Write a memoir to bring your life story to the printed page

By colin MccanDless contriButing Writer

REGION – So you are ready to write down your life story and craft a memoir about your life to leave something behind for posterity. Where do you even begin with such a herculean task? How do you get started? After all, the journey of 1,000 pages begins with the first chapter. Or is it the prologue? Here are some tips, recommendations and resources designed to help make this poignantly personal prose odyssey more manageable.

Defining the genre

Before beginning the process, it’s important to understand what a memoir is and is not. A memoir is a nonfiction first-person account comprised of events and memories from an author’s real life that are woven together into a central theme. It is not an autobiography, which provides a first-person historical account of a person’s entire life told chronologically. A memoir typically focuses on impactful moments in time and does not have to be presented in chronological order or narrated in a linear fashion. Lastly, autobiographies generally cen- ter around facts and history whereas memoirs deal more with emotional experiences.

Bearing this in mind, when you’re deciding on how to structure the framework of your memoir it’s best to narrow the content down to a few pivotal or influential moments that transformed your life or have shaped the person that you became. Even though a memoir is a work of nonfiction, incorporate fiction-writing elements such as dialogue and descriptive action; appeal to the senses through vivid imagery and detail that engages the reader. Additionally, write every day, even if just a few pages or a short chapter, so that you develop a writing routine and establish and adhere to personal deadline goals you’ve set. Additionally, reading other popular published memoirs might provide a further source of inspiration. Reader’s Digest features a comprehensive list at rd.com/list/memoirs-everyoneshould-read.

GrubStreet, a Boston-based nonprofit creative writing center, offers hundreds of writing classes throughout the year from intro to advanced levels, including multiple courses on memoir writing.

Memoir writing resources

A number of online resources offer basic guidance on memoir writing including the National Association of Memoir Writers’ website, which provides both free tools as well as paid memberships. Its founder, Linda Joy Myers, has extensive experience teaching memoir writing and has written a book called “The Power of Memoir,” an eight-step course in memoir writing.

GrubStreet, a Boston-based nonprofit creative writing center, offers hundreds of writing classes throughout the year from intro to advanced levels, including multiple courses on memoir writing that are part of their core classes available every term (spring, summer and fall). Courses generally taught each term entail “Jumpstart your Memoir,” “Memoir in Progress” and “Advanced Memoir Writing,” according to GrubStreet artistic director Dariel Suarez. Due to memoir writing’s rise in popularity, Suarez noted, “We tend to have a lot of memoir courses throughout the year.”

While they do hold in-person instruction, most classes are conducted online, and usually range within four, six, eight or 10-week time frames depending on topic and skill level. They also offer one-day memoir workshops. Additionally, there are more intensive memoir programs that require a bigger