Memoirs tend to be a recollection of event/s or experience/s rather than a full story of someone’s life. Therefore, when planning your memoir writing, it is helpful to consider how you will frame your story.
What are your options? They are many and various; here are some suggestions:
Chronological Story
This details what happens in the exact order as it occurred, from the beginning of the event or experience, through to the end. It may occur over the space of years or simply a few hours, but the story unfolds as it would in real life. This is a very basic frame but has been used very successfully by many memoir writers.
Playing With Time
Just because you are writing about real events and happenings, you don’t necessarily have to share the story with your readers in the same order as they occurred. Some authors have achieved good effect through the use of the narrator recalling memories and looking back on events, such as an older person looking back on their life. Some memoirs jump around between events; what's important is to keep it relevant and ensure the events are tied together with a common thread or your reader might get left behind.
Going Around in Circles
Another technique that can be used with memoir writing is to have your story end with something that it began with. Perhaps it’s a scene, a question or an event that happened to open the story, and the conclusion somehow comes back to this. This is a useful way to leave the reader feeling that the story has gone full circle and has closed something that was opened at the start.
Time Frame
Consider the time frame of your story. Does it occur over years, months, days or perhaps just hours? A memoir can still cover someone’s entire life but it may not cover all aspects of their life (for example, it may concentrate on their career rather than their person life). If you are picking out various events or experiences ensure they are relevant to each other and share a common theme.
Put Yourself in Your Reader's Shoes
Remember that they haven’t lived your experience so the framing is very important if your reader is going to follow and remain engaged in your story. Consider how your framing is enhancing your story: is it creating suspense? Intrigue? What would happen if you changed the framing? Could this potentially improve the story?
Hopefully the framing of your story enhances your reader's experience and helps them further understand and enjoy your writing. Be careful with jumping too much around in time; this requires careful planning and revising to ensure that your reader remains with you and doesn’t get lost.
Be creative with the framing of your memoir as it is a writer’s tool that can greatly enhance and improve your writing. Consider the various options and play around with their effects.
For tips on Memoir Writing see Tips for Improving Memoir Writing
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