personal essay differs from autobiography and memoir

CRAFT: What’s the Difference Between Memoir and Personal Essay? by Suzanne Farrell Smith

January 11, 2022.

It’s the most common question my creative nonfiction students ask. We know memoir and personal essay overlap. Both tell true stories from the author’s life with intimacy and honesty. And both are crafted with literary devices: scene, dialogue, sensory detail… That’s what makes creative nonfiction compelling. We love true stories and we love to be entertained.

So where do they differ? To answer, I draw from several resources on writing creative nonfiction and illustrate with two Hippocampus pieces. By my measure, memoir and personal essay differ along four lines: focus, mining, voice, and sense.

• Focus on Self vs. Focus on Relating

The memoirist focuses on the self and what has changed over time. Readers may identify— I went through something similar or I changed in the same way —but the memoirist’s driving force is self-exploration.

In the memoir essay “Fits and Starts,” Matthew Zanoni Müller tells a short, significant story about an afternoon in childhood as a relatively new immigrant to the United States. Müller’s friend, David, coaxes him out of the house and into the world. While Müller’s descriptions of David and others are important to the story, we really only know Müller. We are inside his child mind, being pushed, gently, along with him, step by step.

The personal essayist focuses on the self, too, but seeks to relate. Where, in culture, place, and time, does her story fit in? Which of her questions do others ask? Accordingly, we talk about personal essay’s “universal theme.” The writer paints herself against the backdrop of humanity.

Linda Anne Silver announces the universal with her title, “The Capacity of a Human.” In the wake of her daughter’s death, Silver searches for a new normal that incorporates profound grief. With her husband, she travels around Lake Superior, and along the way gains insight from novelists, fellow travelers, parents of children who’ve died in mass tragedies, and the lake itself.

• Memory Mining vs. Experiential Mining

My boys love the game Minecraft, gathering materials to build underwater palaces and schools in the sky. Where you mine determines what you find. The same goes for writing. The memoirist “relies almost solely on memory,” writes Sue William Silverman in “The Meandering River.” He mines his mind, perhaps consults artifacts from his past.

In Müller’s memoir, all the important details, the who-and-what and beginning-middle-end, come from the author’s memory. “Mostly we’d play with cars,” he recalls, “arranging them in a long line and driving them slowly down the hallway toward the bedroom, moving each one forward an inch at a time.” Müller remembers how playtime mirrored the halting way he adapted to the U.S. “ Autoschlange , I called it, and my friend understood what it meant, because his father was German too.”

The personal essayist mines her memory, too, but also mines the landscape of her evolving life. She collects data and processes in-the-moment interactions.

Silver writes, “I examine things and snap photos, acting as a tourist.” We understand she is not just examining flora, fauna, and food, but also the circumstances, the places hope might surface. She draws from the novel Grief is the Thing with Feathers to understand “the crow of grief had moved in with us when Allison was first diagnosed.” She sets herself apart from “[t]he parents of Newtown or Manchester or Aleppo” while associating with all parents who’ve lost a child. She even researches on the page: “I try Googling, ‘Ontario stone piles,’ on my phone, but there’s no signal here.”

• Voices vs. Voice

Memoir contains multiple voices, including, at minimum, the voices of the past self and present self (what Sue William Silverman calls “song of innocence” and “song of experience”). Voices speak to readers, who reply. Someone who knows a memoirist might say, I had no idea that happened to you .

Müller’s memoir is entirely from his young self’s point of view. That big world he was persuaded to explore? A car, a grocery store, David’s house… places that, to a child in a new country, loomed large. “I was happy,” Müller’s child-voice writes, “because I knew that … soon we’d come back down and around the block and I’d be home again.” Moments later, as his child voice considers turning back, his adult voice offers meaning: “I didn’t want to compromise the heroic feelings I had just earned.”

In personal essay, one voice dominates. The narrator is a current version of the author who opines, worries, delights, fears. Friends might listen and say, I had no idea you felt that way .

Silver wrestles with herself. “Our daughter’s death feels like a failure,” she admits, “as if we weren’t paying attention when danger stalked.” She notices beauty for the first time since the death, then wonders how she’ll ever find it again. She questions, doubts, and guesses, seemingly in real time. There’s no divide between innocence and experience: the song is both.

• Past Sense vs. Present Sense

Memoir conveys a sense of the past, even if the events happened recently. The author has emerged and looks back to articulate meaning. Whether written in past or present tense, what’s palpable is the past sense . The author asks, what happened?

Müller signals the past sense with his opening line: “The first couple years we were in America…” It’s a before-time story, one that proved pivotal in some way. The author can examine the past because his life is different now. To underscore, Müller uses the past real conditional tense: “We’d play under the shadows of the cherry trees.” Memoirists use this tense to convey the general past in a way that feels both fresh and wistful.

In personal essay, there’s a sense things aren’t buttoned up. The author writes not to articulate meaning, but to find meaning in the first place. Personal essay feels open, like a thought experiment. The author asks, what is happening?

Silver’s first paragraph lists inspirations for her trip, ending with, “the need comes after our fifty-year-old daughter dies on a midsummer’s morning and we are numb: wanting to flee the sadness, not knowing how to move forward.” She’s in limbo: “I don’t know the answer, don’t know how I should grieve.” She repeatedly questions. About a missed chance to see the northern lights, she wonders, “Had we seen them, I might have latched on to the experience as a sign of—what? Hope? Resolution? Transformation?”

It’s true that memoir and personal essay often blend. New, hybrid forms emerge. Undefinable forms. So why draw lines between them?

I tell my students that understanding is power; when you get into your writing workshop, sharpen your tools, practice your craft moves, shape your piece . If we know what makes a memoir, we can push that much deeper into our past, search for the particular nerve that will animate our past selves, give us ah-ha insights. And if we know what makes a personal essay, we can reach that much wider into the tangle of free-floating human stories, search for, maybe even find, connections that change everything.

References and Resources:

• Faulkner, Sandra L., and Sheila Squillante. Writing the Personal: Getting Your Stories onto the Page . Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Brill | Sense, 2016.
• Miller, Brenda, and Suzanne Paola. Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2005.
• Müller, Matthew Zanoni. “ Fits and Starts .” Hippocampus Magazine (December 2013).
• Silver, Linda Anne. “ The Capacity of a Human .” Hippocampus Magazine (May 2020).
• Silverman, Sue William. “The Meandering River.” The Writer’s Chronicle (September 2008).

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  2 comments for “ CRAFT: What’s the Difference Between Memoir and Personal Essay? by Suzanne Farrell Smith ”

This was so helpful, I even took notes! Thank you for writing this.

As fabulous as ever, Suzanne. Love, Aunt Mary

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Personal Essay vs. Autobiography Essay vs. Memoir Essay 

The writing field is broad and consists of probably hundreds of different essays. While some fall under different categories, others are in the same group and may be confusing because of their strikingly similar features.

Three of these essays are personal, autobiographies, and memoirs. These three genres are very similar, so it’s easy to get confused. However, they each have particular features that make them unique from one another.

This article will discuss these three essays to differentiate them because they are all similar yet different types of writing that often overlap in content and structure.

What Is A Personal Essay?

A personal essay is a piece of writing that describes a personal experience. It is typically written in first-person and is nonfiction but can also be fictionalized.

In its most general form, the personal essay can be any piece of writing that tells a story about an event or topic in your life.

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What is an autobiography essay.

An autobiography is a story of one’s life. In this essay, you have to talk about your life and explain why it has been important in making you who you are today. The requirements for an autobiography are the following:

• A brief introduction that describes your background and experiences growing up
• A summary of each chapter and what it covers, including key events or incidents  
• An overall conclusion that summarizes all of the chapters together

What Is A Memoir Essay?

A memoir is a first-person account of a person’s life. They are usually told in chronological order and are written by the person who lived the experience. Memoirs can also be written by someone else who knew them well or met them at different stages of their life.

A memoir usually shares personal information about the narrator, which may be painful and difficult to talk about publicly, but they feel necessary for others to know about their lives.

A good example would be when someone writes about overcoming addiction or abuse as part of recovering from that experience.

Here is a detailed guide on how to write a memoir essay 

Similarities and differences between memoir autobiography and personal essays

The similarities.

One of the major similarities between an autobiography and a memoir essay is that both are written about the writer’s life. They both have a similar structure and are personal. Additionally, the similarities between autobiography and memoir essays lie in the words’ literal meaning.

An autobiography is a personal account of one’s life written by that person, and a memoir is a recollection of past experiences, usually in the first person. Further, both are nonfiction writing based on actual events and real people.  

Both pieces are personal; the author shares their life experiences with the readers in an autobiography. In a memoir, the author shares their experiences with the readers. However, a memoir essay usually focuses more on one particular event or period in one’s life.

The other similarity between these two types of essays is that they rely heavily on facts and figures to support their arguments. Authors often include dates, names, places, and other important life details in autobiographies. Memoir essays also use this technique to a lesser extent because they focus on only one event or period rather than their entire life story.

Likewise, an autobiography and a memoir are written from an individual perspective. Whether you’re writing about yourself or someone else’s life story, your point of view will come through clearly in the text.

Further, the two pieces use personal experiences to relate to the audience. The writer uses their own life as an example to support their thesis statement. They share what they have learned in their lives, what they have experienced, and how they became who they are today.

The writer expresses their feelings towards these experiences, which allows the reader to understand them better.

On the other hand, personal essays resemble autobiographies and memoirs in several ways. Personal essays are written about something that happened or some incident that has occurred in a person’s life. This means they are personal and tell a story from the first-person viewpoint.

Further, all three essays are similar because they deal with real-life situations which have happened to a particular person. Additionally, they can be entertaining, inspirational, or informative.

The Differences  

While personal essays, autobiographies, and memoirs are similar in some ways, they are also very different. The main difference between these essays is their lengths.

An autobiography takes place over a more extended period, such as a lifetime, while a memoir can take place over a short period. Personal essays are shorter than memoirs because they tell a specific event or circumstance.

For example, you might write about your life from birth to the present day. You don’t need to have lived through everything you describe. It is okay to use your imagination or research to fill in the gaps.

In contrast, when writing about a particular moment in time, such as your childhood or teen years, it’s important if you experienced it yourself because this gives you credibility as an author.

Another difference between these essays is that an autobiography often focuses on significant events in someone’s life. In contrast, a memoir focuses more on specific circumstances which may be less important but still influential on their life journey.

For example, if someone was born with hearing loss and went through life with hearing aids and cochlear implants, they could write about those experiences in great detail.

An autobiography is written by its subject and covers their life from birth until now. A memoir can be written by anyone, including historians and journalists but must be published after its subject’s death.

A personal essay is a type of essay that focuses on the author and their life experiences. It can be written about anything from the first time you tried sushi to why you are passionate about science, but it is focused on yourself as a person.

Additionally, in an autobiographical essay, the writer shares their own life story with readers through stories or anecdotes rather than facts like they would in a biography. This usually means more focus on specific memories than generalizations about what it’s like to be human.

However, it can still include information about yourself as an individual if that’s what interests you most.  

Memoirs are similar in many ways, too. They tell stories from real-life experiences rather than fictional narratives like novels or plays might do.

Still, memoirists often have ulterior motives beyond sharing personal details with others, such as making money off book sales.

Personal essays can be about anything. While an autobiography is technically also a personal essay, memoirs are more like first-person historical accounts of specific events in one’s life.

This can make them easier to read since they often contain minimal embellishment and are usually very straightforward in their approach.

Unlike autobiographies and memoirs, personal essays don’t have set rules or guidelines. They are essentially just collections of thoughts and feelings written by the author. Their structure will vary greatly depending on who is writing them and why they’re doing so.

Because of this freedom to write whatever you want as long as it’s interesting, personal essays can be more vulnerable than other genres regarding writing style.  

Another major difference between personal essays and memoirs is length. A memoir can be very long, covering many years or even decades in the author’s life. A personal essay will usually be much shorter. It may also focus on one specific event or experience rather than cover many years as a memoir does.

Personal essays and memoirs are both personal narratives that explore the author’s life. They have similar components but have different purposes. Personal essays are written for an audience interested in the writer’s experiences or opinions, whereas memoirs are written about events in one’s life for entertainment.

Memoirs can be written from any point in time, as long as they are written about someone else’s life. It must include at least one major event in the protagonist’s life and tell readers about it from their point of view.

Personal essays are personal accounts of events from the author’s life that they want to share with other people. The focus of a personal essay is on the writer themselves and how they feel about a subject.

The writer may also talk about something that happened to them recently, such as losing a loved one or getting a divorce which affected their lives in some way.  

Different writers choose to write about different subjects, but no matter what topic is decided upon, it must always be based on facts from the writer’s own life rather than fiction stories made up by their imaginations

Home » Writing » Autobiography vs. Biography vs. Memoir

What is a Biography?

A biography, also called a bio, is a non-fiction piece of work giving an objective account of a person’s life. The main difference between a biography vs. an autobiography is that the author of a biography is not the subject. A biography could be someone still living today, or it could be the subject of a person who lived years ago.

Biographies include details of key events that shaped the subject’s life, and information about their birthplace, education, work, and relationships. Biographers use a number of research sources, including interviews, letters, diaries, photographs, essays, reference books, and newspapers. While a biography is usually in the written form, it can be produced in other formats such as music composition or film.

If the target person of the biography is not alive, then the storytelling requires an immense amount of research. Interviews might be required to collect information from historical experts, people who knew the person (e.g., friends and family), or reading other older accounts from other people who wrote about the person in previous years. In biographies where the person is still alive, the writer can conduct several interviews with the target person to gain insight on their life.

The goal of a biography is to take the reader through the life story of the person, including their childhood into adolescence and teenage years, and then their early adult life into the rest of their years. The biography tells a story of how the person learned life’s lessons and the ways the person navigated the world. It should give the reader a clear picture of the person’s personality, traits, and their interaction in the world.

Biographies can also be focused on groups of people and not just one person. For example, a biography can be a historical account of a group of people from hundreds of years ago. This group could have the main person who was a part of the group, and the author writes about the group to tell a story of how they shaped the world.

Fictional biographies mix some true historical accounts with events to help improve the story. Think of fictional biographies as movies that display a warning that the story is made of real characters, but some events are fictional to add to the storyline and entertainment value. A lot of research still goes into a fictional biography, but the author has more room to create a storyline instead of sticking to factual events.

Examples of famous biographies include:

• His Excellency: George Washington  by Joseph J. Ellis
• Einstein: The Life and Times  by Ronald William Clark
• Princess Diana – A Biography of The Princess of Wales  by Drew L. Crichton

What is an Autobiography?

An autobiography is the story of a person’s life written by that person. Because the author is also the main character of the story, autobiographies are written in the first person. Usually, an autobiography is written by the person who is the subject of the book, but sometimes the autobiography is written by another person. Because an autobiography is usually a life story for the author, the theme can be anything from religious to a personal account to pass on to children.

The purpose of an autobiography is to portray the life experiences and achievements of the author. Therefore, most autobiographies are typically written later in the subject’s life. It’s written from the point of view of the author, so it typically uses first person accounts to describe the story.

An autobiography often begins during early childhood and chronologically details key events throughout the author’s life. Autobiographies usually include information about where a person was born and brought up, their education, career, life experiences, the challenges they faced, and their key achievements.

On rare occasions, an autobiography is created from a person’s diary or memoirs. When diaries are used, the author must organize them to create a chronological and cohesive story. The story might have flashbacks or flashforwards to describe a specific event, but the main storyline should follow chronological order from the author’s early life to their current events.

One of the main differences between an autobiography vs. a biography is that autobiographies tend to be more subjective. That’s because they are written by the subject, and present the facts based on their own memories of a specific situation, which can be biased. The story covers the author’s opinions on specific subjects and provides an account of their feelings as they navigate certain situations. These stories are also very personal because it’s a personal account of the author’s life rather than a biography where a third party writes about a specific person.

Examples of famous autobiographies include:

• The Story of My Life  by Helen Keller
• The Diary of a Young Girl  by Anne Frank
• Losing My Virginity  by Richard Branson

What is a Memoir?

Memoir comes from the French word  mémoire , meaning memory or reminiscence. Similar to an autobiography, a memoir is the story of a person’s life written by that person. These life stories are often from diary entries either from a first-person account or from a close family member or friend with access to personal diaries.

The difference between a memoir vs. an autobiography is that a memoir focuses on reflection and establishing an emotional connection, rather than simply presenting the facts about their life. The author uses their personal knowledge to tell an intimate and emotional story about the private or public happenings in their life. The author could be the person in the story, or it can be written by a close family member or friend who knew the subject person intimately. The topic is intentionally focused and does not include biographical or chronological aspects of the author’s life unless they are meaningful and relevant to the story.

Memoirs come in several types, all of which are written as an emotional account of the target person. They usually tell a story of a person who went through great struggles or faced challenges in a unique way. They can also cover confessionals where the memoir tells the story of the author’s account that contradicts another’s account.

This genre of writing is often stories covering famous people’s lives, such as celebrities. In many memoir projects, the celebrity or person of interest needs help with organization, writing the story, and fleshing out ideas from the person’s diaries. It might take several interviews before the story can be fully outlined and written, so it’s not uncommon for a memoir project to last several months.

Memoirs do not usually require as much research as biographies and autobiographies, because you have the personal accounts in diary entries and documents with the person’s thoughts. It might require several interviews, however, before the diary entries can be organized to give an accurate account on the person’s thoughts and emotions. The story does not necessarily need to be in chronological order compared to an autobiography, but it might be to tell a better story.

Examples of famous memoirs include:

• Angela’s Ashes  by Frank McCourt
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings  by Maya Angelou
• Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S.  Grant by Ulysses S. Grant

Autobiography vs. Biography vs. Memoir Comparison Chart

Check out some of our blogs to learn more about memoirs:

• What is a memoir?
• 5 tips for writing a memoir
• Your memoir is your legacy

Ready to get started on your own memoir, autobiography, or biography? Download our free desktop book-making software, BookWright .

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Memoir vs. Autobiography: Navigating the Differences Between Personal Life Stories

• September 28, 2023

Table of Contents:

What exactly is a memoir, what does an autobiography mean, potential differences between memoir vs. autobiography:, perspective:, autobiography:, narrative style:, key characteristics and profound details, final words:.

The difference between an autobiography and a memoir is often misunderstood. Both are based on real events and characters but follow distinct plot lines and narrative frameworks.

Understanding the distinction between memoir vs. autobiography is crucial to creating a story based on your experiences.

It is more personal and close than an autobiography. The word “memoir,” which comes from the French word mémoire and means “memory” or “reminisce,” is also used. Many people like it because it lets authors use their life experiences to write a story that helps or inspires others.

Memoirs can be about a lot of different things. You can write about your youth, an important event as an author, or any other time that made you who you are now.

Understanding the differences between memoir vs. autobiography is another great way to describe yourself. It’s okay to talk about what you know about yourself. Furthermore, you can discuss issues that interest you and your audience.

When someone writes about their life, it’s a personal story. You observe your life when you write a book because you lived it.

Its roots are in the Greek words “auto” and “graphy,” which mean “self-writing” or “writing about oneself.” It tells about the author’s family history, relationships, schooling, and work, among other things.

An autobiography tells stories from the first-person point of view. A famous person, like a leader, artist, scientist, or teacher, usually writes it. There are many reasons to write it; you can also consider autobiography writing services for error-free writing.

Some writers also use it to talk about their political or religious ideas. Some people use it to get the word about their ideas, goods, or services.

Memoir and autobiography are both genres of literature that tell the story of someone’s life, but they have distinct differences in focus, scope, and narrative style.

Below are some prominent differences between memoir vs. autobiography:

• Well-known individuals, such as public figures, celebrities, or historical figures, often write autobiographies.
• They provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of the author’s life, covering everything from childhood to adulthood.
• The narrative typically follows a chronological order, presenting a factual and detailed account of events.
• Autobiographies often aim to offer insight into the author’s character, motivations, and the influences that shaped them.
• On the other hand, memoirs can be written by individuals from various backgrounds and may not necessarily be widely known.
• A memoir focuses on a specific aspect of the author’s life, such as a particular period, a significant event, or a theme like personal growth or overcoming challenges.
• Memoirs may not follow a strictly chronological structure; instead, they may use a more thematic or narrative-driven approach.
• Authors of memoirs often reflect on the meaning and significance of their experiences, providing a more subjective and personal perspective.
• Autobiographies aim to cover the entire span of the author’s life, offering a comprehensive overview.
• Readers can expect a detailed account of the author’s major life events, achievements, and relationships.
• The broad scope allows for a comprehensive understanding of the author’s life journey.
• Memoirs have a narrower scope, focusing on specific aspects of the author’s life.
• This narrower focus allows for a more in-depth exploration of particular themes, experiences, or relationships.
• The author may choose to understand deeply about a particular period or significant life event, providing a more detailed memoir writing insights and intimate portrayal.
• Autobiographies often adopt a formal and objective tone.
• The narrative style tends to prioritize straightforwardly presenting factual information.
• Emotions and personal reflections may be present but are typically secondary to providing a comprehensive account.
• Memoirs are characterized by a more subjective and reflective narrative style.
• Authors may delve into their emotions, thoughts, and personal insights, offering readers a more intimate connection to shared experiences.
• The writing style of Book Writing Founders in memoirs is often more literary and creative, allowing for a deeper exploration of the author’s perspective.
• The purpose of understanding memoir vs. autobiography is to comprehensively document and share the author’s life story.
• Autobiographies may serve historical or cultural purposes, providing insights into a particular period or social context.
• They aim to leave a lasting record of the author’s life for future generations.
• Memoirs have a more focused purpose, aiming to explore and convey a particular theme or set of experiences.
• The goal is often to provide readers with a more personal and emotional connection to the author’s journey.
• Memoirs can inspire, educate, or resonate with readers who may relate to the shared experiences on a more intimate level.
• Autobiographies often appeal to readers interested in the complete life story of a well-known individual.
• Readers may be drawn to autobiographies for historical insights, to better understand influential figures, or simply to satisfy curiosity about the author’s life.
• Memoirs appeal to a broader range of authors and readers.
• Anyone with a compelling and personal story can write a memoir, regardless of their public profile. You can also search some professional memoir writing services to entertain your audience.
• Readers of memoirs often seek a more emotional and personal connection to the author’s experiences, and they may be drawn to specific themes or relatable life events.

Memoirs vs. autobiographies share the purpose of narrating personal life stories; they differ in scope, perspective, writing style, and intended audience. Understanding these differences can help you determine which genre aligns better with the story you want to tell and the impact you want to make on readers.

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Memoir vs. Autobiography: What Are the Differences?

by Chris Snellgrove

Thinking of writing about your life? In that case, you have a choice to make: a memoir or an autobiography? Each of these types of writing represents a different way to tell your life story.

Often, people hoping to commit their life stories into a book don’t know the difference between autobiography vs. memoir. But once you understand the key differences, you’ll be able to get started writing your emotional truth for the world to see.

What’s the difference between a memoir and an autobiography?

Memoirs and autobiographies are both nonfiction narratives written by the person that they’re about. Autobiographies encompass the entirety of a person’s life story, while memoirs focus on just one powerful experience or a group of experiences. Memoirs cover less time than autobiographies, and are often about conveying a particular message, rather than simply overviewing someone’s life.

We’ll dig deeper into both autobiographies and memoirs below.

What is an autobiography?

An autobiography is a first-person work of nonfiction that’s meant to cover an author’s entire life . Because of this, many choose to write autobiographies later in life when they have more of a life story to share.

You don’t have to be famous to write an autobiography. However, it can be a tough sell convincing the average reader to dive into a subject’s entire life if the subject isn’t someone they’ve heard of before. Having heard of the subject before makes reading about that person’s life seem more interesting.

If you’re not famous, you’ll just need to find a unique perspective or slant to make an engaging story out of your life.

How is an autobiography structured?

Most autobiographies are written in chronological order. This means your autobiography will be an entertaining and detailed chronology of your entire life from beginning to end.

Even though you’re writing creative nonfiction, a reader expects the same things from a good autobiography that he expects from any other narrative: an interesting series of events told in a gripping manner. Once you have this foundation in place , your autobiography should focus on the most important moments in your life.

It all starts with you plumbing your own memories so that you can establish important details like setting, characters, background, and so on. You may need to engage in meticulous research into your own family history to get all of the info you need. You’re basically the main character of your own story, and readers want to know more about the major events that shaped you into who you are today.

Since this may mean revisiting some of dark moments, an autobiography may quickly become a more sensitive work than you were expecting. Some writers turn to creative nonfiction in order to process trauma or difficult memories, and you might find this a helpful practice for you.

Your autobiography should end with you reflecting on what you have learned from each personal experience—coming to the end of your own Hero’s Journey . That means writing the book is a great way for you to examine how different life experiences shaped you as a person. Now, the conclusion to the book is when you share in your own words what you have discovered about yourself!

Examples of autobiographies

As we’ve noted, an autobiography often features famous people and tells the story of the author’s life up to that point. As a result, famous names and faces comprise many of the best autobiography examples throughout history.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is one of the most well-read autobiographies in the world. It helps that Douglass had such an impressive story to share with the world!

Before that, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was a best-seller. Who wouldn’t want to learn more about one of the most famous Founding Fathers?

Some other popular autobiographies include The Story of My Life by Helen Keller and The Autobiography of Malcolm X . While you don’t technically have to be famous person to write an autobiography, these examples show that it doesn’t hurt!

What is a memoir?

A memoir is a nonfiction book written in the first person that conveys your impression of certain memories over a limited amount of time . In this way, memoirs are very different than autobiographies, and may be more stylized.

While an autobiography covers the author’s life from a very young age to the present day—the full expanse of their experience—a memoir may instead focus on a shorter period of time, like the author’s teenage years or their career in a particular industry.

Some writers find memoirs easier to map out, because creating an interesting narrative about a person’s entire life is difficult—even if it’s your own! It may also be easier to attract readers with a memoir than with an autobiography. That’s because someone may overlook an autobiography if it isn’t by someone they recognize, but memoirs focus on interesting experiences can feel more accessible.

Before you start to write your own memoir, though, it’s important to understand the structure of this kind of narrative.

How is a memoir structured?

Memoirs provide a more flexible way to share your life story with others. You have more options when it comes to what the memoir focuses on and how you assemble your life stories into a compelling narrative.

You might write your narrative in the same chronological order that you would write a typical autobiography or fiction book. But in this case, the principle difference between autobiography and memoir is that the memoir is focused on a shorter time period. So instead of writing your story from childhood to present, you might recount your experience through your university years.

You can also write a memoir as a series of flashbacks, where the narrative bounces from the past to the present. This technique is very effective in showing how a person’s life and thoughts have changed over time.

Sometimes, the tale of the author’s life focuses on how they overcame a specific obstacle. This type of memoir functions as a kind of extended personal essay about the subject’s life and struggles. This can help you process and share difficult experiences.

While memoirs may have subjective elements as part of the memories and impressions that are recounted, it’s important that memoirs about overcoming difficulties represent a true story of your life. Otherwise, you risk the scandal that A Million Little Pieces provoked when it was revealed that author James Frey fictionalized much of it. (Alternatively, you could just change one or two names and call it a novel instead!)

Once you settle on how to structure your memoir, make sure it includes all of the necessary elements of any good story. For memoir and autobiography, this will usually include a first-person point of view (rather than a third person, or he/she, perspective), a cohesive story built around a theme, and a well-written tale of you overcoming obstacles while being emotionally open and vulnerable during the writing process.

Examples of memoirs

If you’re not among the famous historical figures over the years, a memoir might be a better choice than an autobiography. Memoir authors know their book will be less about celebrity gossip and more about telling a good story.

One of the most popular memoirs is Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast , a personal account of his time in Paris. A more modern memoir that kicked off an entire lifestyle is Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia .

David Sedaris helped to redefine emotional rawness in his amazing memoir Me Talk Pretty One Day . Should you ever doubt how influential a memoir can be, look no further than Piper Kerman. After all, her Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison spawned an insanely-successful television show on Netflix!

Should I write a memoir or an autobiography?

Now you know the key difference between a memoir and autobiography. This leads us to the big question: between memoir and an autobiography, which one should you write?

If you’re looking for book sales, the better choice is usually a memoir. While the publishing industry loves churning out tell-alls from celebrities, they’re more cautious when it comes to championing an autobiography written by someone relatively unknown.

Furthermore, many writers prefer memoirs over autobiographies because they can focus more on subjective impressions rather than objective accounts. In other words, autobiographies tend to be about specific dates and facts; memoirs are explorations of personal experiences.

Finally, memoirs are more accessible for younger writers. Instead of waiting until you’re older and have more lived experience to share, you can focus on a specific event, experience, or perspective that you think will resonate with many different lives.

How to write an autobiography

As long as there are personal stories to tell, there will be plenty of autobiographies. But what separates a great autobiography from a bad one?

Good autobiographies starts with meticulous planning. We’re going to walk you through a step-by-step process that shows you exactly how you can get started.

Start with a good hook

Even being famous doesn’t guarantee readers will want to learn more about someone’s life. In order to get readers interested, you need to have a good hook.

Consider what sort of interesting things make your story unique. Did you spend time with someone famous in your line of work? Do you have insight into a cool, fascinating industry? Or did you overcome a seemingly insurmountable obstacle?

Whatever your hook, it’s a good idea to incorporate it into the title of your autobiography. For example, Maya Angelou’s famous I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings uses the evocative title to also describe the emotional truths that she discovered and unpacked throughout the book.

Craft a satisfying overall narrative

While this is easier said than done, solid autobiographical writing has to have an engaging narrative. In other words, it’s one thing for authors to write about their lives. It’s another thing for everything written to be entertaining!

Imagine the different people who populate your book as characters in a work of fiction. How will you describe their appearance, actions, and personalities? Interesting characters and relatable dialogue may make the difference between compelling writing and boring writing.

At its heart, though, the book will be about your own specific theme and conflicts as you overcome your obstacles. Again, you’re the hero of this book: time to make the story of your life something others want to read!

Map out a clear timeline

Compared to memoirs, which can be narratively experimental, autobiographies have a straightforward layout. Everything is written in chronological order. That’s why it’s so important to establish a clear timeline of events.

If you’ve never written an autobiography, you may think this means the author writes everything off the top of their head. In reality, the process can involve a lot of research to get important dates just right. Before you begin writing, put together an outline of important dates and events you want to touch on in your story (this can be a good practice for fiction, too !)

When the timeline of your book is clear, you make it easier for others to read and understand your story. When the timeline isn’t clear, though, your readers may just be left scratching their heads in confusion!

Conduct extensive research

We already touched on this, but once again: an autobiography requires a lot of research. It may be a very different process than what you’re used to in your other writing!

That’s because you can’t just rely on things like Google when it comes to your own life. You’re going to need to interview family members and friends, dig through old photo boxes, and learn as much about different eras of your life as possible.

How to write a memoir

Compared to an autobiography, a memoir isn’t just a historical account of your life. Rather, it’s a subjective peek into some of the most raw and formative experiences you have encountered.

Fortunately, there are a few key ingredients to writing solid memoirs. These tips will help you hit the ground running when you decide to sit down and write!

Develop a powerful theme

Themes are an element of autobiographical writing, but they aren’t at the centre of the narrative. In memoirs, though, a powerful theme is the most important way to help your story stand out.

Again, it helps to think like a fiction writer when developing this theme. Is this a story of a person succeeding an unforgiving world? A heartbreaking work of someone learning brutal lessons about love? Or maybe a coming-of-age story where someone’s forced to grow up too soon?

With memoirs, you have the freedom of focusing on only one part of your life. Be sure to develop a powerful theme and use it to unify the rest of the narrative.

Highlight its universal appeal

While it’s easier said than done, a good memoir needs to have universal appeal. In other words, no matter how fantastic your tale is, there should be something any reader can relate to.

For example, nobody else may have endured the exact heartbreak you did, but everyone has suffered from a broken heart at least once. Because of this, tales of love lost always find an audience.

Everyone has failed at something and then tried to make a comeback. Because of this, tales of redemption have a universal appeal.

By choosing a theme that’s universally resonant, you can gain the largest possible audience for your memoir.

Balance facts and personal reflection

Though known for poetry rather than memoirs, Emily Dickinson offers memoir writers some great advice: “Tell the truth, but tell it slant.”

As we noted, it’s important for memoirs to convey true events. If the events aren’t true, then memoirs lose all their appeal and become just another kind of fiction.

However, memoirs are more personal than autobiographies are. This gives you room to reflect on different people and experiences through a more subjective lens. By combining interesting stories with engaging reflections, you can keep readers captivated.

Begin writing the story of your life

Memoirs and autobiographies offer different ways to share your life with the world. While these primary formats for writing about yourself share some similarities, there are key differences that may influence your choice.

Once you have decided on which medium is right for you, you may be surprised at how rewarding writing about your life can be. This way, you also leave a powerful legacy for future readers to discover.

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What’s the Difference Between a Memoir and an Autobiography?

By ellen gutoskey | jan 5, 2022.

On the literary genre spectrum, memoirs and autobiographies are right next to each other. They’re both nonfiction accounts of the author’s personal experience, usually written in first person (i.e. using I , me , and other first-person pronouns). But despite their similarities—and the fact that memoir and autobiography are often used interchangeably—they’re technically separate genres.

Since an autobiography is essentially just a biography written by the person it’s about, it has pretty much all the characteristics of a regular biography. As MasterClass explains , the narrative typically progresses chronologically and covers the subject’s whole life (thus far), with a focus on facts. That’s not to say autobiographies by default have bare-bones prose or a lack of emotion—the story of someone’s life will likely feature some fascinating formative memories and the feelings that came with them.

But those elements are much more integral to a memoir than an autobiography. According to Book Riot , a memoir doesn’t usually cover the author’s entire life, but instead a specific period or themes within it. Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking , for example, centers on the year after her husband, John Gregory Dunne, died of a heart attack in late 2003. It’s just as much a discourse on grief as it is an account of what happened in Didion’s life that year—and you might pick it up to read about grief rather than to learn about the author herself. Though Didion was, by that point in her career, famous enough that people would be interested to read about her experiences in particular, that’s not always the case with memoirists. Sometimes, it’s the subject matter that attracts readers, not the name of the author.

If you crack open an autobiography, on the other hand, it’s probably because you want to learn about the person who wrote it. Autobiographers are usually celebrities, from activists like Malala Yousafzai and Nelson Mandela to athletes like Andre Agassi —people who’ve achieved such success and/or have lived such high-profile lives that you’d want to read their full stories, starting from the cradle.

All that said, the differences between memoirs and autobiographies are more general trends than definitive guidelines. There’s no rule that says your memoir can’t be chronological, or that your autobiography must include your year and place of birth in order to be considered a true autobiography.

Have you got a Big Question you'd like us to answer? If so, let us know by emailing us at [email protected] .

What Are the Major Differences Between Memoir and Autobiography?

Rebecca Hussey

Rebecca holds a PhD in English and is a professor at Norwalk Community College in Connecticut. She teaches courses in composition, literature, and the arts. When she’s not reading or grading papers, she’s hanging out with her husband and son and/or riding her bike and/or buying books. She can't get enough of reading and writing about books, so she writes the bookish newsletter "Reading Indie," focusing on small press books and translations. Newsletter: Reading Indie Twitter: @ofbooksandbikes

View All posts by Rebecca Hussey

Feeling confused about the difference between memoir and autobiography? You’re not the only one. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, and there is a lot of overlap between the two, so confusion is understandable. But there are some basic differences that will help you distinguish between them and make sure you are using the most appropriate word. Knowing the difference will help you choose what to read, as well: you should know what you are getting into when you pick up a book labeled memoir vs. autobiography.

First, let’s discuss similarities between the two. Both autobiography and memoir are first-person accounts of the writer’s life. This means the writer is describing her or his life using “I” and “me” (“I did this, then this happened to me,” etc.) One exception to this is that sometimes autobiographies are written in the third person (where the author refers to him or herself as “he” or “she”), but this is not common and rarely seen in contemporary writing. Mostly, both genres are about writers telling readers about their lives in their own voice.

That’s pretty simple. What’s trickier is figuring out what makes these genres different. So here’s a breakdown of the difference between memoir and autobiography, that I’ll discuss more below.

Memoir vs. Autobiography Basics

1. autobiography usually covers the author’s entire life up to the point of writing, while memoir focuses only on a part of the author’s life..

There are going to be exceptions to every point on this list, but generally speaking, autobiography aims to be comprehensive, while memoir does not. Autobiographers set out to tell the story of their life, and while some parts will get more detail than others, they usually cover most or all of it.

Memoirists will often choose a particularly important or interesting part of their life to write about and ignore or briefly summarize the rest. They will sometimes choose a theme or subject and tell stories from different parts of their life that illustrate its significance to them.

As examples,  The Autobiography of Malcolm X  covers the major points of Malcolm X’s life, while  Abandon Me: A Memoir by Melissa Febos focuses mainly on two significant relationships (with her father and with a lover).

2. In autobiography, authors usually tell their life stories because they are famous and important. A memoirist can be anybody, famous or not.

Long Walk to Freedom,  Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, is a good example: he was an important person whose personal account of his life matters because of who he was and everything he accomplished.

For memoir, Mary Karr’s  The Liar’s Club is not the story of a famous person; instead, it’s an account of a regular person’s childhood. Her childhood was especially eventful, but it doesn’t stand out because she was famous. Memoirists do sometimes become famous, but usually it’s for writing memoirs.

3. People read autobiographies because they want to know about a particular (probably famous) person. They read memoirs because they are interested in a certain subject or story or they are drawn to the writer’s style or voice.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a book people might read because they want to learn about an important historical figure. They may also have heard it’s exceptionally interesting and well-written, but the desire to learn about a person who shaped U.S. history is probably the main motivation.

On the other hand, readers may pick up Roxane Gay’s memoir  Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body because they want to read about food, weight, and body image. Or they may admire Gay’s essays available online and want to explore more of her work. The motivation here is more about subject and style and less about the writer as a historical or cultural figure.

4. Autobiographies tend to be written in chronological order, while memoirs often move back and forth in time.

When readers pick up an autobiography, they expect it to begin with the author’s childhood (or perhaps even with the author’s parents’ lives), to proceed through young adulthood and middle age, through to the time of the writing. Olaudah Equiano’s  The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano  does just that, opening with his childhood and proceeding in a straightforward manner through time.

Memoirs, on the other hand, can be much looser in their treatment of time.  Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot shifts back and forth in time and has a structure more focused on theme than chronology. We finish the book with a sense of the major events of Mailhot’s life, but not necessarily their order.

5. Autobiography places greater emphasis on facts and how the writer fits into the historical record, while memoir emphasizes personal experience and interiority.

Autobiographies are sometimes thought of as a form of history and they are used as source material for historians. While it’s possible for both autobiographers and memoirists to get their facts wrong, the stakes are higher for the autobiographer who made history or witnessed historically-important events.

Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass  is important in part because of Douglass’s work as an orator, statesman, and abolitionist. His historical stature adds to the significance of his book.

The facts matter in memoir, but it’s understood that memoirists select and shape the facts of their lives to explore their chosen theme. Darin Strauss’s  Half a Life: A Memoir is rooted in a real-life event—a car crash in which Strauss accidentally hit and killed a classmate—but it focuses on the emotional aftereffects of this event rather than the historical context of Strauss’s life.

And there you have it! Again, these distinctions are loose ones, but hopefully they have helped you understand the different connotations of the two words.

Want to read more about memoir? Check out this list of 100 must-read memoirs , this discussion of how to define the term “memoir,” and this post on short memoirs .

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Autobiography Writing Guide

Autobiography Vs Memoir

Last updated on: Feb 9, 2023

Autobiography vs. Memoir: Definitions & Writing Tips

By: Barbara P.

Reviewed By: Chris H.

Published on: Mar 2, 2021

Autobiography and memoirs are written to tell the life story of the writer. An  autobiography  covers the author’s whole life, while a memoir focuses on specific events. These two terms are used interchangeably, but there are obvious and practical differences between the two similar genres.

Writing a memoir and autobiography is a creatively challenging experience, even for the most experienced of writers.

Therefore, read on this blog and get to know the difference and similarities between autobiography vs. memoir.

On this Page

Definition of Memoir vs. Autobiography

The memoir and autobiography are the terms that overlap each other, so the confusion is understandable. These two are the formats that are used to tell a creative non-fiction story. However, there are some differences that you need to know before using the most appropriate one.

Let us discuss the definition of both in detail.

A memoir is based on the author’s real-life experience, and it is written from the author’s point of view. Also, they are not covering their whole life from birth to the present. However, they explore a specific era in great detail, which makes them much different from other writing genres.

Memoirs are more personal and focused on the writer's life. It should be written from the first-person point of view.

The main purpose of the memoir is to:

• Share your personal life experience with the readers.
• Tell the story from the author’s perspective.
• Connect with others who have similar or the same situations.
• Help the people to understand that they are not alone in their experiences.
• Make sense of the threads and themes of their life, as well as identify what's important.

Moreover, the memoir is a type of autobiography that gives a glimpse of the specific event of the writer’s life. Also, the memoir should be:

• Descriptive
• Well-written

The memoir also focuses on the relationship between the author and a particular place or person. Also, they tend to be read more like a fiction novel than a factual account. It includes the following things:

However, for a great memoir, you should share snippets from their life. Also, do not try to tell the entire story in one sitting.

Here is an example that gives you a better idea of the memoir.

Memoir Example

Autobiography

An autobiography focuses on the writer’s entire life and discusses the significant events of their life. It comes through the writer’s own life and in his own words. People write autobiographies to record their feelings and ideas to share with others. Then get it published to reach a greater number of people.

The main purpose of the autobiography is to:

• Inform or teach someone about something.
• Present the facts based on a memoir.
• Focus on the most important events and people in the writer’s life.
• Give you a better insight into how their experiences have shaped them as a person.

Moreover, an autobiography is written in a fictional tale that closely mirrors events from the author’s real life. However, your autobiography should be:

• Easy to read
• Free from obscure details

The below example will help you in writing a good autobiography.

Autobiography Example

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Autobiography vs. Memoir: Differences and Similarities

The autobiography and memoir have some differences and similarities. You must know them before you start writing it.

The below table shows the differences between autobiography and memoir.

Here are some similarities between autobiography and memoir.

• Both use the first-person point of view.
• Both demonstrate the life of the author.
• Focus on the limited aspect of the author’s life.
• Nonfiction literary genre.
• Presents facts as the person experiencing them.

Biography vs. Autobiography vs. Memoir

Some students get confused between biography, autobiography, and memoir. They are not the same and are written for different purposes.

Check the below table and better understand the similarities and differences between biography, autobiography, and memoir.

Memoir vs. Autobiography vs. Personal Narrative

The below table shows the differences and similarities between memoir, autobiography, and personal narrative.

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Tips for Writing the Autobiography and Memoir

The following are the tips that you should follow and create a well-written autobiography and memoir.

• Use fiction-writing techniques.
• Write in an engaging way.
• Mention the specific dates of the events.
• Focused on facts.
• Dialogues in memoir should be natural instead of journalistic.
• Do in-depth research.
• Start with a strong hook.
• Use the correct memoir and  autobiography format .
• Pick a strong theme.
• Focus on the main events of the person’s life.

Now, you get a complete understanding of the autobiography and memoir. However, if there is still any confusion in writing, then simply consult 5StarEssays.com.

Our  essay writer  will help you make your writing process easy. All your write my essay requests are managed by professional writers.

So, contact us now and get professional academic help at an affordable rate.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 3 characteristics of a memoir.

The 3 characteristics are:

• It focuses on a specific life event
• The subject becomes alive in the writing
• They are more limited than biographies

Is a memoir more factual than an autobiography?

No! On the contrary, an autobiography is more factual than a memoir. An autobiography encompasses many facts and real incidents from one’s life.

Can we use memoir and autobiography interchangeably?

In some instances, when autobiographies become exceedingly short, they are often called memoirs. However, they are still different in their essence and purpose.

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Dr. Barbara is a highly experienced writer and author who holds a Ph.D. degree in public health from an Ivy League school. She has worked in the medical field for many years, conducting extensive research on various health topics. Her writing has been featured in several top-tier publications.

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• How to Write an Autobiography - A Complete Guide

• Autobiography Examples – Detailed Outline and Samples

• Know the Different Types of Autobiography Here

• Autobiography Format for Students - A Detailed Guide

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The Personal Memoir

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Because the personal memoir is more demanding than the personal essay, for both writer and reader, it doesn’t fit into introductory courses as well as the personal essay. An intermediate level course is a good place to introduce the memoir. However, if the instructor takes the time to explain and introduce the memoir form, it can be adapted for introductory courses.

Difference Between the Personal Essay and the Memoir

While the personal essay can be about almost anything, the memoir tends to discuss past events. Memoir is similar to the personal essay, except that the memoir tends to focus more on striking or life-changing events. The personal essay can be a relatively light reflection about what’s going on in your life right now.

Where the personal essay explores, free from any need to interpret, the memoir interprets, analyzes, and seeks the deeper meaning beneath the surface experience of particular events. The memoir continually asks the following questions:

• Why was this event of particular significance?
• What did it mean?
• Why is it important?

In this sense, the memoir is heavier than the personal essay, and it mines the past to shed light on the present. The memoir seeks to make sense of an individual life. The questions that are left unanswered in Wole Soyinka’s essay from the personal essay resource, Why do I Fast? are answered in the memoir.

Generating Ideas for Personal Memoirs

Moore’s memoir exercise from The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction is useful in both beginning and intermediate courses:

“Make a list of six to ten events or circumstances in your own life, or the lives of those very close to you, that still provoke your curiosity. Mine your own life for the events and circumstances that still raise questions in your mind. Once you have the list (and this list should be private - don’t share it with others - and don’t hold back because you think someone else will be looking), pick one of the questions on the list that you are willing to explore.“

The potential questions Moore asks in this exercise are meant to be answered in the memoir. While the memoir tries to make sense of experience, it also shares something in common with the personal essay - the exploration of the question, and the process of trying to arrive at an answer, is at least as important as the answer or resolution you may arrive at.

Writing the memoir is not a simple Q & A with yourself; rather, the complicated process of trying to seek the answers is what makes the memoir engaging to write, and read. Here is an example from Carlos Fuentes’ How I Started to Write :

Fuentes is constantly questioning and answering, interpreting and analyzing his experience, trying to make sense of why and how he did what he did in order to become a writer. He seeks answers and tries to make sense of his life by interpreting his own experience, the cultural and political life of his time, the meaning of language and literary influence, and by stepping over imagined nationalist borders.

Memoir vs. Autobiography: What’s the Difference?

They say everyone has a story to tell, and I absolutely believe that. But some folks have a story to tell about their own lives. They’ve experienced things and learned lessons that are worth sharing with other people.

That’s pretty freaking cool.

When you want to tell a personal narrative, you have a few options: a blog, a YouTube channel , even a diary. But if you want to turn it into a book, you have two options to consider:

A memoir or an autobiography.

While these two genres might seem similar, there are quite a number of meaningful differences you must know if you want to be successful in either—or if you just want to figure out what you’re going to write.

We’ll cover all that and more in this article. “And more” includes a history of these genres, tips for each, how to choose between memoir and autobiography writing, and pulling everything together.

You have that story to tell, so let’s figure out how to do it.

Defining Your Life Story: Memoirs and Autobiographies

Understanding the distinction between a memoir and an autobiography is a must for any writer venturing into personal narrative writing. 

While both genres share the common element of being based on the author's life experiences, the scope and focus of each are quite different.

Memoirs are a form of creative nonfiction where the writer shares specific experiences or periods from their life. These works are less about the chronology of the author's life and more about personal reflections, emotions, and insights. 

Memoirs often include a focus on specific themes or events, allowing the author to delve deeply into their experiences with a reflective and often emotional lens, and are written more like a fictional story than nonfiction.

Autobiographies, on the other hand, provide a more comprehensive view of the author's life. They typically follow a chronological format, documenting the author's life from early childhood to the present. 

Autobiographies are characterized by their detailed recounting of life events to encompass personal, professional, and sometimes public aspects of the author’s journey. The autobiography format emphasizes factual storytelling.

Memoir readers aren’t looking for a play-by-play of your life. They’re after the deeper meaning and themes behind your experiences and are more okay with stylistic choices and some interpretation of events.

Folks reading autobiographies are all about knowing what you did and why.

The History of Writing About A Person’s Life

While they’re both staples in modern literature, these genres have roots deeply embedded in history.

Which means as people, we like talking about ourselves.

That’s not a bad thing, don’t get me wrong; we all lead extraordinary, unique lives and have important things to share. And share we have.

Understanding how memoirs and autobiographies have been used historically can help us understand their current forms, too.

Memoirs have transformed quite a bit over time. Originating from the ancient practice of documenting noteworthy events (with that grandiose, fictional spin), they evolved during the Renaissance as a way for individuals to share their experiences and perspectives, often focusing on public life.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, memoirs became more personal, reflecting individual experiences and internal landscapes. This evolution paved the way for the modern memoir, which often blurs the lines between factual recounting and creative storytelling. Honestly, this works best for readers seeking emotional truth and personal growth.

Autobiographies have a lineage that can be traced back to religious and political leaders documenting their lives as a record of moral and ethical standards. You know, bragging about how good they are.

In the 18th century, with the rise of literacy and individualism, autobiographies became a tool for self-expression and identity exploration. This genre gained momentum in the 20th century, with notable figures from various fields chronicling their journeys, making it a popular way for exploring the complexities of human experience.

Both styles of work have been instrumental in our understanding of the past, too. Even memoirs, with their emphasis on storytelling, give us a glimpse into the lives of individuals and societies as a whole.

Writing a Memoir: Tips and Techniques

Diving into memoir writing can be equal parts thrilling and terrifying. It's not just about recounting events; it's about turning your experiences into a story that vibes with readers. 

Here are some tips and techniques to guide you:

• Find your focus - Unlike autobiographies, memoirs don't require you to detail your entire life. Pinpoint a specific theme, event, or period that holds significant meaning. This focus will be the heart of your memoir.
• Embrace emotional honesty - Memoirs thrive on emotional depth. Be honest about your feelings and experiences. This authenticity is what will connect with your readers.
• Show, don't just tell - Universally solid writing advice. Use descriptive language and sensory details to bring your story to life. Paint pictures with your words to immerse the reader in your world. Need some practice? Check out these worksheets .
• Incorporate reflective elements - A memoir is more than a series of events. It's an introspective journey. Reflect on your experiences, what you learned, and how they shaped you. This is what your readers are here for.

• Consider a non-linear structure - While some memoirs follow a chronological order, feel free to experiment with the structure. A non-linear approach can add intrigue and highlight how past events influence the present. Make sure to get lots of beta reader feedback to make sure your story still makes sense.
• Get personal, but stay relatable - While your memoir is deeply personal, aim to connect your experiences to universal themes. This relatability makes your story more impactful. Here’s a complete guide for writing themes .
• Revise with care - Memoirs often blend fact and narrative flair. In your revisions, balance creativity with accuracy. Remember, the essence of your truth is what matters most, so don’t let it get lost in your fictionalization.

Memoir writing is not just about telling your story; it's about sharing your perspective on life, with all its complexities and nuances. Each memoir is a unique window into a life, offering insights and reflections that no other story can.

My pal Abi has a great guide to writing memoirs you should bookmark if this is something you’re serious about.

Crafting an Autobiography: Structure and Elements

Writing an autobiography involves a different set of considerations compared to memoirs. It's about presenting the entirety of your life's journey with clarity and structure. 

Here are key elements and structural ideas to consider:

• Outline the chronology - Autobiographies typically follow a chronological order, leading your reader through your life's journey. Map out the key events from your early years to the present, creating a timeline that serves as your narrative backbone.
• Detail significant events - Highlight the pivotal moments in your life, both personal and professional. These events should not only tell what happened but also detail their impact and the lessons you learned from them.
• Develop a consistent theme - While covering all the cool stuff you’ve done (or things you’ve endured), maintain a consistent theme or message throughout your autobiography. This theme makes the whole story worth reading.
• Incorporate character development - Show how you evolved over time. This character arc is crucial in autobiographies because it shows how experiences shaped your personality, beliefs, and decisions.
• Be factual, yet engaging - Autobiographies require factual accuracy, but that doesn't mean they should be dry. Use engaging storytelling techniques to bring your experiences to life, making your narrative both informative and captivating. Here’s an article to help you focus on your prose.
• Include supporting characters - Your life's story is also about the people who influenced you. Include these characters, describing their roles and the dynamics in your relationships with them. An autobiography is still a story, and supporting characters make stories great.
• Reflect on your journey - Offer reflections on your experiences, providing insights into how they influenced your current perspective. This reflective angle adds depth to the factual recounting of events and should be directly tied to your themes.
• Edit for coherence and clarity - Ensure that your autobiography is not just a collection of events but a cohesive tale. In editing , focus on clarity, coherence, and the overall flow of your story.

Crafting an autobiography is an opportunity to not only share your life story but also to reflect on the journey and its broader implications. It's a chance to offer a detailed, introspective look at the milestones that have defined you.

Which, admittedly, sounds intimidating, but putting in the effort can result in a book that changes both your life and a reader’s.

Choosing Your Approach to Creative Nonfiction

When it comes to sharing your life story, deciding between a memoir and an autobiography isn’t always an easy decision. This choice influences not only the structure and focus of your work but also how your readers will connect with your story. 

Here are some considerations to help you decide:

Understand your objective - Consider what you wish to achieve with your book. Are you looking to explore a particular aspect of your life with emotional depth (memoir) or do you intend to provide a comprehensive account of your life’s journey (autobiography)?

Assess your content - Reflect on the events and experiences you want to share. A memoir suits a more focused, thematic exploration, while an autobiography is ideal for a broader, chronological recounting.

Consider your audience - Think about who you're writing for. Memoir readers choose their books because they’re interested in the theme, topic, or story rather than the person. Autobiography readers tend to make purchases based on who they’re reading about. If you don’t have some fame or following, an autobiography might be a hard sell.

Reflect on your writing style - Your natural writing style can also guide your choice. If you lean towards reflective, emotive storytelling, a memoir might be your forté. If you're more comfortable with factual, chronological narratives, consider an autobiography.

Flexibility vs. structure - Memoirs offer more creative flexibility in structure and storytelling, allowing for a more literary approach. Autobiographies, being more factual and chronological, require a structured approach to storytelling.

Personal comfort - Consider your comfort level with vulnerability and personal disclosure. Memoirs require a deeper dive into personal experiences and emotions. Autobiographies, while personal, can let you use a more observational tone.

Remember, the choice between a memoir and an autobiography is not just about the story you want to tell but about how you want to tell that story. Your decision will shape both the way you write your story and how your readers interpret it.

Best Practices for Personal Narrative Writing

Whether you choose to write a memoir or an autobiography, certain best practices can enhance your storytelling and connect more deeply with your readers. 

First, stay authentic . Authenticity is the cornerstone of personal narrative writing. Your readers are seeking truth in your story, even if it's presented through a subjective lens. Be genuine in your recounting, and don't shy away from your unique voice.

You also want to engage your readers emotionally . Whether it's through humor, sorrow, inspiration, or reflection, emotional resonance makes your story memorable and impactful. One of the best ways to suck them in is to use descriptive language to create vivid scenes and characters. This immerses the reader in your world, making your experiences and memories come alive.

Remember, these are both still stories and thus have a cohesive plot. Ensure your story has a clear beginning, middle, and end . Even if you choose a non-linear structure, maintaining a coherent narrative flow is essential for keeping your readers engaged. If you need some help with story structure, you know we have your back with this guide .

Dialogue can be a powerful tool in personal narratives. It brings dynamism to the story and offers insights into characters and relationships. Don’t neglect good dialogue just because you aren’t writing fiction.

Personal narratives aren’t just about what happened; they’re about what those events mean. Include your reflections and analysis to provide depth and context to your experiences, but do it in a way that flows and feels natural. This is obviously more important in memoirs, but your autobiography needs to have reflection, too.

Finally, when writing about real people and events, consider the implications of sharing private information. Respect the privacy of others and navigate sensitive topics with care.

Personal narrative writing is a journey of exploration, both for you as a writer and for your readers. By incorporating these best practices, you can create a story that’s not only engaging and informative but also profoundly moving.

And that’s the whole point.

Reflective Writing and Authorial Perspective in Personal Narratives

The heart of a compelling personal story, be it a memoir or an autobiography, lies in its reflective writing and your authorial perspective. These are the elements that make memoirs and autobiographies unique from other genres. And it’s what our readers are looking for. 

Here are five final tips to make best use of these elements:

Embrace reflective writing - Reflective writing involves looking back at your experiences and analyzing their impact. It's about understanding the why behind the what. This critical thinking transforms your writing from a simple plot into a journey of personal growth and understanding.

Cultivate a strong authorial voice - While an author’s voice is always important, it does extra work with these genres. It conveys your unique perspective and personality. A strong, consistent voice helps readers connect with your story on a deeper level. And, if you need help refining or developing your voice and tone, click here .

Integrate insights and learnings - Your story should offer insights and learnings, not just for yourself but also for your readers. Share the wisdom gained from your trials and adventures. Turn your personal journey into a relatable, universal tale of human experience.

Use reflection to drive the narrative - Let your reflections and insights drive the plot forward. Your personal growth is just as important in these stories as a fictional character’s arc is in a fantasy epic or hockey romcom. What you learn and realize should push the plot.

Engage the reader with thoughtful questions - Sometimes, posing questions can be more powerful than providing answers. Use reflective questions to engage your readers and prompt them to think about their own experiences and perspectives.

Memoirs and Autobiographies are Still Stories

I know I’ve said this a bunch of times already, but this is something you need to permanently imprint in your writing brain: both memoirs and autobiographies rely on the same core elements as any other story.

It doesn’t matter that they’re based on real life. You still need to understand plot, character development, themes, settings, conflicts, metaphors, point of view, writing habits, and so much more. Then you need to layer everything we’ve discussed here on top of that.

I mentioned equal parts thrilling and terrifying before, right?

Don’t worry, though, because we’ve got you covered. I’ve already given you a bunch of links to relevant guides in this article, but you’ll find hundreds—yes, I’m talking triple digits!—for free over at DabbleU .

And speaking of free, you can click here to get a 100+ page e-book to help you go from idea to finished draft, also for zero dollars and zero cents. Now the only thing left to do is tell your life’s story.

Thrilling. Terrifying. Pretty dang cool.

Doug Landsborough can’t get enough of writing. Whether freelancing as an editor, blog writer, or ghostwriter, Doug is a big fan of the power of words. In his spare time, he writes about monsters, angels, and demons under the name D. William Landsborough. When not obsessing about sympathetic villains and wondrous magic, Doug enjoys board games, horror movies, and spending time with his wife, Sarah.

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The terms "memoir" and "autobiography" are often used interchangeably, but these two styles of personal storytelling are actually very different. Here's how to tell one from the other... and how to decide which is best for your life story.

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Memoir vs. Autobiography: What’s the Difference?

You may have heard the terms memoir and autobiography used interchangeably. They often live on the same shelf in bookstores.

Both are nonfiction and contain facts from someone’s life, so what’s the difference?

Let me walk you through the differences so you can be confident which you should be writing.

• What Memoir and Autobiography Have in Common

Both genres fall under the category called Creative Nonfiction ,  a term that can be also applied to biography, travel writing, personal essays, interviews, blogs, and more.

Unlike pure academic, technical, and straight journalistic writing, creative nonfiction uses fiction writing techniques to tell a compelling true story.

The goal is the same as in fiction: a story well told.

It’s important you identify your specific genre so you know its conventions and expectations.

You should read dozens of books in your genre so you can pitch and market yours effectively.

Knowing the differences between memoir and autobiography can improve your chances of getting agents and publishers to pursue your manuscript.

• The Major Difference Between  Memoir and Autobiography

While an autobiography would cover your entire life from birth to the present, a memoir would be theme-oriented, using carefully selected stories from your life, designed with the reader in mind.

In that sense, while it still contains your experiences, in the end, it’s really about the readers. They should be able to see themselves in your transferable principles and universal truths.

You’re saying, in essence, this is who I was, this is who I am now, and here’s how that happened.

Their life experiences, whatever they’re going through, should appear manageable because of how you came through yours.

Too many authors write a memoir because they believe their lives are so interesting that even strangers would enjoy a detailed account.

But unless you’re a celebrity, most people beyond your family and close friends aren’t likely to care.

They care about themselves and how your personal story might somehow benefit them.

Memoir Examples:

• All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg (my favorite book ever)
• Will the Circle Be Unbroken? by Sean Dietrich
• Where the Light Fell by Philip Yancey

Write a Memoir If…

Your theme-oriented story educates, entertains, and emotionally moves readers.

Select anecdotes from your life that show how you progressed from where you were to where you are today.

That way, as I said, while it’s about you, it’s primarily for the benefit of the reader.

Maybe you’re:

• From the other side of the tracks
• From a broken home
• A victim of abuse
• A recovered addict
• Suffered a major loss
• Survived a debilitating injury or illness

Yet you have found:

• Financial security

Start with how bad things once were for you and how unlikely it was that you would escape your situation.

Then recount pivotal experiences and encounters with people important to your transformation, what you learned, and how your life changed.

Naturally, the better your stories and the more significant that change (in fiction, we call this a character arc ), the more effective your memoir will be.

However, remember that you, your life specifically, is not really the point. It’s about you, of course, but…

The point is reader takeaway.

While readers are likely enduring something entirely different from what you did, your story gives them hope.

For example, I can read the memoir of someone of my opposite gender, for whom English is not her first language, of a different race and religion, who lives halfway around the world from me — but if she writes of her love for her spouse, sibling, child, or grandchild, it reaches me.

Relating to nothing else about her, I understand the love of family. That’s reader takeaway.

• How to Write a Memoir 

1. Settle On Your Theme

A reader of your memoir wonders, What’s in this for me? 

The implied theme must be, “You’re not alone. If I can overcome this, you can overcome anything.”

But avoid being preachy and applying your point to readers. Give them credit by using what I call the Come Alongside Method.

Show what happened to you and what you learned. If the shoe fits, they’ll wear it.

Trust your narrative, your stories well told, to convey your message and make your point.

2. Select Anecdotes

If the best memoirs let readers see themselves in your story so they can identify and apply to their own lives the lessons you learned, feature anecdotes from your life that support your theme, regardless how painful it is to resurrect the memories.

The more introspective and vulnerable you are, the more effective your memoir will be.

3. Outline Your Book

While perhaps half of all novelists write by the seat of their pants, without an outline, you can’t get away with that in nonfiction.

Potential agents or publishers require a synopsis in your proposal of where you’re going — and they also need to know that you know.

4. Structure It Like a Novel

It’s as important in a memoir as it is in a novel to show and not just tell .

Use every tool in the novelist’s arsenal to make each anecdote come to life: dialogue, description, conflict, tension, pacing, everything.

These will make sure you grab your readers’ attention and keep it — because these tools ensure that they’ll become engrossed in your story.

A suggestion that changed the course of my writing career came from mega bestselling novelist Dean Koontz, in his classic How to Write Bestselling Fiction , spelled out what he calls the Classic Story Structure.

Fortunately for you and me, Koontz’s suggested structure beautifully serves a memoir too.

Here it is in a nutshell:

• Plunge your main character into terrible trouble as soon as possible
• Everything he does to try to get out of it makes it only progressively worse until…
• His situation appears hopeless
• But in the end, because of what he’s learned and how he’s grown through all those setbacks, he rises to the challenge and wins the day.

For your memoir, naturally, you’re the main character. The backstory can emerge as you progress, but you’ll find his structure and sequencing will make for the most compelling read.

Take the reader with you to your lowest point, and show what you did to try to remedy things.

5. Avoid Throwing People Under the Bus

If you’re brave enough to expose your own weaknesses, foibles, embarrassments, and yes, even your failures to the world, what about your friends, enemies, loved ones, teachers, bosses, and coworkers?

Changing names to protect identities is not enough. Too many people in your family and social orbit will know the person, making your writing legally actionable.

Change the location. Change the year. Change their gender. You could even change the offense .

Need more guidance? Click here to read my How to Write a Memoir blog post .

• What is an Autobiography?

The word itself can be broken into its three Greek root words: “auto,” meaning self; “bio,” meaning life; and “graph,” meaning write.

So, an autobiography is a biography written by the subject from the author’s perspective.

Autobiographies are often written by famous people, but not always. Sometimes an autobiography will result in someone becoming famous.

Two common structures for autobiographies:

Chronological, like this:

• Foundation: childhood experiences, family members, community, home life, school, friendships, family traditions
• Adversity: pivotal moments that lead to life achievements
• Conclusion: lessons learned after overcoming adversity

A “hero’s journey”:

• Adversity: a pivotal moment that served as a catalyst for the life one leads today
• Foundation: childhood experiences, family traditions, community, school, friendship, and home life
• Conclusion: how one overcame adversity and the lessons they learned

Autobiography Examples

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca

When to Write Your Autobiography 

First, you don’t need to be famous.

As with a memoir, if your story carries a message with transferable principles or universal truth that will benefit readers, it’s worth writing.

You should write an autobiography if…

• Significant life experiences shaped your worldview and your approach to life, resulting in major changes in your character
• You encountered setbacks and obstacles along your journey that made you who you are today
• How to Write an Autobiography

1. Set a hook

Right from the title, grab your reader by the throat, and don’t let go.

2. Conduct your research

Don’t rely on only your memory. Verify your facts.

Publishers require this for nonfiction book proposals.

4. Use the “Come alongside method”

Envision  your reader as a friend, not a target, and approach them as a fellow struggler looking for answers

• Memoir vs. Autobiography? Which is Best for You?

Basic questions can help you decide.

Will your message best be delivered through a theme-oriented telling of selected stories from your life? Lean toward a memoir.

If your life story would better communicate, lean toward an autobiography.

Want more writer training?  Click here to take a brief, free writing assessment .

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Course Syllabus

Memoir and Personal Essay: Beyond the Basics

Tackle a big writing project in this class intended for writers who are ready to take their writing to the next level..

This class is designed for those who have already explored the basics of personal writing and wish to move on to a larger project or more challenging forms. You can choose one of two paths, working either on sections of a memoir or on personal essays in a variety of styles. You will learn how to structure chapters or essays, how to incorporate research into personal writing, how to develop character, how to use descriptive language effectively, and more. We will examine personal essays and memoir chapters from published authors to analyze their writing techniques, and discuss ways to use those techniques in our own writing. If you wish to submit work that does not strictly fit the assignments given you can arrange to do so with the instructor.

How it works:  

Each week provides:

• discussions of assigned readings and other general writing topics with peers and the instructor
• written lectures and a selection of readings

Some weeks also include:

• writing exercises
• opportunities to submit a full-length essay for instructor and/or peer review (up to 2,500 words and typically in weeks 3, 6, and 9)
• optional video conferences that are open to all students in Week 2 (and which will be available afterwards as a recording for those who cannot participate)

Aside from the live conference, there is no need to be online at any particular time of day. To create a better classroom experience for all, you are expected to participate weekly in class discussions to receive instructor feedback on your work.

Week 1: Planning Your Writing Project

We will set firm goals for the course, outlining the work you will complete during the 10 weeks, and your ultimate objective for this writing once it is completed. Those who do not already have an extended project in mind will choose one; those who have already started working on a project will plan their next steps. You will consider how your work fits into the larger writing market, but also learn when to leave the market behind and focus exclusively on the art.

Week 2: Intertwining Narratives

Combining or counterpointing two different narratives or streams of thought can allow you to emphasize elements of both storylines that would not otherwise be apparent, or to create an extended metaphor by choosing to compare two seemingly unrelated elements. This can result in juxtapositions that the reader finds surprising, moving, and thought-provoking. The lecture and readings for this week will explore techniques for writing an essay that braids together two or more storylines, and for incorporating intertwined storylines into the memoir.

Week 3: Writing with Multiple Storylines

You will submit a writing sample to the instructor, either a memoir excerpt or a personal essay that uses the “braided storylines” technique from Week 2, with the option of participating in peer critiques. We will take a close look at some of the class readings to analyze the authors’ writing techniques, and continue to discuss the topics from Week 2 as they relate to our own writing.

Week 4: Conducting Research

Research adds depth to a memoir, and allows a personal essay to move beyond the purely personal. Even an ordinary story can become interesting when it is artfully combined with the right research. During this week we will discuss ways to obtain information that will embellish a piece of personal writing, and how to gracefully incorporate that information into your prose. 

Week 5: Non-Narrative Elements

Most memoirs and personal essays are based on a personal narrative. While a good story is essential to creating a compelling piece of nonfiction, non-narrative components such as reflections, informational passages, dialogue, and so on are also important in creating an interesting piece of writing. This week you will explore techniques for integrating these components into your writing projects.

Week 6: Writing with Research

You will submit a writing sample to the instructor, either a memoir excerpt or a personal essay that uses the research and non-narrative techniques from Weeks 4 and 5, with the option to participate in peer critiques. We will take a close look at some of the class readings to analyze the authors’ writing techniques, and continue to discuss the topics from the preceding weeks as they relate to your own writing.

Week 7: Revision

Revision is an essential part of the writing process, but one that some writers find tedious. During this week we’ll discuss strategies for revision, both by yourself and with a writing partner, and ways to remain invested in your project during the long revision process. 

Week 8: Non-Chronological Structure

The traditional way to tell a story is to start at the beginning and go to the end, but rearranging the events of a narrative allows you to highlight certain connections between events that happen at different times, and also to manipulate the reader’s understanding of a series of events. This week we will explore techniques for writing an essay that uses an unusual chronological structure, and strategies for moving back and forth in time in the context of the memoir.

Week 9: Writing Out of Order

You will submit writing to the instructor, either a memoir excerpt or a personal essay that uses the non-chronological techniques from Week 8, with the option of participating in a peer critique. We will take a close look at some of the class readings to analyze the authors’ writing techniques, and continue to discuss the topics from Week 8 as they relate to your own writing.

Week 10: Preparing for Publication

After all the planning and polishing, structuring and revision, you want to share your writing with the world. During this week we will discuss the steps and best practices for submitting work to agents, literary journals, and magazines.

If you’ve thought about putting your life to the page, you may have wondered how to write a memoir. We start the road to writing a memoir when we realize that a story in our lives demands to be told. As Maya Angelou once wrote, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

How to write a memoir? At first glance, it looks easy enough—easier, in any case, than writing fiction. After all, there is no need to make up a story or characters, and the protagonist is none other than you.

Still, memoir writing carries its own unique challenges, as well as unique possibilities that only come from telling your own true story. Let’s dive into how to write a memoir by looking closely at the craft of memoir writing, starting with a key question: exactly what is a memoir?

How to Write a Memoir: Contents

What is a Memoir?

• Memoir vs Autobiography

Memoir Examples

Short memoir examples.

• How to Write a Memoir: A Step-by-Step Guide

A memoir is a branch of creative nonfiction , a genre defined by the writer Lee Gutkind as “true stories, well told.” The etymology of the word “memoir,” which comes to us from the French, tells us of the human urge to put experience to paper, to remember. Indeed, a memoir is “ something written to be kept in mind .”

A memoir is defined by Lee Gutkind as “true stories, well told.”

For a piece of writing to be called a memoir, it has to be:

• Nonfictional
• Based on the raw material of your life and your memories
• Written from your personal perspective

At this point, memoirs are beginning to sound an awful lot like autobiographies. However, a quick comparison of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love , and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin , for example, tells us that memoirs and autobiographies could not be more distinct.

Next, let’s look at the characteristics of a memoir and what sets memoirs and autobiographies apart. Discussing memoir vs. autobiography will not only reveal crucial insights into the process of writing a memoir, but also help us to refine our answer to the question, “What is a memoir?”

Memoir vs. Autobiography

While both use personal life as writing material, there are five key differences between memoir and autobiography:

1. Structure

Since autobiographies tell the comprehensive story of one’s life, they are more or less chronological. writing a memoir, however, involves carefully curating a list of personal experiences to serve a larger idea or story, such as grief, coming-of-age, and self-discovery. As such, memoirs do not have to unfold in chronological order.

While autobiographies attempt to provide a comprehensive account, memoirs focus only on specific periods in the writer’s life. The difference between autobiographies and memoirs can be likened to that between a CV and a one-page resume, which includes only select experiences.

The difference between autobiographies and memoirs can be likened to that between a CV and a one-page resume, which includes only select experiences.

Autobiographies prioritize events; memoirs prioritize the writer’s personal experience of those events. Experience includes not just the event you might have undergone, but also your feelings, thoughts, and reflections. Memoir’s insistence on experience allows the writer to go beyond the expectations of formal writing. This means that memoirists can also use fiction-writing techniques , such as scene-setting and dialogue , to capture their stories with flair.

4. Philosophy

Another key difference between the two genres stems from the autobiography’s emphasis on facts and the memoir’s reliance on memory. Due to memory’s unreliability, memoirs ask the reader to focus less on facts and more on emotional truth. In addition, memoir writers often work the fallibility of memory into the narrative itself by directly questioning the accuracy of their own memories.

Memoirs ask the reader to focus less on facts and more on emotional truth.

5. Audience

While readers pick up autobiographies to learn about prominent individuals, they read memoirs to experience a story built around specific themes . Memoirs, as such, tend to be more relatable, personal, and intimate. Really, what this means is that memoirs can be written by anybody!

Ready to be inspired yet? Let’s now turn to some memoir examples that have received widespread recognition and captured our imaginations!

If you’re looking to lose yourself in a book, the following memoir examples are great places to begin:

• The Year of Magical Thinking , which chronicles Joan Didion’s year of mourning her husband’s death, is certainly one of the most powerful books on grief. Written in two short months, Didion’s prose is urgent yet lucid, compelling from the first page to the last. A few years later, the writer would publish Blue Nights , another devastating account of grief, only this time she would be mourning her daughter.
• Patti Smith’s Just Kids is a classic coming-of-age memoir that follows the author’s move to New York and her romance and friendship with the artist Robert Maplethorpe. In its pages, Smith captures the energy of downtown New York in the late sixties and seventies effortlessly.
• When Breath Becomes Air begins when Paul Kalanithi, a young neurosurgeon, is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Exquisite and poignant, this memoir grapples with some of the most difficult human experiences, including fatherhood, mortality, and the search for meaning.
• A memoir of relationship abuse, Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House is candid and innovative in form. Machado writes about thorny and turbulent subjects with clarity, even wit. While intensely personal, In the Dream House is also one of most insightful pieces of cultural criticism.
• Twenty-five years after leaving for Canada, Michael Ondaatje returns to his native Sri Lanka to sort out his family’s past. The result is Running in the Family , the writer’s dazzling attempt to reconstruct fragments of experiences and family legends into a portrait of his parents’ and grandparents’ lives. (Importantly, Running in the Family was sold to readers as a fictional memoir; its explicit acknowledgement of fictionalization prevented it from encountering the kind of backlash that James Frey would receive for fabricating key facts in A Million Little Pieces , which he had sold as a memoir . )
• Of the many memoirs published in recent years, Tara Westover’s Educated is perhaps one of the most internationally-recognized. A story about the struggle for self-determination, Educated recounts the writer’s childhood in a survivalist family and her subsequent attempts to make a life for herself. All in all, powerful, thought-provoking, and near impossible to put down.

While book-length memoirs are engaging reads, the prospect of writing a whole book can be intimidating. Fortunately, there are plenty of short, essay-length memoir examples that are just as compelling.

While memoirists often write book-length works, you might also consider writing a memoir that’s essay-length. Here are some short memoir examples that tell complete, lived stories, in far fewer words:

• “ The Book of My Life ” offers a portrait of a professor that the writer, Aleksandar Hemon, once had as a child in communist Sarajevo. This memoir was collected into Hemon’s The Book of My Lives , a collection of essays about the writer’s personal history in wartime Yugoslavia and subsequent move to the US.
• “The first time I cheated on my husband, my mother had been dead for exactly one week.” So begins Cheryl Strayed’s “ The Love of My Life ,” an essay that the writer eventually expanded into the best-selling memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail .
• In “ What We Hunger For ,” Roxane Gay weaves personal experience and a discussion of The Hunger Games into a powerful meditation on strength, trauma, and hope. “What We Hunger For” can also be found in Gay’s essay collection, Bad Feminist .
• A humorous memoir structured around David Sedaris and his family’s memories of pets, “ The Youth in Asia ” is ultimately a story about grief, mortality and loss. This essay is excerpted from the memoir Me Talk Pretty One Day , and a recorded version can be found here .

So far, we’ve 1) answered the question “What is a memoir?” 2) discussed differences between memoirs vs. autobiographies, 3) taken a closer look at book- and essay-length memoir examples. Next, we’ll turn the question of how to write a memoir.

How to Write a Memoir: A-Step-by-Step Guide

1. how to write a memoir: generate memoir ideas.

how to start a memoir? As with anything, starting is the hardest. If you’ve yet to decide what to write about, check out the “ I Remember ” writing prompt. Inspired by Joe Brainard’s memoir I Remember , this prompt is a great way to generate a list of memories. From there, choose one memory that feels the most emotionally charged and begin writing your memoir. It’s that simple! If you’re in need of more prompts, our Facebook group is also a great resource.

2. How to Write a Memoir: Begin drafting

My most effective advice is to resist the urge to start from “the beginning.” Instead, begin with the event that you can’t stop thinking about, or with the detail that, for some reason, just sticks. The key to drafting is gaining momentum . Beginning with an emotionally charged event or detail gives us the drive we need to start writing.

3. How to Write a Memoir: Aim for a “ shitty first draft ”

Now that you have momentum, maintain it. Attempting to perfect your language as you draft makes it difficult to maintain our impulses to write. It can also create self-doubt and writers’ block. Remember that most, if not all, writers, no matter how famous, write shitty first drafts.

Attempting to perfect your language as you draft makes it difficult to maintain our impulses to write.

4. How to Write a Memoir: Set your draft aside

Once you have a first draft, set it aside and fight the urge to read it for at least a week. Stephen King recommends sticking first drafts in your drawer for at least six weeks. This period allows writers to develop the critical distance we need to revise and edit the draft that we’ve worked so hard to write.

5. How to Write a Memoir: Reread your draft

While reading your draft, note what works and what doesn’t, then make a revision plan. While rereading, ask yourself:

• What’s underdeveloped, and what’s superfluous.
• Does the structure work?
• What story are you telling?

6. How to Write a Memoir: Revise your memoir and repeat steps 4 & 5 until satisfied

Every piece of good writing is the product of a series of rigorous revisions. Depending on what kind of writer you are and how you define a draft,” you may need three, seven, or perhaps even ten drafts. There’s no “magic number” of drafts to aim for, so trust your intuition. Many writers say that a story is never, truly done; there only comes a point when they’re finished with it. If you find yourself stuck in the revision process, get a fresh pair of eyes to look at your writing.

7. How to Write a Memoir: Edit, edit, edit!

Once you’re satisfied with the story, begin to edit the finer things (e.g. language, metaphor , and details). Clean up your word choice and omit needless words , and check to make sure you haven’t made any of these common writing mistakes . Be sure to also know the difference between revising and editing —you’ll be doing both. Then, once your memoir is ready, send it out !

Learn How to Write a Memoir at Writers.com

Writing a memoir for the first time can be intimidating. But, keep in mind that anyone can learn how to write a memoir. Trust the value of your own experiences: it’s not about the stories you tell, but how you tell them. Most importantly, don’t give up!

Anyone can learn how to write a memoir.

If you’re looking for additional feedback, as well as additional instruction on how to write a memoir, check out our schedule of nonfiction classes . Now, get started writing your memoir!

25 Comments

Thank you for this website. It’s very engaging. I have been writing a memoir for over three years, somewhat haphazardly, based on the first half of my life and its encounters with ignorance (religious restrictions, alcohol, and inability to reach out for help). Three cities were involved: Boston as a youngster growing up and going to college, then Washington DC and Chicago North Shore as a married woman with four children. I am satisfied with some chapters and not with others. Editing exposes repetition and hopefully discards boring excess. Reaching for something better is always worth the struggle. I am 90, continue to be a recital pianist, a portrait painter, and a writer. Hubby has been dead for nine years. Together we lept a few of life’s chasms and I still miss him. But so far, my occupations keep my brain working fairly well, especially since I don’t smoke or drink (for the past 50 years).

Hi Mary Ellen,

It sounds like a fantastic life for a memoir! Thank you for sharing, and best of luck finishing your book. Let us know when it’s published!

Best, The writers.com Team

Hello Mary Ellen,

I am contacting you because your last name (Lavelle) is my middle name!

Being interested in genealogy I have learned that this was my great grandfathers wife’s name (Mary Lavelle), and that her family emigrated here about 1850 from County Mayo, Ireland. That is also where my fathers family came from.

Is your family background similar?

Hope to hear back from you.

Richard Lavelle Bourke

Hi Mary Ellen: Have you finished your memoir yet? I just came across your post and am seriously impressed that you are still writing. I discovered it again at age 77 and don’t know what I would do with myself if I couldn’t write. All the best to you!! Sharon [email protected]

I am up to my eyeballs with a research project and report for a non-profit. And some paid research for an international organization. But as today is my 90th birthday, it is time to retire and write a memoir.

So I would like to join a list to keep track of future courses related to memoir / creative non-fiction writing.

Hi Frederick,

Happy birthday! And happy retirement as well. I’ve added your name and email to our reminder list for memoir courses–when we post one on our calendar, we’ll send you an email.

We’ll be posting more memoir courses in the near future, likely for the months of January and February 2022. We hope to see you in one!

Very interesting and informative, I am writing memoirs from my long often adventurous and well travelled life, have had one very short story published. Your advice on several topics will be extremely helpful. I write under my schoolboy nickname Barnaby Rudge.

[…] How to Write a Memoir: Examples and a Step-by-Step Guide […]

I am writing my memoir from my memory when I was 5 years old and now having left my birthplace I left after graduation as a doctor I moved to UK where I have been living. In between I have spent 1 year in Canada during my training year as paediatrician. I also spent nearly 2 years with British Army in the hospital as paediatrician in Germany. I moved back to UK to work as specialist paediatrician in a very busy general hospital outside London for the next 22 years. Then I retired from NHS in 2012. I worked another 5 years in Canada until 2018. I am fully retired now

I have the whole convoluted story of my loss and horrid aftermath in my head (and heart) but have no clue WHERE, in my story to begin. In the middle of the tragedy? What led up to it? Where my life is now, post-loss, and then write back and forth? Any suggestions?

My friend Laura who referred me to this site said “Start”! I say to you “Start”!

Hi Dee, that has been a challenge for me.i dont know where to start?

What was the most painful? Embarrassing? Delicious? Unexpected? Who helped you? Who hurt you? Pick one story and let that lead you to others.

I really enjoyed this writing about memoir. I ve just finished my own about my journey out of my city then out of my country to Egypt to study, Never Say Can’t, God Can Do It. Infact memoir writing helps to live the life you are writing about again and to appreciate good people you came across during the journey. Many thanks for sharing what memoir is about.

I am a survivor of gun violence, having witnessed my adult son being shot 13 times by police in 2014. I have struggled with writing my memoir because I have a grandson who was 18-months old at the time of the tragedy and was also present, as was his biological mother and other family members. We all struggle with PTSD because of this atrocity. My grandson’s biological mother was instrumental in what happened and I am struggling to write the story in such a way as to not cast blame – thus my dilemma in writing the memoir. My grandson was later adopted by a local family in an open adoption and is still a big part of my life. I have considered just writing it and waiting until my grandson is old enough to understand all the family dynamics that were involved. Any advice on how I might handle this challenge in writing would be much appreciated.

I decided to use a ghost writer, and I’m only part way in the process and it’s worth every penny!

Hi. I am 44 years old and have had a roller coaster life .. right as a young kid seeing his father struggle to financial hassles, facing legal battles at a young age and then health issues leading to a recent kidney transplant. I have been working on writing a memoir sharing my life story and titled it “A memoir of growth and gratitude” Is it a good idea to write a memoir and share my story with the world?

Thank you… this was very helpful. I’m writing about the troubling issues of my mental health, and how my life was seriously impacted by that. I am 68 years old.

[…] Writers.com: How to Write a Memoir […]

[…] Writers.com: “How to Write a Memoir” […]

I am so grateful that I found this site! I am inspired and encouraged to start my memoir because of the site’s content and the brave people that have posted in the comments.

Finding this site is going into my gratitude journey 🙂

We’re grateful you found us too, Nichol! 🙂

Firstly, I would like to thank you for all the info pertaining to memoirs. I believe am on the right track, am at the editing stage and really have to use an extra pair of eyes. I’m more motivated now to push it out and complete it. Thanks for the tips it was very helpful, I have a little more confidence it seeing the completion.

Well, I’m super excited to begin my memoir. It’s hard trying to rely on memories alone, but I’m going to give it a shot!

Thanks to everyone who posted comments, all of which have inspired me to get on it.

Best of luck to everyone! Jody V.

I was thrilled to find this material on How to Write A Memoir. When I briefly told someone about some of my past experiences and how I came to the United States in the company of my younger brother in a program with a curious name, I was encouraged by that person and others to write my life history.

Based on the name of that curious program through which our parents sent us to the United States so we could leave the place of our birth, and be away from potentially difficult situations in our country.

As I began to write my history I took as much time as possible to describe all the different steps that were taken. At this time – I have been working on this project for 5 years and am still moving ahead. The information I received through your material has further encouraged me to move along. I am very pleased to have found this important material. Thank you!

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The Best New Biographies and Memoirs to Read in 2024

This year sees some riveting and remarkable lives—from artist ai weiwei to singer-songwriter joni mitchell—captured on the page..

A life story can be read for escapist pleasure. But at other times, reading a memoir or biography can be an expansive exercise, opening us up to broader truths about our world. Often, it’s an edifying experience that reminds us of our universal human vulnerability and the common quest for purpose in life.

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Biographies and memoirs charting remarkable lives—whether because of fame, fortune or simply fascination—have the power to inspire us for their depth, curiosity or challenges. This year sees a bumper calendar of personal histories enter bookshops, grappling with enigmatic public figures like singer Joni Mitchell and writer Ian Fleming , to nuanced analysis of how motherhood or sociopathy shape our lives—for better and for worse.

Here we compile some of the most rewarding biographies and memoirs out in 2024. There are stories of trauma and recovery, art as politics and politics as art, and sentences as single life lessons spread across books that will make you rethink much about personal life stories. After all, understanding the triumphs and trials of others can help us see how we can change our own lives to create something different or even better.

Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir by Ai Weiwei and illustrated by Gianluca Costantini

Ai Weiwei , the iconoclastic artist and fierce critic of his homeland China, mixes fairy tales with moral lessons to evocatively retrace the story of his life in graphic form. Illustrations are by Italian artist Gianluca Costantini . “Any artist who isn’t an activist is a dead artist,” Weiwei writes in Zodiac , as he embraces everything from animals found in the Chinese zodiac to mystical folklore tales with anamorphic animals to argue the necessity of art as politics incarnate. The meditative exercise uses pithy anecdotes alongside striking visuals to sketch out a remarkable life story marked by struggle. It’s one weaving political manifesto, philosophy and personal memoir to engage readers on the necessity of art and agitation against authority in a world where we sometimes must resist and fight back.

Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti

Already well-known for her experimental writings, Sheila Heti takes a decade of diary entries and maps sentences against the alphabet, from A to Z. The project is a subversive rethink of our relationship to introspection—which often asks for order and clarity, like in diary writing—that maps new patterns and themes in its disjointed form. Heti plays with both her confessionals and her sometimes formulaic writing style (like knowingly using “Of course” in entries) to retrace the changes made (and unmade) across ten years of her life. Alphabetical Diaries is a sometimes demanding book given the incoherence of its entries, but remains an illuminating project in thinking about efforts at self-documentation.

Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison

Unlike her previous work The Empathy Exams , which examined how we relate to one another and on human suffering, writer Leslie Jamison wrestles today with her own failed marriage and the grief of surviving single parenting. After the birth of her daughter, Jamison divorces her partner “C,” traverses the trials and tribulations of rebound relationships (including with “an ex-philosopher”) and confronts unresolved emotional pains born of her own life living under the divorce of her parents. In her intimate retelling—paired with her superb prose—Jamison charts a personal history that acknowledges the unending divide mothers (and others) face dividing themselves between partners, children and their own lives.

Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch

Whether dancing figures or a “radiant baby,” the recognizable cartoonish symbols in Keith Haring ’s art endure today as shorthand signs representing both his playfulness and politicking. Haring (1958-1990) is the subject of writer Brad Gooch ’s deft biography, Radiant , a book that mines new material from the archive along with interviews with contemporaries to reappraise the influential quasi-celebrity artist. From rough beginnings tagging graffiti on New York City walls to cavorting with Andy Warhol and Madonna on art pieces, Haring battled everything from claims of selling out to over-simplicity. But he persisted with work that leveraged catchy quotes and colorful imagery to advance unsavory political messages—from AIDS to crack cocaine. A life tragically cut short at 31 is one powerfully celebrated in this new noble portrait.

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul Charles

In The House of Hidden Meaning , celebrated drag queen, RuPaul , reckons with a murky inner world that has shaped—and hindered—a lifetime of gender-bending theatricality. The figurative house at the center of the story is his “ego,” a plaguing barrier that apparently long inhibited the performer from realizing dreams of greatness. Now as the world’s most recognizable drag queen—having popularized the art form for mainstream audiences with the TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race —RuPaul reflects on the power that drag and self-love have long offered across his difficult, and sometimes tortured, life. Readers expecting dishy stories may be disappointed, but the psychological self-assessment in the pages of this memoir is far more edifying than Hollywood gossip could ever be.

Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne

Patric Gagne is an unlikely subject for a memoir on sociopaths. Especially since she is a former therapist with a doctorate in clinical psychology. Still, Gagne makes the case that after a troubled childhood of antisocial behavior (like stealing trinkets and cursing teachers) and a difficult adulthood (now stealing credit cards and fighting authority figures), she receives a diagnosis of sociopathy. Her memoir recounts many episodes of bad behavior—deeds often marked by a lack of empathy, guilt or even common decency—where her great antipathy mars any ability for her to connect with others. Sociopath is a rewarding personal exposé that demystifies one vilified psychological condition so often seen as entirely untreatable or irreparable. Only now there’s a familiar face and a real story linked to the prognosis.

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare

Nicholas Shakespeare is an acclaimed novelist and an astute biographer, delivering tales that wield a discerning eye to subjects and embrace a robust attention to detail. Ian Fleming (1908-1964), the legendary creator of James Bond, is the latest to receive Shakespeare’s treatment. With access to new family materials from the Fleming estate, the seemingly contradictory Fleming is seen anew as a totally “different person” from his popular image. Taking cues from Fleming’s life story—from a refined upbringing spent in expensive private schools to working for Reuters as a journalist in the Soviet Union—Shakespeare reveals how these experiences shaped the elusive world of espionage and intrigue created in Fleming’s novels. Other insights include how Bond was likely informed by Fleming’s cavalier father, a major who fought in WWI. A martini (shaken, not stirred) is best enjoyed with this bio.

Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie , while giving a rare public lecture in New York in August 2022, was violently stabbed by an assailant brandishing a knife . The attack saw Rushdie lose his left hand and his sight in one eye. Speaking to The New Yorker a year later , he confirmed a memoir was in the works that would confront this harrowing existential experience: “When somebody sticks a knife into you, that’s a first-person story. That’s an ‘I’ story.” Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder is promised to be his raw, revelatory and deeply psychological confrontation with the violent incident. Like the sword of Damocles, brutality has long stalked Rushdie ever since the 1989 fatwa issued against the author, following the publication of his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses . The answer to such barbarity, Rushdie is poised to argue, is by finding the strength to stand up again.

The Art of Dying: Writings, 2019–2022 by Peter Schjeldahl (Release: May 14)

Peter Schjeldahl (1942-2022), longstanding art critic of The New Yorker , confronted his mortality when he was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in 2019. The resulting essay collection he then penned, The Art of Dying , is a masterful meditation on one life preoccupied entirely with aesthetics and criticism. It’s a discursive tactic for a memoir that avoids discussing Schjeldahl’s coming demise while equally confirming its impending visit by avoiding it. Acknowledging that he finds himself “thinking about death less than I used to,” Schjeldahl spends most of the pages revisiting familiar art subjects—from Edward Hopper ’s output to Peter Saul ’s Pop Art—as vehicles to re-examine his own remarkable life. With a life that began in the humble Midwest, Schjeldahl says his birthplace was one that ultimately availed him to write so plainly and cogently on art throughout his career. Such posthumous musings prove illuminating lessons on the potency of American art, with whispered asides on the tragedy of death that will come for all of us.

Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers (Release: June 11)

Joni Mitchell has enjoyed a remarkable revival recently, even already being one of the most acclaimed and enduring singer/songwriters. After retiring from public appearances for health reasons in the 2010s, Mitchell, 80, has returned to the spotlight with a 2021 Kennedy Centers honor , an appearance accepting the 2023 Gershwin Prize and even a live performance at this year’s Grammy Awards . It’s against this backdrop of public celebration of Mitchell that NPR music critic Ann Powers retraces the life story and musical (re)evolution of the singer, from folk to jazz genres and rock to soul music, across five decades for the American songbook. “What you are about to read is not a standard account of the life and work of Joni Mitchell,” she writes in the introduction. Instead, Powers’ project is one showing how Mitchell’s many journeys—from literal road trips inspiring tracks like “All I Want” to inner probings of Mitchell’s psyche, such as the song “Both Sides Now”—have always inspired Mitchell’s enduring, emotive and palpable output. These travels hold the key, Powers says, to understanding an enigmatic artist.

• SEE ALSO : ‘Under the Bridge’ Review: A Miniseries That Interrogates the True Crime Genre

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