Lesson 6 of 7 Free account 4 min read
Writing Memoir: Theme, Scenes and the Real People in Your Life
Memoir is not your whole life story. Learn how it differs from autobiography, how to find your theme, how to write scenes from memory, and how to write about real people with care.
Key takeaways
- Autobiography covers a life; memoir explores one theme or stretch of a life in depth.
- Your theme decides what goes in and what stays out, however true or interesting.
- Scenes, with specific sensory detail and dialogue as well as you can remember it, carry a memoir more than summary does.
- Write the first draft freely, then revise with care for the real people in it, and get professional advice if you have legal concerns.
Many people start a memoir by writing down everything they remember, beginning with their birth. A few hundred pages later, they have a record but not a book. Memoir works differently. It takes one part of your life, looks at it closely, and asks what it meant.
What is the difference between memoir and autobiography?
An autobiography tells the story of a whole life, usually in order, usually by someone whose life the public already wants to know about. A memoir is narrower and deeper: a particular period, relationship or experience, explored through a theme. Your year caring for your father, your decade in a religious community, the summer you learned to sail after a divorce. Readers come to memoir less for the facts of your life than for what you learned and how it felt.
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