Friday Speak Out!: Are you writing an autobiography or a memoir?

By Ronit Plank

One of the first topics I cover in my memoir writing classes is the difference between autobiography and memoir. Because they share the same Dewey Decimal call numbers in libraries and are often grouped together in bookstores, there is a tendency to think of these two kinds of first-person nonfiction narratives as the same. But they are quite different and when we better understand what sets memoir apart, we can write and revise our manuscripts that resonate and shimmer.

Perhaps the most obvious way is that autobiography is often an account of an entire life or career, while memoir focuses on a specific period of time or experience. Autobiography can include every single event the writer feels called to share whereas memoir is about transformation and requires writers to be far more selective and self-aware.

If you’re contemplating dipping your toe into memoir, here are a few elements that can help infuse your manuscript with tension and complexity.

You the character and you the narrator

Memoir is distinct as a genre in that it asks of the memoirist to craft not only a compelling “I” character but also a reflective narrator, one who can highlight patterns and amplify stakes for that “I” character. In memoir the narrator-you is there to make meaning from what has occurred and guide the reader through your journey of self-discovery. When you harness this reflective narrative voice you ratchet up the stakes for the character-you and help keep the reader invested in you and turning the page.

Less what happened and more how it matters

Memoir is less about the particulars of what happened and more about why that matters now. The driving force of your narrative is that of a curious mind at work pushing for greater understanding about how and why the events you depict have their hooks in you and hound you; why you revisit them again and again in search for clarity. If you have already written a bit of material but feel you need more tension, more stakes, ask yourself what work your chapters are doing, what dynamic they show and how they provide opportunities for narrator-you to interrogate your behavior.

The question your memoir is asking

At their heart, memoirs are a story of becoming and when we gain insight about the central question our memoir is asking, we can structure our manuscript in dynamic and resonant ways. The central question has to do with what is still unsolved in you, the memoirist that has you revisiting your experience to try to make sense of it. And one of the most fascinating aspects of memoir is that the more you excavate your story, the clearer the question you’re asking becomes.

For me the thrill of memoir is knowing that when we approach our stories with curiosity, courage, and self-awareness we have the opportunity to create satisfying narrative arcs in our manuscripts as well as profound growth and change in our lives.

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Sarah Anne Photography

Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Hippocampus, The New York Times, and elsewhere, earning Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Kirkus Reviews calls her debut memoir When She Comes Back, “An intimate, intuitive, emotionally vivid family account that finds hope in reconciliation". Ronit teaches memoir online at University of Washington’s Continuum Program, hosts the podcast Let’s Talk Memoir, and publishes monthly memoir craft advice on her Let’s Talk Memoir Substack.

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