How to Write a Memoir

Everyone wants to write a memoir. Let’s face it: we’re all interesting people (at least to ourselves!), and writing about ourselves is a useful way of processing events and emotions.

But before you put pen to paper, let’s back up a bit. Of course you can write a memoir; the real questions is — should you?

Let’s start with the difference between a memoir and an autobiography. They’re both about you. An autobiography follows your life closely, from birth to the present moment, and I’ll be honest with you: unless your name is Barak Obama, or Alec Guinness, or Colin Kaepernick, you probably want to stay away from the autobiography. What we consider interesting lives are rarely that interesting to anybody besides ourselves, our mothers, and our spouses.

A memoir is something different. A memoir takes a part of one’s life and builds the narrative around that. Say for example you joined a Buddhist monastery in Thailand for three years: aside from the introductory chapter, your memoir would be about those three years. Perhaps you survived a natural disaster: your memoir is about that time … but with a twist. More personal than an autobiography, a memoir brings the subject back to the reader. What did you learn from the time you’re writing about? How did it help you grow as a person? Did it answer any deep questions for you? How can you share what you learned…