Creating Memoir: What to Remember When Starting Out

Insecure Writers Want to Know

I don’t know enough about the book publishing industry to answer this month’s question: Is there anything you’d like to see changed about the book publishing industry? So, I want to share a few writing tips about creating memoir.

Memoir is a story—yes, even though it’s about the writer’s life, it is a story. “Just the facts, Ma’am,” is autobiography. Memoir is usually about one specific time period in the writer’s life, a period where discoveries are made. Memoir interprets the events for the reader. There is a question, a theme or topic, you are addressing in your writing.

My memoir is about the ten-year journey I took through academia to acquire a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania while still being a mother to my five children during their growing-up years. It encompasses the trials a parent needs to face and understand when attempting such an endeavor and how to survive it successfully. But it is also about learning to believe in yourself. Yes! Even adults need to learn this.  

Memoir needs to be true. But you are creating a story that includes fiction elements like:

Backstory

Tension and conflict

Problem resolution

An overall-story ticking clock

Setting and pacing

The creation of believable characters out of real people.

This is what makes memoir so difficult to write. It is a story of insight. Memoir is not all about you. It needs to offer critical insight for the reader. It is NOT just what happens. It’s about what these events mean to you. And thereby your reader.

So how do you do this?

By looking inside yourself to understand why you did what you did at that time, and why you thought what you thought at that time.

Remember. Just like in fiction, the reader needs to be immersed in the scene, understanding your every move. Everything from why you think it’s best to drop a course, as in my memoir, to why any parent would ever attempt an Ivy League education after starting her education at a community college close to home.

The often misunderstood “Show, don’t tell” helps with this. “Show, don’t tell” means to show the reader why what’s happening matters to the protagonist. Fiction or memoir, you need to show how the protagonist came to that decision—internally. Inner thoughts are at the heart of any story or memoir. In other words, to borrow from New York Times sportswriter Red Smith, “You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.”[It wasn’t Hemingway. I checked online.]

Readers want to be in the head of the protagonist, hearing the inner thoughts and understanding any logic for decisions made, no matter how flawed that logic may be.

Remember, the protagonist is flawed. This is the most difficult part for memoirists.

Now you’re thinking: “Me? Flawed?”

Okay, so I don’t know about you, but I’m greatly flawed. Just ask my children.

As in all creative writing, the writer must decide what to put in the story or essay and what to leave out–especially in memoir. Memoir is not your whole life. That’s autobiography. Memoir is only a small piece of it.

For me to choose which flaw to showcase in my college memoir, I needed to consider the flaw that would resonate most with the story question of why I waited until I had five children to attend college. My youngest, twins, started second grade and the oldest, who is learning-disabled, started high school when I began my college journey.

To dramatize that moment in the memoir, I needed to consider my own personal backstory, my past, my growing-up years to discover the origin scene for the flaw in my own logic.

There is so much to consider when creating a memoir. I’ve only touched the surface. This should get you started if you plan to write a personal essay or memoir.

Ask me any questions you may have about memoir. I’m happy to share my knowledge and experience. And please share any tips you may have about writing. I am always learning something new from you.

Now I’m off to see what YOU know about the book publishing industry. There is so much I don’t know but am willing to learn from you all. Happy IWSG Day, everyone!    

Thank you for stopping by my little spot on the web. Please come again! And please sign up for my FREE monthly newsletter to find tips on writing and camping. It’s greatly appreciated.

**Please Note**:

I will not post in August. I need to focus on other writing endeavors and promoting my college memoir. You can purchase a copy here: https://books2read.com/Determination-A-Mother-of-Five-Conquers-College And please leave a review, if you do read my memoir. Thank you!

This post was written for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I’d like to thank our hosts for July: Rebecca Douglass, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Cathrina Constantine, and Jacqui Murray! Please visit them if you can.    

Our group posts on the first Wednesday of every month. To join us, or learn more about the group, click HERE.