Writing a Memoir – Part 1

In this week’s writing blog post, we will be focusing on memoirs – what they are and the key elements that make them work. We will then look at how to start writing a memoir and some tips to make it even better! First and foremost, what is a memoir and who can write one? Simply put, a memoir is like a diary that only includes the most interesting parts and tries to organise this into something with a plot, almost like a novel. Some memoirs might have an overarching theme or message that they try to convey to the reader, which fall more into the self-help category. Others might focus on funny events and thus have a more humorous tone.

A memoir might cover all of your life so far, but some have a narrower focus, sometimes of a few years. Think about how best to divide up the experiences and memories you have chosen to include. Instead of devoting time equally across your whole book, memoirs focus on the parts that are most important to your overall narrative and only briefly touch on the rest. In total, most memoirs are around 50,000 to 75,000 words, but this will depend on what you include and what publishers ask for. Anyone can write a memoir – the trick is to have a particular theme or hook that makes it relatable to your readers as a narrative.

We will now look at some of the key elements of memoir writing.

Be Honest

To connect with your readers, it is important to be honest about your experiences, even if it is uncomfortable to do so. Making mistakes is a normal part of life and a crucial part of a memoir. It will make you a lot more relatable to your readers and help to get them invested in your narrative. Being honest and vulnerable shows how your experiences have influenced and changed you and makes you a “real person” in your readers’ eyes. The more they care about you as a person, the more likely they are to keep reading and relate to your message.

Have a Theme

One of the key things that separates a memoir from an autobiography is that you can have a set theme or message that you want to convey to your readers. Establish what this is early on to ensure you can make it resonate throughout your work, as well as giving a somewhat shortened version of it in the introduction. Once you have a theme, think about how you can tie this into your memoir. It should be reflected in some way in each section, even if it is only hinted at. A light touch is usually best, as you don’t want to make readers feel they are forced to listen to all your thoughts. Instead, try to integrate your theme subtly and trust that your readers will pick up on it.

To identify what your theme should be, think about what you want readers to take away from your book. What sort of lessons would you like them to learn? What new skills or knowledge will they gain? If you are unsure, a good way to decide on your theme is to reflect on what you have learnt from the experiences you are recounting. This can then be extended to help the readers of your memoir in the same way. You can show the lessons you have learnt in your memoir by considering some more recent experiences or problems you have had and how you put the message of your book into practice tackling them. This should make you and your book more relatable.

Show, Don’t Tell

When you are writing your memoir, you want to make sure it resonates with your readers. One way of doing this is to follow the old advice to show, not tell. For example, make sure the focus is on the emotions of a particular recollection. However, the key thing to bear in mind is that you want to avoid describing all the emotions you had or felt on reflection – this would be the “tell” part. Instead, make sure that your writing shows the emotions that you want your readers to notice and relate to. This makes your writing stronger and keeps your audience engaged.

Give it Your Personality

To make your memoir a success, you need to be relatable. The best way of doing this is to give your memoir a bit of personality. While most nonfiction requires a more formal tone, memoirs are an exception to this general rule and you can adopt a more conversational style of writing. This should allow you to show your personality, for example, you can use humour, swear if this suits your book, and add any slang you regularly use.

Wrapping Up

I hope that this helps you to decide what you want from your memoir and how to plan it. In my next blog post, we will look at how to start writing it, so come back in two weeks for that!

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