Let’s Write a Memoir

Personal Narrative vs Memoir: Both memoirs and personal narratives are stories of a real person’s experiences, but they are not entirely alike. Personal Narrative Memoir relays the person’s direct experience of a particular event, or set of events, including his thoughts and feelings often covers a single event goes beyond a personal narrative; it contains both direct experiences and reflections on other people’s experiences of a particular time covers multiple events with a single theme contains information that goes beyond that, including information that is outside the narrator’s immediate knowledge and experience

Conclusion!?!? As a result, while a personal narrative is also a memoir, a memoir is not necessarily a personal narrative.

Writing a memoir… The Do’s The Don’ts Do read other people’s memoirs, especially those which are bestsellers. This way you can learn a lot: for example, you can learn which writing techniques work better or what readers are most interested in. Do create vivid descriptions. Do write a story that is interesting to read. This implies that your story contains a conflict and possesses tension. Do write about personal experiences that are unique and significant. You could have gone to a concert to see a famous rock band, but so did a vast number of other people. However, if you’ve met the love of your life at that concert, or made friends with musicians, that is an event worth mentioning. Don’t start writing your memoir chronologically. Remember your favorite books or thrilling movies: many of them start from the culmination or from the most intriguing turning moment, and then they return to the beginning to show how everything came to that point. Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, and stylistics in the first draft. If you begin editing your work simultaneously while writing it, you will most likely lose your point and go into minor details. Do not get attached to any particular format, because it will limit your creativity. Don’t include every little detail. Some aspects of your life don’t necessarily need to be described. Don’t write your memoir as an autobiography. A memoir depends heavily on emotions. It concentrates on moods, reflections, or the writer’s attitudes toward certain events in his or her life.

Common mistakes when writing a memoir… Trying to write perfectly. Concentrating too much on perfect writing may keep you from writing a single word. Forgetting to include backgrounds of the main characters of the story you are telling. It is not necessary to provide readers with their full biographies, but it should be clear who is who in your memoir. Depicting yourself as a flawless hero. It may be tempting to present yourself as a person of worth or, on the contrary, as a victim of injustice, but this may distort the reality of your memoir if not true. Instead, analyze your flaws and drawbacks. Expose them along with your positive qualities, and show you understand that you were wrong. Your readers will surely appreciate your sincerity. Forgetting to describe the emotions of the characters appearing in your memoir. The expression of human feelings are one of the most essential aspects of a memoir.

Thesis Statement A strong thesis is key to writing a good memoir. Your thesis conveys exactly why the reader is reading, and why he or she should keep reading. But the thesis statement doesn’t just serve the reader — it can also help serve you as the writer. A strong thesis statement can be used as a quick reminder of what you intend to prove in your paper, and can be used by the author check if the paper’s content and progression is “in line” with your previously stated reasons for writing.

Let’s get writing!