Creative Writing: Memoir

Do you have a story to tell? Most of us do—correction, we all do. Every one of us, by virtue of being human, has experiences and insights that are worth retelling. But how can we tell those stories in a way that other people will want to read them and learn from them? Memoir is the art of taking scenes from our past and presenting them to an audience, not simply for the sake of telling a story but to inform, entertain, and establish an emotional bond with our readers. By exploring memories and examining our lives, we also learn a lot about ourselves. Learning Outcomes Explain the difference between memoir and autobiography Identify different narrative structures that allow for effective storytelling Choose incidents from your past that present a coherent and compelling story Develop an outline for your memoir Discuss the use of novelistic techniques to engage readers Distinguish between scene, summary, and reflection Edit and rewrite your work to eliminate weaknesses