How to write a Memoir

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How to write aMemoir
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What is a Memoir?

• from the French mémoire, from the Latin
  memoria, meaning "memory
• tries to capture certain highlights or meaningful
  moments in one's past.

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Characteristics of a Memoir

• ... Focus on a brief period of time or series of
  related events
• ... Narrative structure, including many of the
  usual elements of storytelling such as setting,
  plot development, imagery, conflict,
  characterization, foreshadowing and flashback,
  and irony and symbolism
• ... The writer's contemplation of the meaning of
  these events in retrospect
• ... A fictional quality even though the story is
  true
• ... Higher emotional level
• ... More personal reconstruction of the events
  and their impact

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Remember this

• Use concrete language (identifies things
  perceived through the senses (touch, smell,
  sight, hearing, and taste), such as soft, stench,
  red, loud, or bitter.
• Use vivid verbs
• Include descriptive adjectives
• Consider opening the memoir with a description
• Replace overused words like big, fun, said, o.k.,
  nice, etc..