The document provides guidance on finding structure for a memoir. It discusses different types of structures like chronological order, themes, categories, pivotal events, expertise, and seasons. Examples are given like using a mother's contest entries or yoga poses. The document emphasizes that the subject and narrator should guide the structure. Writers are prompted to consider their narrator's wants, needs, experiences, and journey. Overall it aims to help writers investigate organizing principles and build confidence for their memoir.

1. Your Memoir’s Focus
Writing About Yourself by
Writing About the World
Presenter: Emily Grosvenor
@emilygrosvenor
www.emilygrosvenor.com

2. Why is memoir so freakin hard?
• Cruise ship director and captain in one
• Adam, Eve and the hand of God, OLD
vs. NEW testament God
• The director and the star
• The traveler and mapmaker in one
• The ship and your emotional life is the
sea
YOU ARE THE LIVED EXPERIENCE AND
THE ONE WHO MAKES SENSE OF IT

3. How does it happen?
Michelangelo’s David: It
was always there, the
artist just whittled away
the excess.
Pantsing vs. Planning

4. Caveat: Your process is your process
OR: Why you won’t catch me telling you there is
only one path to writing a memoir

5. Your lens is your lens

6. Your style is your style

7. Memoir vs. Autobiography
Autobiography is a book detailing the
entirety of an author’s life from birth to
end.
Memoir is a selected time of life, a slice of
the piece, the author decides how large or
small that slice is.

8. Structure
“I’d like to raise a quiet hand in defense of
structure. Indeed, it has always seemed to me
that structure defines memoir — elevates it
above mere autobiography, distinguishes it
from journalism and essay, rescues it from
narcissism. Structure releases the larger,
universal story inside the particular this-
happened-to-me. It signals an author’s
willingness to think not just about events, but
about themes.” – Beth Kephart

9. Theme and Category
Theme: The great truth and wisdom imparted
to the reader. Examples: resilience, gratitude,
the persistent evils of man, forgiveness, love,
constant reinvention, the saving graces of
nature, etc.
Category: Hints at some of the built-in
audiences for your memoir; parenting, travel,
coming-of-age, dysfunctional family, religious,
grief, divorce

10. What structure does
• Allows you to take an aesthetic stand on what
has happened to you
• Provides a narrative framework for the
story/stories you are going to tell
• Connects lines between seemingly disparate
events
• Generates interest – a “way in” for the reader
• Adds a layer of meaning to the story

11. GOALS
• Investigate structure and organizing
principles for memoir
• Discover compelling examples of
structure and focus
• Complete simple exercises to clear out
the brush on this path
• Build the confidence to take the next
steps

12. Finding Memoir Structure
•“I wrote a book about my family”
•Structured around the contests the
mother entered
•Themes emerge organically from the
structure
•Structure carries inherent ups and down
that propel the story
What have I learned about
life that I want to share in
memoir form?

13. What does my narrator want?
“I always ask myself what my
narrator wants. Once the
narrator wants something
there is automatically conflict.”
-- Wendy Dale
narrrative want: n. The thing
your main character desires
most -- whether it is an idea, a
feeling, an object or a person

14. What does my character need?
What he/she needs is
the subtext and may be
in conflict with the
character explicitly
wants
For the slice of life you are
interested in writing about,
what did you want? What did
you need?

15. The Subtleties of Structure
•“I wrote a childhood memoir.”
•Chronological events from birth to
whenever
•OR IS IT?
•Baby Book, Hair, The Lion, Involving
Animals, Julie Hit Me Three Times, Daniel,
There She Is, Blood of the Lamb,
Unexpected Injuries
Write a scene in which we meet an
important person in your memoir.

16. The Subject Creates the Structure
•Each chapter named after a yoga pose,
with the levels of difficulty mirroring the
narrator’s quest
•The narrator is called to an activity as a
disciple, out of a need. Ie. Thoreau, and his
quest to live deliberately.
•Themes emerge from the focus of the book
What is an activity that you know
deeply that your body was called to
do? Is there a moment you can walk
us through where something you did
caused you to reflect on the rest of
your life? Write.

17. The Play-by-Play
•The structure is time-based, advantages and disadvantages to that approach
•A year, for example, is a structure, but you’re making a value judgment
•Can be popular in the marketplace and fits with a culture that likes
resolutions
What is the season you are writing about? What is the specific
frame you are using to bookend your memoir?

18. The “What Happened After”
•The pivotal event happens BEFORE the book starts and launches the
character on the journey
•The story catches the narrator in a particular moment of emotional
upheaval and transition
•It’s all about the FALLOUT
Pinpoint a moment in your life when everything
changed in an instant. Who were you before? Who did
you become?

19. Expert and Hybrid Memoir
•An established expert in the subject matter of the book, but the
relationship between the author and subject is the story
•The narrator’s personal journey is paramount to the book’s existence
Am I the expert or does my memoir show me becoming the
expert? What is my chosen field and how does it offer a
“way in” for the reader? If I’m not the expert, just as expert
in my own life, what is the journey my narrator is on?

20. Blogging While Writing Memoir
Not necessarily talking
blog-to-book projects
Demographic Profiles:
Who they are
Psychographic Profiles:
What they care about

21. What is your memoir about?
The hardest question of all. Give me
your one sentence description of
what your memoir is about.

22. Connect with Emily
Send hate mail to:
emilygrosvenor@gmail.com
Find me on Twitter:
@emilygrosvenor
Instagram: @emilygrosvenor