This week, I attended an online webinar called How To Bring Memoir To Life by The Bridport Prize with a panel of four experts; a published author of memoir; two previous prize winners now published memoir authors; and a literary agent with a particular passion for non-fiction and memoir. It was a great session where they answered our many questions and as sharing is caring, below are their five tips for memoir writing to make it shine.

Before I start, as a first-time writer I’ve had to navigate some confusing terminology when it comes the types of genre my work sits within. On the webinar I wasn’t the only one, so thought it would be helpful to clarify what some of the terminology means upfront.

Memoir vs Autobiography: according to The Bridport Prize, memoir is defined as an autobiography without the boring bits.  While autobiography is a comprehensive account of a person’s life in chronological order, a memoir is a more focused narrative that hones in on a specific period and themes of your life with an emphasis on storytelling.  This isn’t to disregard facts which are important but to be selective with the facts you include and the ones you leave out. Instead focusing on the personal experiences and emotions in the story, in line with the narrative arc and what is needed to bring it to life.

Creative Non-Fiction vs Memoir : While creative non-fiction is the genre, memoir is a category or sub-genre within that. The key difference being that memoir is written from the author’s perspective, where they are the hero (or not) of the story, while creative non-fiction doesn’t have to be about the author’s life or written from their perspective.

Memoir vs Auto-Memoir : I’d not heard of the term auto-memoir until this webinar and hadn’t realised there were nuances within memoir writing, so this was helpful to know. The key difference is that while memoir is true-to-life, auto-memoir has creative fictional elements weaved in to the real-life story. Such elements might include imagined dialogues, scenes, characters that don’t exist in real life. Of course, this has ethical implications as readers who chose to read memoir do so, because they want to know that the story more or less plays out as it was written. So if there are made-up elements weaved in, you have to be honest and transparent in a preface or authors note. Otherwise readers will feel tricked and then annoyed or worse and no writer wants that.

Ok, so now that we are clear on terminology, let’s move onto the five tips for making your memoir shine, all of which also applies to creative non-fiction:

1. Don’t throw the kitchen sink at the opening chapter.  Apparently this is something too many of us first-time writers are guilty of. Personally I think we might do this because we want to hook in not only the reader but the literary agent and publishing house as well, by telling them everything they need to know in the opening chapter. However, as the experts say our job as storytellers, is to lead our readers by the hand into our story. A bit like a first date, it’s probably not the best idea to let them know you’re twice divorced, have a gambling habit and are obsessed with cheese all in the first five minutes. Same goes for your memoir.

2. Don’t lead with trauma. Don’t dive deep into the pain, mess and gore straight away. Only a few writers and stories can get away with that. For most, it will just be jarring for the reader. The best reading experience, the best way to start is through a voice led beginning. That means using your own strong distinctive voice full of personality, to draw readers in and to use the opener as an opportunity to showcase your writing style. Starting with an intriguing anecdote that sets up the tone for the rest of the story, is a great way of creating curiosity and hinting at the larger themes in your work.

3. Use the techniques of novel writing. Techniques like showing not telling, by using sensory details to bring a scene that will otherwise feel flat, to life in technicolour. Describing how something smells, looks, feels, tastes, sounds will create a vivid sense of place and atmosphere.  Treating the real people in your story as characters, is also so important in bringing a memoir to life.  What their backstory is, their motivations, their fears and doubts, each main character should have their own narrative arc within the story.

4. Create emotional drama. People read memoir because they want the grit and drama of real life. They want to sit on the emotional rollercoaster with you and experience your story through their eyes. They want the drama. Do this by creating tension, changing up the pace, keeping things to yourself, pushing the story forward, then pulling it back. Tease the reader by keeping them on their toes, fuelling their curiosity and need to know, so that they’ll keep turning the pages.

5. Be objective. When we are writing about our lives, it’s personal. This makes us want to include everything that happened in that specific period of time but we have to be objective, by ensuring that only that which serves the narrative arc of the story remains. Everything else, as important as it is to you, needs to be taken out.

I hope these five tips for making your memoir shine have been helpful for you, as it has been for me as I look to start the next phase of editing and reviewing after finishing the redraft.

Love the process and enjoy the ride. Until next time.

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