Your memories are likely to be very vivid. They are obviously interesting enough for you to want to dedicate your time to putting them down on paper, but the challenge for many memoir writers is to bring their personal story to life for their readers.
Here are some tips to help make your memories a real story for your readers.
Grab Your Reader’s Interest
It’s important to grab your reader’s interest from the very beginning. Your story should start with something that hooks your reader in. Perhaps you start with an action scene or something intriguing that gets your reader curious; it’s up to you as the author. However you begin your story it has to be interesting enough for your readers to want to continue turning the page. Think and plan carefully the best place to commence your story.
Appeal to the Senses
When we start to write very often the first things we begin to describe are visual; what things look like. But what about our other senses? How did it smell? Or taste? What did it feel like to touch? Did we hear anything? Perhaps background noise? Describing a meal by how it tasted and smelt is probably stronger than describing how it looked. But what about other things? How did someone make you feel? What did they smell like? Was there a lot of noise going on around you? Were you nervous?
A Memoir is a Story
While a memoir is a story based on a real event or experience it is a story none the less, and as such should comply with the basic guidelines of good writing. Don’t give away too much at the beginning, reveal details as your story evolves and do so at a pace that keeps your readers engaged. Good stories reach a climax, a point the story builds up to with tension and action.
The Writer's Block website has a useful guide to writing.
Pulling it All Together
It’s likely that there will be many threads throughout your story and when your reader gets to the final chapter they will want to feel that you’ve tied everything together. Use your conclusion as a way of pulling those threads together, leaving your reader feeling the story is complete.
Focus on the Detail
It can sometimes be the small details that can really bring a scene alive for your reader. Events don’t always need to be dramatic or major to be worthy of inclusion in your memoir, what they do need to be is relevant and significant. The smaller details can sometimes help your readers recognise something from their own life.
What You Felt and Thought
Memoirs tend to get personal. They don’t just concentrate on the facts but often include the authors thoughts and feelings. The writer will often share what their felt, their insights, their dreams, hopes and disappointments. Others may not agree with them, but it’s the author’s memoirs and it’s how they felt about a situation.
Take your time to plan out your story and think about the events and experiences in a variety of ways. Describing how you felt and what you thought, along with what you saw is a good way of sharing the experience with your reader. Take it even further and explore your other senses. Finally, you don't always have to focus on the more obvious aspects of what happened; share with your reader some of the lesser known details and they may become even more engaged in what you have to say.
See also Tips for Improving Memoir Writing
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