It’s rather simple, but people do get them confused. After you examine them, you’ll want to write a memoir. Because it’s the most dramatic tale, and so the most entertaining.
Memoir: A story written with the word I. As the author, you are the hero, the protagonist of this story. Everything that happens in it relates to you, and we should see that relationship. However, great memoirs are often about things other than the author. Out of Africa is about a coffee farm in Africa. My Life in France by Julia Child is as much about the character of postwar France and living the life of a US State Department employee’s bride, plus the rigors of publishing a first book. A memoir doesn’t contain everything that happened in your life—only selected events that relate to your theme. A theme like, “Even when you discover who they really are, how can you save your loved ones?”
Autobiography: A story all about you, but with everything that’s interesting included, in chronological order. Drama is important because we hear this tale in the voice of the I. But accuracy is even more important. Roger Ebert wrote a great book, My Life, before he died. But it was hailed as a memoir because not all the connecting pieces of Ebert’s life are in the book. They do all contribute to his theme, but it all had to be true. Autobiographies often appear as stories of the lives of celebrities, but are often ghost-written. We’re led to believe it’s the voice of the subject talking to us, but the ghosts are channeling that voice.
Biography: A complete examination and telling of the life of someone who is not the author. Covers all significant events of the person’s life, not just those related to a theme. Think reporting, with verve and style, at its best. The voice of the writer emerges here, just like in the last two forms. But at no point does the reader live the events in a biography as if they were their own. Not even an autobiography can do that — because it’s basically a self-biography.
Here’s some good news. Memoir demands drama, the very thing that drives people to read fiction. But a memoirist — or as I like to call them, memoiristas, because their writing should become daring — they work with what they’ve experienced or see first-hand. Not only what they remember exactly, however. Everything that anyone writes becomes a form of fiction as soon as you put it onto the page, or your laptop screen. It’s your story. Just because all the details are not there in a way you could prove doesn’t mean you cannot start. You begin with a disclaimer that your story will contain changes to character names, compressed events, even a warning that what you’ll read doesn’t portray actual events.
It’s this greater truth that a memoir is after, the understanding that leads to wisdom and the resounding bell of connection — that’s what drives us to read memoirs. Here’s the boxed disclaimer in front of the memoir Dry, by Augusten Burroughs.
Author’s note:
This memoir is based on my experiences over a 10-year period. Names have been changed, character combined, and events compressed. Certain episodes are imaginative re-creation, and those episodes are not intended to portray actual events.
That, dear writer, is license that a biographer, or even an autobiographer, cannot enjoy. So write the bigger truth of the story.
Sep 16, 2014 @ 15:48:59
This was helpful information regarding the difference between a Memoir and Autobiography. I am 24,000 words into my memoir and look forward to it being embraced by my readers in 2015. Thank you.
Jan 24, 2015 @ 09:31:29
Sir, very good interpretation. Understandble.
Feb 06, 2015 @ 18:17:39
Is it possible just to write “a true story” when some of the dates are uncertain and some details like that or does that have to be a memoir?
Feb 07, 2015 @ 19:04:01
Your story is your own version of the story. In our Workshop classes I say that everything is genuinely fiction that we write — because once we set it onto the page, we tell our personal view of the story. Uncertain dates can be estimated, and other details might be created out of memories. If your foreword of the book explains this method to your storytelling — like Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius memoir — then that feels like a memoir.
Apr 26, 2015 @ 21:56:07
Thank you a lot for the advice. This site helped me for a venn diagram for memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies. It was real hard before this. Thank you
Oct 07, 2015 @ 13:29:30
Thanks for the help I needed that
Oct 28, 2015 @ 18:25:16
Very helpful information……thks a million! C.M
May 15, 2016 @ 17:45:24
It is very difficult to determine whether my book should be labeled an autobiography or memoir. Therefore, I think I’ll call it an autobiographical memoir.
May 16, 2016 @ 20:38:44
Reblogged this on Val Poore and commented:
Excellent article about memoir writing and how it differs from autobiographies and biographies.
May 16, 2016 @ 20:44:25
Excellent article and very useful. I have just given a talk on writing memoirs (which I do) and wish I’d seen this first. Luckily your article confirms everything I said, but this is written so succinctly and clearly!