How to Write a Memoir Essay (Writing Guide)
Every individual has a past and a story to tell about childhood to adulthood experiences. Memoirs offer you the chance to express yourself through the rough or smooth ride of the memories. Hence, memoir essay writing simply is a chronological account of one’s life. A memoir closely relates to a biography but they slightly differ. A biography is the narration of someone’s life history and the person telling the story is not the author. On the other hand, the author of the record gives an account of his personal experience over a specific event encountered in his life. In this case, a memoir never covers all the noteworthy events of a person’s life.
Five Techniques to Start a Memoir Essay
- Have a clear concept of what you intend to write about. Narrow your focus to a specific event that was pertinent to your life or a given circumstance.
- Inform the audience of the purpose of writing the memoir. Each person writes for specific and passionate reasons with a target people group in mind.
- Give a preview of the event that entices the reader. Let the tension build to make the person reading want to follow on to the end.
- Engage the audience through captivating words.
- Avoid chronological analysis of the occurrence as this dilutes the script’s value to the reader.
Writing the Body Paragraphs
In this section, you narrate the occurrences and factors surrounding the specific account. Expound on how this particular event influences your present life either negatively or positively. It can be a conflict that builds up to be a problem but in the end becomes the opportunity for the success of the narrator. Be creative to include other factors that would add value to your paper. However, be honest and tell the truth as the purpose of such a script serves to share personal experiences that impact people’s lives.
Factors to consider while outlining your memoir under this part include:
- Have in mind your reader and show rather than tell the insights of your circumstances
- Employ fiction elements
- Exhibit character and conflict in an emotional way
- Be specific to detail and build on the details
- Create a unique memoir scenario and avoid predictability in the text before a conclusion
Since everybody has diverse life happenings, tell your story in style and let the reader identify with you. Significantly, find the right slant to describe your story, and the body paragraphs will definitely flow. Nonetheless, types of outlining a memoir such as before and after, the whirlpool, chronological, character studies, and the narrative track exist. Moreover, create sustainable tension that shapes the overall story. The narrator chooses which structure best suits his description taking into consideration the pros and cons. A good memoir composition aims at enlightening the audience rather than exalting oneself as a victim or hero in a given context.
The Conclusion
You have to outline the changes made due to the event encountered. The audience needs to understand how you have handled and dealt with the conflict or character under analysis in the body context. Also, indicate your present stage of life as a result of the described events. Let there be a connection from the introduction to the main body.
A Memoir Example
It was dark in chilly weather. The sky was bright with the moon gazing down at me as I sat down on the bench outside, away from the noisy party celebrations. Friends and family had occasioned my 21st birthday with glamor and a joyous mood was in the air. As I sat staring at the glittering stars, childhood memories flashed through my mind.
On my tenth birthday, ululations and circumcision songs characterized the night. It was a day to transit from childhood to womanhood. The culture dictated so and my loyal parents were all excited to see me undergo and subdue the pain to adulthood. Now, I was old enough to be married and enrich them. I was property, very valuable and my virginity had to be sewn to maintain my value.
Nonetheless, my age mates were going through the same thing. False courage, I had to subscribe to it to avoid mockery. Three weeks after the practice there was a groom set for me, a 60-year-old man. I wouldn’t stand that so I had to run for my life.
The escape landed me in good hands, I now had access to education that has built my life into who I am. My rebellion was for a good course. Otherwise, poverty, poor health, and hard labor on farms would be my story. Tears trickled as I recalled the event and how many young innocent girls undergo the same. Backward traditions that violate human rights, especially that of the girl-child should be completely shunned. Presently as we celebrate, my parents acknowledge the step I took, though it brought shame to them eleven years ago.
