellish the truth.
SUGGESTIONS
• Dos:
• Show not tell
• Develop the setting
• Don’ts:
• List events with “I + verb”
starts to each setting (I
rode my bike… I went to the
store… I then…)
• Develop characters
• Write an introduction
• Use literal sentences with
vivid detail and colorful
verbs
• Use run-of-the-mill verbs
• Write the way you speak
but better
• Give a broad strokes
overview of the events
SUGGESTIONS CONT.
• Do’s:
• Don’ts:
• Include both the
unflattering and
flattering
• Chose to write about
an event because it
was a time when you
were awesome.
• Make it personal (if it’s
hard to write about,
you’re on the right
track)
• Use cliches
• Use dialogue to
characterize someone
or describe what your
characters “do” to
each other
• Repeat yourself
• Use common use
phrases or idioms
NOTES FROM THE PROFESSIONALS
• “Write your first draft with the door closed. Write the
second draft with the door open.” –Stephen King
• “Memoirs can never be wholly true since they cannot
include every conceivable circumstance of what
happened. The novel can do that.” –Anthony Powell
• Remember: Your biggest stories will often have less to do
with their subject than with their significance—not what
you did in a certain situation, but how that situation
affected you and shaped the person you became.
SUGGESTIONS
• PROOF READ! PROOF READ! PROOF READ!
SOURCES
• http://inspell.homestead.com/memoir.html
• http://www.theamercanscholar.org/how-to-write-amemoir/
• http://www.barbaradoyen.com/writingnonfictionwhat-is-a-memoir-what-makes-a-memoirdifferent-from-an-autobiography-or-biography