5 Essential Tips for Memoir Writers
Writing a memoir can be highly rewarding for you and your readers. Here are 5 top tips to make your memoir more effective:
Tell a story in your memoir
Guide the reader through events in your life. Be vivid and show how situations unfolded. Memoir is not autobiography, so don’t relate everything that happened. Focus on specifics and find a structure that serves your story.
Focus on theme in your memoir
A memoir is often about a part of someone’s life, perhaps a period or relationship. As you write, a theme may emerge – love, resilience or loss. Keeping this theme in mind can help to focus the story.
Establish a voice
Being yourself and allowing readers to hear your ‘voice’ will make your writing more engaging and help readers to trust you as narrator. Tell them your feelings about what happened but leave readers room to make their own judgements.
Treat people like characters
Stepping back from your story can help you to see people as the reader will. How would a novelist describe the people if they were characters to give a sense of their personalities.
Use drama in your memoir
Draw the reader into the world of your story by describing events as they happened. This can make your memoir vivid and emotionally affecting. Quote dialogue, or use some artistic licence if you can’t remember it. But don’t ‘make stuff up’. Aim is to portray the essential truth in your story.
Link:
National Association of Memoir Writers – US based with lots of resources.
Perfect Aspect 