Writing a memoir is a daunting endeavor for any author: how do you condense your entire life story into a mere couple hundred pages? Of course, you'll find plenty of online guides that will help you write a memoir by leading you through the steps. But other times that old adage “show, don’t tell” holds true, and it’s most helpful to look at other memoir examples to get started.
- Best Books On Memoir Writing
- Guide To Writing Your Memoir
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- Writing Your Memoirs Software
- Writing Your Memoirs
A memoir is a written account about a person’s life that depicts a pivotal moment or a collection of experiences that shaped who they became. For many people, writing this type of autobiography can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience, even if it never gets published. If you decide to write a memoir. The Life Writer Online Makes Memoir Book Writing Easy – to Inspire, Empower, and Improve Lives “My dad didn't think his life was that special or even worthy of preserving inside a book. Memoir is a three-legged stool, designed specifically to hold up your story. In other words, it has requirements – four, to be precise: your story and three others – and learning them will allow you to write this wondrous form. How to Define Memoir?
If that’s the case for you, we’ve got you covered with 21 memoir examples to give you an idea of the types of memoirs that have sold well. Ready to roll up your sleeves and dive in?
The autobiographical memoir
Read the full article, 'Appeal of Writing Memoirs Grows, as Do Publishing Options.' Read Brooke's 2021 interview, 'Writing Your Story: The Healing Power of Memoir-Writing,' in the San Jose Mercury News. Linda Joy and our Write Your Memoir in Six Months course were previously covered by the Mercury News in 2015. Before you start writing your memoir, make sure you have an outline and a writing plan. You need an outline to give your memoir a meaningful story structure. Otherwise, your book will just ramble from one story to the next without any real direction. An outline forces you to stop and think about which stories you want to tell.
The autobiographical memoir — a retelling of one’s life, from beginning to present times — is probably the standard format that jumps to most people’s minds when they think of this genre.
At first glance, it might seem like a straightforward recount of your past. However, don’t be deceived! As you’ll be able to tell from the examples below, this type of memoir shines based on three things: the strength of the author’s story, the strength of the story’s structure, and the strength of the author’s voice.
Examples
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. The woman who Toni Morrison said “launched African American writing in the United States,” Angelou penned this searing memoir in 1969, which remains a timeless classic today.
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Less of a singular memoir than a collection of humorous anecdotes framed around his life as a transplant to Paris, the star of this book is Sedaris’ dry voice and cutting humor.
A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby. Chacaby’s remarkable life — from growing up abused in a remote Ojibwa community to overcoming alcoholism and coming out as a lesbian as an adult — is captured in this must-read autobiography.
The “experience” memoir
One of the most popular memoirs that you’ll find on bookshelves, this type focuses on a specific experience that the author has undergone. Typically, this experience involves a sort of struggle, such as a bitter divorce, illness, or perhaps a clash with addiction. Regardless of the situation, the writer overcomes it to share lessons learned from the ordeal.
Best Books On Memoir Writing
In an 'experience' memoir, you can generally expect to learn about:
- How the author found themselves facing said experience;
- The obstacles they needed to overcome; and
- What they discovered during (and after) the experience.
Examples
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Faced with the prognosis of terminal cancer at the age of thirty-six, Paul Kalanithi wrote an unforgettable memoir that tackles an impossible question: what makes life worth living?
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. An account of drug and alcohol abuse that one reviewer called “the War and Peace of addiction,” this book became the focus of an uproar when it was revealed that many of its incidents were fabricated. (In case you’re wondering, we do not recommend deceiving your readers.)
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. Adapted in 1999 into a critically acclaimed film starring Angelina Jolie, Girl, Interrupted enduringly recounts the author’s battle with mental illness and her ensuing 18-month stay in an American psychiatric hospital.
The “event” memoir
Similar to the “experience” memoir, the “event” memoir centers on a single significant event in the author’s life. However, while the former might cover a period of years or even decades, the “event” memoir zeroes in on a clearly defined period of time — for instance, a two-month walk in the woods, or a three-week mountain climb, as you’ll see below.
Examples
Walden by Henry David Thoreau. In July of 1845, Henry David Thoreau walked into the woods and didn’t come out for two years, two months, and two days. This is the seminal memoir that resulted.
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer. The controversial account of the 1996 Everest disaster, as written by author-journalist Krakaeur, who was climbing the mountain on the same day that eight climbers were killed.
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Immortalized as one of the classic books about mourning, The Year of Magical Thinking recounts the grief Didion endured the year following the death of her husband.
The “themed” memoir
When you look back on your own timeline, is there a strong theme that defines your life or ties it all together? That’s the premise on which a “themed” memoir is based. In such a memoir, the author provides a retrospective of their past through the lens of one topic.
If you’re looking to write this type of memoir, it goes without saying that you’ll want to find a rock-solid theme to build your entire life story around. Consider asking yourself:
- What’s shaped your life thus far?
- What’s been a constant at every turning point?
- Has a single thing driven all of the decisions that you’ve made?
Examples
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. Throughout an up-and-down upbringing complete with a debilitating battle with depression, the single consistent thread in this author’s life remained football and Arsenal F.C.
Educated by Tara Westover. If there’s one lesson that we can learn from this remarkable memoir, it’s the importance of education. About a family of religious survivalists in rural Idaho, this memoir relates how the author overcame her upbringing and moved mountains in pursuit of learning.
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth. Now best known for its BBC adaptation, Worth’s account of her life as a midwife caught people’s imagination with its depiction of life in London’s East End in the 1950s.
The family memoir
In a family memoir, the author is a mirror that re-focuses the light on their family members — ranging from glimpses into the dysfunctional dynamics of a broken family to heartfelt family tributes. Pagemaker for windows 10.
Examples of this type of memoir
Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat. A love letter to her family that crosses generations, continents, and cultures, Brother, I’m Dying primarily tells the intertwined stories of two men: Danticat’s father and her uncle.
Native Country of the Heart by Cherrie Moraga. The mother is a self-made woman who grew up picking cotton in California. The daughter, a passionate queer Latina feminist. Weaving the past with the present, this groundbreaking Latinx memoir about a mother-daughter relationship confronts the debilitating consequences of Alzheimer's disease.
Guide To Writing Your Memoir
The childhood memoir
A subset of the autobiographical memoir, the childhood memoir primarily focuses (spoiler alert!) on the author’s childhood years. Most childhood memoirs cover a range of 5 - 18 years of age, though this can differ depending on the story.
Examples of this type of memoir
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. The groundbreaking winner of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, McCourt’s memoir covers the finer details of his childhood in impoverished Dublin.
Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl. Evoking his schoolboy days in the 1920s and 30s, the stories in this book shed light on themes and motifs that would play heavily in Dahl’s most beloved works: a love for sweets, a mischievous streak, and a distrust of authority figures.
The travel memoir
What happens when you put an author on a plane? Words fly!
Just kidding. While that’s perhaps not literally how the travel memoir subgenre was founded, being on the move certainly has something to do with it. Travel memoirs have been written for as long as people could traverse land — which is to say, a long time — but the modern travel narrative didn’t crystallize until the 1970s with the publication of Paul Theroux’s Great Railway Bazaar and Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia.
In a travel memoir, the author isn’t the star of the show: the place is. You can expect to find these elements in a travel memoir:
- A description of the place
- A discussion of the culture and people
- How the author experienced the place and dealt with setbacks during the journey
Examples of this type of memoir
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Proof that memoirs don’t have to tell catastrophic stories to succeed, this book chronicles Gilbert’s post-divorce travels, inspiring a generation of self-care enthusiasts, and was adapted into a film starring Julia Roberts.
The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux. A four-month journey from London to East Asia (and back again) by train, this is the book that helped found the modern travel narrative.
The celebrity memoir
The celebrity memoir is just that: a memoir published by a celebrity. Though many celebrity memoirs are admittedly ghostwritten, the best ones give us an honest and authentic look at the “real person” behind the public figure.
Note that we define “celebrity” broadly here as anyone who is (or has been) in the public spotlight. This includes:
- Political figures
- Sports stars
- Comedians
- Actors and actresses
- Musicians
Examples of this type of memoir
Paper Lion by George Plimpton. In 1960, the author George Plimpton joined up with the Detroit Lions to see if an ordinary man could play pro football. The answer was no, but his experience in training camp allowed him to tell the first-hand story of a team from inside the locker room.
Troublemaker by Leah Remini. The former star of TV’s The King of Queens tackles the Church of Scientology head-on, detailing her life in (and her decision to leave) the controversial religion.
It’s Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong. This is a great lesson on the way authors often write books to create their own legacy in the way they see fit. As history confirmed, Armstrong’s comeback success wasn’t entirely about the bike at all.
Now that you know what a memoir looks like, it’s time to get out your pen and paper, and write your own memoir! And if you want even more memoir examples to keep being inspired? We’ve got you covered: here are the 30 best memoirs of the last century.
How do you write a memoir outline that not only results in a really captivating book about your life, but also saves you hundreds of hours?
You know that you have a story to tell, but you don’t know how to get started with writing it.
Hint: It starts with a memoir outline.
But what should you include in a memoir outline? How do you structure it? What information should you add?
When I was writing my memoir, Crowdsourcing Paris, these are the questions that occurred to me about six months too late, after I had already finished the first draft. It was only then that I realized what my so-so memoir needed to become a great memoir: an outline.
Related: Book Outline 101
And so I set out to figure out how to write the perfect memoir outline. In this post, I want to share exactly what I learned, and how you can write a memoir outline that will save you time and increase your story’s quality.
Here are the steps to write a memoir outline:
Learning how to write a memoir outline will help you have a better memoir in a fraction of the time. How do I know? Because I tried to write a memoir—a real-life adventure story set in Paris—without an outline and failed. Then, I began to learn how to outline a memoir, and it changed my entire writing process.
#1 – Know when to create a memoir outline
The biggest mistake I made when I was writing my memoir was in creating my outline too late.
Honestly, I should have known better. This wasn’t my first book, it was my fifth, and each of those books relied heavily on outlines.
But writing a memoir felt different. After all, it was a story about the experience I had in Paris. All I had to do was remember, right? How hard could it be?
And so it wasn’t until after I had written the first draft of my memoir that I finally realized I wouldn’t be able to make it good without writing an outline.
So when is the best time to create a memoir outline? The answer: as early as possible.
Let me break it down:
If you’re thinking about writing a memoir, start with learning how to write a memoir outline.
If you’re in the middle of your memoir, take a step back and create an outline using the process below.
And if you’ve already finished your memoir and are thinking about next steps, it’s not too late to create your outline to help finetune your manuscript.
Outlining your memoir will help you at every stage of the process.
Even if you identify more with the pantsers on the planner vs pantser spectrum, having some kind of outline using the elements below will help you.
Here’s when to create a memoir outline:
- Before you start writing. If you haven’t started writing your memoir yet, then this is the perfect opportunity to get ahead and create your memoir outline before you start.
- If you’ve already started. Even if you’ve started writing your manuscript, you can still draft a memoir outline to use as a roadmap for your writing.
- Once you’ve completed your manuscript. Already finished writing your memoir? It’s not too late to create your memoir outline. This can help you identify any gaps in your story, and can help in your editing process.
Now that you’ve identified when it’s the right time to learn how to write a memoir outline, it’s time to move on to the next part, which is all about what to include in your outline.
To begin, we’ll start with your idea.
#2 – Write your memoir idea as a one-sentence premise
Why sum up your whole book idea in one sentence? Because you can’t write about everything. Good memoirs—books like Wild and Eat, Pray, Love—are not about your whole life. No, they’re about a specific season, a particular, very intense period of time.
One of the biggest mistakes new memoir writers make is to try to do too much in one book, to share too many stories, to talk too much about details the reader doesn’t care about.
That’s why, at the very beginning, you narrow your memoir idea down to a single sentence, because it forces you to focus on only the most important events for your story.
Then, anything that doesn’t fit in that sentence can go into the next book.
How do you write that sentence? Every premise for a memoir needs to contain three things: a character, a situation, and a lesson.
Here’s what to include in your memoir’s one-sentence premise:
- A character. For memoir, this is going to be you, the author.
- A situation. What is the specific situation you were going through that will make up the core of the story?
- A lesson. NY Times bestselling memoirist Marion Roach Smith says, “Memoir is about something you know after something you’ve been through.” What big life lesson did you learn from this situation?
How does this look practically? Here’s an example premise from my memoir, Crowdsourcing Paris:
“To raise $600 for his dream Paris trip, a cautious writer accomplishes 12 uncomfortable adventures given by his Internet followers, and through it all learns that the best stories come when you get out of your comfort zone.“
Let’s break that down. Character: a cautious writer. Situation: not quite enough money to make it in Paris. Lesson: the best stories come when you get out of your comfort zone.
Got it?
#3 – Find your memoir’s big moments
Your premise sets the scope of your story. Again, the point of memoir is not to share everything that ever happened to you. The purpose of memoir is to share a compact but powerful story about a specific situation that led to a life-changing realization.
Once you have your premise, then you can start making a list of all of the most important moments that fit into the scope of that premise.
Look especially for life and death moments, moments of intense romance (or betrayal), or moments of rebellion against society’s expectations.
Important Note:Don’t discount the intensity of these moments. One major realization I had as I wrote Crowdsourcing Paris was how easy it is to look back at our life and downplay the intensity of an event.
For example, there was this one moment when I experienced sheer terror in Paris. I was in the catacombs, the 170 miles of illegal caves and tunnels below the city, and I was lost and all alone in the pitch black with nothing but a tiny LED flashlight that was all but worthless. I honestly thought I might die there.
But for years, looking back at that moment, I would minimize the terror I felt. After all, five minutes later I was *spoiler alert* once again perfectly safe and happy.
But the good memoirist doesn’t diminish her terror or excitement or hurt or bliss. She puts a magnifying glass to it realizing that this is where the best parts of our stories lie.
It took me three years to learn that lesson, but when I did it changed everything for me.
Tips for adding the big moments to your memoir outline:
- Keep it relevant to your memoir’s premise. With your one-sentence premise from the previous step in mind, think about all of the big events or moments that fit into the scope of your story’s premise.
- Think big. Include any milestones, major moments, or memorable experiences that are relevant. Include any life and death moments, and moments of intense feeling or action.
- Don’t minimize the moment’s intensity. Try to remember how intense the feeling or experience was for you, and work to authentically re-create the experience for your readers.
#4 – Add the first act to your memoir outline
Good memoirs contain the best of a novel and a nonfiction self-help book. They should be entertaining and instructive at the same time.
And like a novel outline, good memoirs have a first, second, and third act.
Your job is to slot the events in your life into these three acts so that it feels like a cohesive story.
Here’s a trick to creating your outline: if the average memoir has 60 scenes or moments, your first act should have about 15 scenes, your second act should have about 30 scenes, and your final act should have the final 15 scenes (including your big climactic moment).
Here are a few tips to keep in mind about your memoir’s first act:
- Begin the story as late as possible. For example, my memoir is a travel memoir, and most travel memoirs begin when the author is first arriving in the country.
- Use flashbacks, but carefully. To begin the story as late as possible, you can use flashbacks to give the reader important information that happened earlier in the story. Be careful to only use full scenes, though, and not info-dump.
- Start big. Since my memoir is an adventure story, Shawn Coyne, creator of Story Grid, told me that my “very first scene needed to be about one of the biggest life and death moments of the book.” The same is true for your story. For example, if your story is about a romantic relationship, you can begin with a moment of love or rejection.
- End the first act with a major decision. As the main character, it’s your decisions that drive the story. Too often, memoir writers talk about the things that happened to them, not the things that they made happen. Instead, focus on the decisions you made that drove the events of your story forward, and make sure to include one of those important decisions toward the end of your first act.
What moments from your list of big moments that you made in step #2 feel like they would fit here in the first act?
#5 – Insert the second act
The second act is often the hardest part of writing any story, whether a memoir or novel.
It’s usually twice as long as the first and third acts, and often it can feel slow and disorganized if you don’t handle it right.
Here are a couple of tips to make your second act sing:
- Start your subplot here. One thing I learned from Save the Catis that if you’re story is going to have a subplot, it usually begins in the second act. In fact, it’s often the first scene in the second act.
- Center your second act on the all is lost moment. This might be weird, but my favorite thing to write is the all is lost moment, the moment when everything has gone wrong and the main character finally comes to the end of themselves. Why do I like it? Because it’s always this moment when the character finally learns they need to grow if they are going to make things right. Even better, that event happens in the second act, usually about 60 to 70 percent of the way through the story.
What moments from your list of big moments that you made in step #2 feel like they would fit here in the second act?
#6 – Include the final act of your memoir
The third, or final, act is where all the pieces come together and all the clarity that you’ve fought for in acts one and two finally start to pay off.
For me, the final act is always the most fun to write, the payoff to all the things you’ve been building throughout the book. Have fun with it!
Here are a few tips for your third and final act:
- Your final climactic moment comes here. The climax of a novel almost always happens in the third act, and the same is true for your memoir. The climax is when the main character makes a huge, life changing decision, evolving from the smaller person he was in act 1 to the much bigger person he is in act 3.
- This is also where you learn, once and for all, the big lesson of the memoir. Remember the lesson you outlined in your premise from step #1? The moment when you finally learn and cement that lesson happens in act three.
- End the story with the conclusion of your subplot. If your subplot begins in the second act, the final moment of your subplot works really well as the final scene of your memoir. For example, the subplot of my memoir was about my relationship with my wife, and so the final moment of the book is about holding my wife’s hand as we leave Paris together. Readers are subconsciously expecting this, and when you can deliver on it, it makes them feel like your book is working.
#7 – Structure each scene for your memoir outline
Now that you’ve outlined each act and placed the big moments of your story into each act, you can start thinking about how to structure each scene.
Here I’ve learned so much from Story Grid, which says every scene must contain five things.
The five things to include in each scene for your memoir:
- Inciting incident. The conflict that begins the action of the scene.
- Progressive complications. A series of events where bad goes to worse.
- Crisis. The most important part of the scene, when a character is presented with a choice between either two very bad things or two very good things. (For more on this, check out my article on literary crisis.)
- Climax. The payoff when the character makes the decision presented in the crisis.
- Resolution. The new world order after the decision is made.
These are traditionally elements for a novel, but when I went through each scene of my memoir and rewrote them to include these five elements, it made the book as a whole much better.
Now, I plan every scene with this structure, and you should too.
Your Memoir Outline Can Change Your Life
It sounds kind of grandiose to say that an outline can change your life, but it’s true. Not only will the outlining process I shared above save you hundreds of hours, it will result in much better memoir.
Writing Your Memoirs Template
Take the time to plan your memoir strategically, regardless of where you are in the process. Even if you’re not naturally a planner, spending time in this process will pay off for you.
Writing Your Memoirs Software
And don’t forget, writing a memoir should be fun. Happy writing!
How about you? What is your one-sentence memoir premise?
- How to Write a Memoir Outline: 7 Essential Steps For Your Memoir Outline - November 22, 2020
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