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How To Write a Great Memoir Essay

how to write a memoir essay
It seems that there’s nothing easier than writing a memoir essay. Basically, you need to write about some events from your past, and how they influenced you. It doesn’t matter how old you are – you can write an essay in college, describing your struggling with studies and how hard it was for you to leave home.

Memoir shouldn’t be just a simple reflection of certain events. Readers aren’t so interested in “What” happened, they would want to know “How” it influenced you. How you felt, what were you thinking about and what you learned. If you want to be a great writer, you could certainly use this Anton Chekhov’s quote: ‘Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.’

Your story, especially based on real events, should be inspirational and make your reader recreate your experience. So here are some tips that could be useful, if you want to write a memoir essay.

Research

It may sound really weird, but you should do research! Maybe you think “Well, it’s the story about me. What kind of research?”. In reality, you can find enough “sources” that could be useful. For example – some old pictures, journals and even Facebook posts.

If you have Twitter – you can actually download your entire history of tweets. You’ll be able to check what you were doing in April, 2013 for example. When you read these posts, it seems like it was written by another person.

So if you want to write about some events from your past – research! If you were with some people, who are close to you, like your friends or family, ask them questions. It will be great to spend some time together and maybe you’ll hear something you already forgot.

Be Honest

Readers will believe your story if they feel you’re honest with them. You should open up your personality. If you’re a traveler, musician or a programmer, try to speak to the reader from a certain perspective. You should share your real experience with the reader, so you can do it only by being yourself.

Don’t try to look better or smarter. Be who you are. Let the reader know what’s really important to you. What makes you cry? What will make you laugh? Such personal information is very important, it becomes the essence of your story.

Remember All the Details

Make your reader feel the same way you did. Show as many details as you can. If you were eating a delicious burger, describe why it was so good. Speak about BBQ sauce and the smell of grilled bacon, and the taste of fresh tomatoes, delicious beef patty and basil leaves.

Your audience would like to see everything with your own eyes. So remember not only the words people said, but all those small details that make you experience the same things all over again.

Make Your Memoir Sound Like a Fiction Story

You shouldn’t make your memoir essay boring. It has to entertain the reader! So imagine you write a fiction story based on real life events. Don’t just describe the events: “Jack did this, and I thought that and then we went there”. Use some fiction writing techniques: a dialogue between the characters, create some feeling of suspense (you can imagine you’re Hitchcock and you need to thrill the audience).

Imagine You’re the Reader

Bring your story to life and then read it yourself. Do you find it interesting? Especially focus on the first paragraph. Honestly admit if you would like to read a story that starts like that. Very often people read only the first few sentences, so they definitely should catch attention.

If you don’t like the beginning, edit some sentences, make them sound more exciting. But the most important part – do not feel disappointed, if your first draft doesn’t sound excellent. Even Ernest Hemingway knew that the first drafts are always awful. So start proofreading the paper, edit all the boring parts, and you’ll see how your memoir essays starts to shine.

Now you know how to write a memoir. Remember, that the best way to learn how to do something is to practice it all the time. Your writing may not be perfect now, but eventually it will become much better. And if you use our tips on memoir writing, you’ll be able to come up with a great essay! So good luck with that.