Infographic by biography writing service Story Terrace on 'How to Write a Memoir'. Visit StoryTerrace.com to have your biography professionally written by one of our ghostwriters, or for more how-to writing guides.

1. Where to start writing The story Write it all down The tone Logistics
How to Write a Memoir
• It is your memoir so it can begin
wherever you like.
• Provided you give some small
amount of context, e.g. how
old you were and where you
were living etc., you can begin
anywhere.
• Remember, it’s a memoir not an
autobiography, so each memory
should be a mini story unto itself.
• No one can tell you what to write
about, it’s all down to subjective
significance.
• Think about one of the most
significant times in your life or a
particularly significant event that
occurred and focus on that.
• Remember, if you’re getting
bored writing it, chances are
we’ll get bored reading it, so pick
something good!
• Just because you are writing
about true events does not mean
the narrative should be dull.
• Description is key, you need
to convey everything that you
experience when you recount
the memory in your mind.
• Include all the senses: what
could you hear? Smell? What did
you feel?
• Make the reader feel as if it
could even be one of their own
memories. That is the key to a
powerful memoir.
• Whilst writing any kind of
narrative, it is often easy to
switch between tones and
tenses as you progress, which
can effect the consistency of a
piece. Therefore, it is important
to choose a writing style and
tense and stick to it.
• An example of when changing
the tense is appropriate however,
is through reflective writing,
which is often used at the
beginning or end of a memoir.
• When writing a memoir, the most
useful type of plan would be
some form of timeline.
• A dated list of events, outlining
what happened at what time
and what occurred in relation to
other events.
• Remember, you do not need
to relay your entire life story by
going through a day-by-day
account of everything that’s ever
happened to you. Just provide
a bit of context and stick to the
good bits.
The Framework
• So, to recap, here are our simple
steps on how to start your
memoir:
Pick a
story you
want to tell
Devise a
quick timeline
of events
Divide events
in subsections
or chapters
Add events
and details to
each section
Conduct some
contextual
research
Think about
where you
want to begin
your memoir
Choose
a writing
style
Get writing!
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