All categories. That’s the hard part.
Memoir is an identified genre, but when you examine the process you see that this genre sources writing from many others. So when you ask yourself what category of writer you should be acting as in order to write a solid memoir, you may have to answer: all of them.
Well, not all. Children’s lit, horror, fantasy—there probably are others as well that don’t play much into memoir. But many do. Still, memoir is unique, and borrowing from other genres doesn’t mean letting them take control.
Diary
First, of course, you’re writing stories from your life. So in a way, you’re letting readers peek into your diary. Let that influence you to stay raw, honest and vulnerable.
But you’re not a diarist; you’re a memoir author. You won’t be giving readers anything close to a day-by-day account of your life. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to include more than necessary to stay on your theme. Choose your stories carefully.
Some authors even use the structure of a diary for their memoir, but I think in most cases a memoir does not benefit from the diary structure. It makes me think the author chose the format just because it’s easier.
Fiction
Memoir authors can be surprised when their book starts sounding a lot like a novel. That’s a good thing. It should read that way, with devices from fiction like dialogue, description and character development. It can have suspense and foreshadowing, story arcs and time jumps, cliffhangers at the end of chapters.
But this is nonfiction. That means it has to be essentially true. The “essentially” part is that you aren’t expected to write a conversation in the exact words that were said at the time. Or if you describe what your dad was wearing, you can picture him in something he wore often and not feel an obligation to know whether he wore it on the day in question. But “essentially” also means you have to get the essence of the conversation right and capture the essence of the person you’re describing.
News Report
Instead of sounding like a novel, some chapters may sound more like a news report—a straightforward description of events. So part of the time you’re a reporter, providing readers with a detailed account of something that happened in your life. Like other journalism students, I learned the five W’s: who, what, where, when and why. There’s also how. Keep these in mind when describing what occurred.
Journalism students also learn how to make a story short and dry. Newspaper articles are, or at least were, cut from the bottom, so you have to get all of your important facts in at the beginning and let them proceed in diminished order from there. There’s no room for adjectives, either. Just report the facts.
That short-and-dry aspect has little bearing on memoir writing. Make your writing concise and don’t ramble, but certainly “dry” is not a description you want for your book. You can start anywhere, and you have license to indulge in description. Remember the “show, don’t tell” mantra, which is true for both news report and memoir. If you describe the events well, the reader will know how you’re feeling about them.
Feature Article
If a magazine or website did a profile on you, what would it say? It would have a theme and then support that theme with pertinent stories from your life. A memoir is kind of a very long feature article about you.
But it’s not quite that, because it’s written in more of a fiction format. The bigger difference, though, is that it’s from your point of view. It’s inherently biased, not objective. Since you’re writing it, you don’t have to balance the piece with other people’s opinions, good or bad, about you.
History/Textbook
Memoirs teach readers about all sorts of topics that surround the person’s life. Like any book or movie, it should increase the reader’s knowledge in addition to offering an entertaining story.
But when your memoir captures a time period or geographical location so comprehensively that sections morph into a class lecture, you’ve gone too far. I often remind memoir authors specifically that they’re not writing a textbook.
Op-ed
I also remind memoir authors who are using their book to make a point that this is a memoir, not an op-ed. Persuasive writing is a talent, but in a memoir it has to be under wraps a bit. You can be fighting for justice or promoting one side of a cause, but you have to fold that into your storytelling. You’re not writing a diatribe.
Humor
Not every memoir can have humor, but authors of even the darkest tales can find a way to lighten up between tough memories. It gives readers a break. If your memoir doesn’t cover a tragedy and is more upbeat, humor adds a compelling reason for readers to recommend it to friends.
Young Adult
Memoir writing can be intellectual and complex, and some memoir topics may be too mature for young minds. For the most part, though, memoir is perfect reading for teens. They can learn about a person and what life was like during the time period covered and within the culture described. So if you’re struggling to explain your life in the most highfalutin language, you may do better to dumb it down enough to keep the reading flowing.
More Ideas
There are lots of structures to choose from when you’re writing a memoir. Food can be an important element in your story, so maybe your book is a memoir/cookbook hybrid. Perhaps a home figured prominently in your life and you describe each room the way you might for an interior design magazine. Or your life may take place in so many locations that your memoir is part travelogue.
Wear as many writers’ hats as you need in order to craft the memoir you envision. You’re a memoir author. That means you’re hoping to be a master of multiple writing categories.