MEMOIR

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MEMOIR

• a snapshot
• of your life

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What is a Memoir?

• A memoir is a piece of autobiographical writing,
  usually shorter in nature than a comprehensive
  autobiography.
• Memoir tries to capture certain highlights or
  meaningful moments in one's past, often including
  a contemplation of the meaning of that event at
  the time of the writing of the memoir.
• The memoir may be more emotional and concerned
  with capturing particular scenes, or a series of
  events, rather than documenting every fact of a
  person's life.

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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,
  imagery, conflict, characterization,
  foreshadowing, flashback, irony, and symbolism
• The writer's contemplation of the meaning of
  these events in retrospect
• The use of dialogue

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Characteristics continued

• A fictional quality even though the story is true
• Higher emotional level
• More personal reconstruction of the events and
  their impact
• Therapeutic experience for the memoirist,
  especially when the memoir is of the crisis or
  survival type

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Memoirs are Visually Descriptive

• Typically all five senses are used at some point
  to describe events.
• See
• Smell
• Hear
• Taste
• Touch
• This allows the reader to really visualize what
  the writer is talking about.

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Examples of a Memoir
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YOUR Memoir

• WHAT WOULD YOU WRITE ABOUT?