Memoir General Information
Characteristics of the Memoir Form
- Focus on a brief period of time or series of related events
- Narrative structure, including many of the usual elements of storytelling such as setting, plot development, imagery, conflict, characterization, foreshadowing and flashback, and irony and symbolism
- The writer's contemplation of the meaning of these events in retrospect
- A fictional quality even though the story is true
- Higher emotional level
- More personal reconstruction of the events and their impact
- Therapeutic experience for the memoirist, especially when the memoir is of the crisis or survival type of memoir
Writing the Memoir
- To write a memoir, begin by brainstorming on paper all the events you can remember from your life that were either very important to you in a positive way, or very important to you in a negative way.
- Talk to other members of your family to get ideas, help you remember events from when you were small, and to help fill in the details that might have been forgotten.
- Select the event, or series of related events, that seems most interesting to you right now. Brainstorm again but in more detail, trying to recall names, places, descriptions, voices, conversations, things, and all the other details that will make this turn into an interesting memoir.
- Work at this note taking stage for a few days, until you feel you've got it all down on paper. Then begin to write.
- You will be surprised to see that even more details begin to appear once you start to write.
- For your first draft, write quickly to get all your ideas down from beginning to end. Don't worry about editing.
- Before you revise, share your first draft with someone in the family.
- Consider their response, but go with what feels right. Rewrite, and then start editing as needed. Good memoirs are about everyday things, but they are interesting, sometimes just as interesting to read as a good novel.
- But remember, a memoir is supposed to be true, so be careful not to exaggerate or embellish the truth.
Memoir
Step 8: Formative Assessment Freedom Writers Memoir and Website
Go to the Freedom Writers web site below and read about how a group of high school students from Los Angeles made the decision to change their life story. Coming from a crime and gang ridden environment, they began to use reading and writing to change their lives. Read this short memoir about them and in your Readers Notebook write a paragraph describing who the Freedom Writers are, what their lives were like before and what they are doing now? What happened to them for them to believe not only in themselves but also in how they had control over their future?
Step 9: Formative Assessment Art and Craft of a Memoir
Below is a hyperlink for the Art and Craft of a Memoir. Read the information in this selection and in your Readers Notebook answer the three questions.
Step 10: Formative Assessment Definition of a Memoir
Below is a hyperlink for the Definition of a Memoir. In your Readers Notebook complete the column below including information about how the Memoir and Autobiography are the same and different.
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Memoir |
Autobiography |
Step 11: Formative Assessment Six Word Memoir
Go to the web site below and view the examples of Six Word Memoirs created by high school students. As you are viewing the Memoirs, select two that you really like and in your Readers Notebook explain why you like these. In the six words that the author uses, what is he or she telling you about his or her life?
Six Word Memoirs for Teens
Step 12: Formative Assessment Memorable Events in Your Life Timeline
In your Readers Notebook create a time line of seven stories or memorable events in your life.
Step 13: Formative Assessment Seven Headlines of Your Life
Using the timeline you created for the seven stories or memorable events in your life, in your Readers Notebook write seven headlines for those stories.
Step 14: Formative Assessment Six Word Story of Your Life
Using the headlines from the memorable events in your life, create your own Six Word Story of your life. Use active, precise verbs, concrete nouns, adjectives and adverbs in your Six Word Stories.
Memoir Rubric