Memoir Creative Writing

1
MemoirCreative Writing

• Course Target I can create non-fiction with
  authentic voice, word choice, and tone.

Take notes on whatever is in pink!!!
2
Memoir A General Definition

• The French word memoire simply means memory.
• An account of the personal experiences of an
  author.
• A memory

3
Characteristics of Memoir

• Focuses on a brief period of time or series of
  related events.
• Has similar elements of short story including
  setting, situation, and character!
• Has an underlying theme.
• It has a fictional quality even though the story
  is true.

4
Characteristics of Memoir

• It has a higher emotional level
• It has a more personal reconstruction of the
  events and their impact.
• A memoir is often a writer writing to figure out
  the meaning of his/her memory.
• It can be a therapeutic experience for the
  memoirist.

5
Memoir vs. Autobiography

• The memoir may be more emotional and concerned
  with capturing particular scenes, or a series of
  events, rather than documenting every fact of a
  persons life from birth to fame.
• A memoir is usually shorter than an autobiography.

6
Why should I write a memoir?

• Writing a memoir may help you establish or define
  an identity.
• Its very flexible in form.
• It is about actual people and real events who and
  which may be an important part of your life.
• We ALL have something worth writing about. Each
  of us has unique memories - people, places,
  sounds and smells that are personally
  significant.

7
Do Memoirs tell the truth?

• According to J.A. Cuddon, An autobiography may
  be largely fictional. Few can recall clear
  details of their early life and are therefore
  dependent on other peoples impressions, of
  necessity equally unreliable. Moreover, everyone
  tends to remember what he wants to remember.
  Disagreeable facts are sometimes glossed over or
  repressed.
• -Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary
  Terms and Literary Theory

8
Do Memoirs tell the truth?

• Some memoirs alter the accuracy of events to
  achieve the accuracy of interpretation.
• In other words, changes are made to better
  express your underlying theme.
• The work battens on your memories-every time you
  remember something, you change something about it!

9
Voice of the Memoir

• It should sound like the writer is speaking.
• The tone is balanced between formal writing and a
  strict recording of speech.
• A powerful memoir consists of highlights that
  point out an underlying theme.
• The highlights are linked in a story form,
  similar to fiction, with an emphasis on why
  something happened or on a resolution to a
  problem.

Reminder Tone is the attitude the author takes
towards the subject, the characters or the
audience. Mood is the feeling created in the
reader, evoked through the language of the text!
The authors tone sets the readers mood!