You have, right? These are some memoir examples from both well-known and lesser known authors: If you are interested in writing a memoir, I assume you have read a number of published memoirs. Instead, your memoir is about the lesson you’ve learned and can share with others.” What is a memoir example? Keep this in mind even before you start planning your memoir, as NY Book Editors advise, “Your memoir is not about you. Keep these thoughts and feelings for your journal. A journal is written for personal reasons, and almost certainly does not contain any storytelling elements in it. Heed the advice from the team at NY Book Editors that your memoir is “about the lesson you’ve learned and can share with others.” A memoir covers a certain period or specific events in your life, and not your whole life. You no doubt are aware of some of the memoirs that were turned into movies in recent years.Īs the diagram above shows, think of an autobiography as the whole pie, and the memoir a slice of that pie. Over the past few years the memoir as a genre, has become very popular. The only antidote to this problem is to either become a better writer, or to find a more interesting story to tell.” It may be worthwhile to heed the advice of 20-year veteran and expert author, Jane Friedman, “It’s not written in a way that makes it stand out, or it could be written poorly. And writing a memoir can be a complex, daunting exercise, depending on the subject or topic of your book. If you want your memoir to be successful, you will also need storytelling skills. Writing your memoir is different to journaling moments or events in your life.
The key terms in the above definition are: moments or events. It is not an autobiography, but rather a true experience from the writer’s life, that is creatively written and incorporates research. The complex tangles of saying what you mean without promising you will mean it forever.A memoir is part of your life story in that it’s a collection of experiences, memories, or events that take place in a person’s life. Susan Hall, “ Now and Then: The Binary Dimension of the Authorial Voice in Memoir” ( Numero Cinq)įinally, ways to bring yourself to the page without losing it. Robert Vivian, “ The Essay As An Open Field” ( Numero Cinq) Phillip Lopate, “ Reflection and Retrospection: A Pedagogic Mystery Story” ( The Fourth Genre) Michael Noll, “ Apply the (Perhaps) Most Famous Fiction Exercise of All Times to Your Essays”(Brevity Nonfiction Blog) Michael Downs, “ Me, Myself, I: Idiosyncrasy and Structure in Nonfiction” ( Triquarterly) Lisa Knopp, “ Perhapsing: The Use of Speculation in Creative Nonfiction” ( Brevity)
#MEMOIR ESSAY EXAMPLES HOW TO#
Kurt Vonnegut, “ How to Write With Style” (PDF) Karen Babine, “ 8 Variations on the Idea of a Sentence” ( Brevity) Jonathan Lethem, “ The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism” ( Harper’s) Gwendolyn Edward, “ Beyond Perhapsing: “Split-Toning Techniques for Speculation in Nonfiction” ( Brevity) Then voice and various voice-related techniques. Lindsey Barrett, “ 7 Ways to Seduce Your Reader” ( Hunger Mountain) Linnie Green, “ In the Mines: A Craft Essay on Creative Nonfiction” ( Cleaver Magazine) Krys Malcolm Belk, “ On ‘First Seen in Print in 1987, According to Merriam Webster’” ( Black Warrior Review) John Proctor, “ 7 Things I Learned From Reading 15 List Essays” ( Numero Cinq) Jennifer Gravley, “ White Space: An Annotation” ( Brevity) de Cleyre, “ Begin Again: On Essays in Nonfiction” ( Ploughshares blog)Įrika Anderson, “ I Craft, Therefore I Am: Creating a Persona Through Syntax and Style” ( Hunger Mountain) de Cleyre,” Morphology of the Essay” ( Ploughshares blog)Į. Moving into structure and forms-how to fashion the best vehicle for the piece.Īnder Monson, “ The Designed Essay: Design As Essay” (PDF)Į. Joan Didion, “ On Keeping a Notebook” (PDF) And why to keep them.Īnnie Dillard, “ Write Till You Drop” ( New York Times) Since I’ve been working on a large batch of CNF lately-and Phillips is so helpful in that space of fear and concern- I thought I’d share other essays and resources that I’ve found to be helpful. I’m starting there because it cleans the room and returns me to the self who values writing more than having a clean house. The quote above comes from one of my favorite writer self-soothing blankets, namely, “ Outlaw Heart” by Jayne Anne Phillips.
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