A Memoir is an Autobiography, but an Autobiography is Not a Memoir
The difference between a memoir vs. autobiographies is that a memoir is a subset of an autobiography.
Both a memoir and an autobiography tell the tale of a life, but an autobiography captures the whole story while a memoir describes a mere chapter.
An autobiography walks the reader through a chronology of life, while a memoir moves back and forth through time as needed to illustrate the point.
While an autobiography truly is a life story, a memoir can focus on certain aspects or time periods to tell a specific story.
I’ll Provide ‘How To Write an Autobiography or Memoir’ Links and Resources In a Minute, But First…
Were Your Childhood Experiences Typical Enough That Most People Would Be Bored By Reading About Them?
Be honest.
Get an objective opinion from someone who can be trusted to tell you the truth, if necessary.
If the answer is “yes,” a memoir might be a better option. Instead of talking about how Mom made you clean your room to get your allowance, you can include an anecdote that had relevance in shaping your belief systems or one that impacted you so strongly that you chose a career based on that experience. Here is an example of what I learned as a child when I tried to pet a traumatized bull.
A Bull with a Ring in Its Nose – Life Lesson Taught, Not Learned – My Persuasive Presentations, LLC
Autobiography or Memoir? What Is Your Purpose In Writing?
If your primary purpose is to leave a legacy for your children and grandchildren, you might choose to write an autobiography. After all, it’s far more interesting for progeny to read actual accounts of your life than to have only DNA results from Ancestry.com! Your life does not have to be extraordinary for friends and family to care.
If your primary purpose is cathartic, either option could work. If you wish to fully express yourself or to purge yourself of emotionally fraught memories, writing an autobiography in chronological order might help you remember repressed incidents and emotions, with a freeing effect.
Don’t Limit Yourself | You Can Do More Than One Thing!
Of course, there is no law against writing both an autobiography AND a memoir – or more than one of each. Here are 3 examples with completely different styles and content.
Maya Angelou wrote seven autobiographies, according to scholar Mary Jane Lupton.
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- Gather Together in My Name
- Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas
- The Heart of a Woman
- All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes
- A Song Flung Up to Heaven
- Mom & Me & Mom.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wrote several books, including three memoirs: Madam Secretary: A Memoir, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937–1948, and Hell and Other Destinations.
Former President Barack Obama has written two memoirs: “Dreams from My Father“ (1995) and “A Promised Land“ (2020). Reportedly, “volume two” of “A Promised Land” is forthcoming.
Autobiography – Help for Beginners
Beginner’s Guide
This blog post will provide guidance and tools on how to write an autobiography.
How To Write an Autobiography: Three Approaches to Writing Your Life Story
The above link takes you to Udemy, which is an online source of classes on many topics. This article was last updated in February 2020 and was written by
Whether You Choose to Write An Autobiography or a Memoir, There’s Always that PESKY Editing Challenge!
Did you know there are several different kinds of book editing, and that experts in one kind usually are NOT experts in the other kinds? Lots of authors write their manuscripts and think they’re done, never having gone through the editing processes that ensure their books are of the highest quality.
1. Developmental Editing (Also called Substantive or Structural Editing)
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Definition: Big-picture editing that focuses on the structure, content, and flow of the story. It examines whether the narrative arc, pacing, and emotional resonance are likely to intrigue the reader.
- A Narrative Arc is different from the “ARC” (Advance Reader Copy) terminology used by publishers.
- A narrative arc often has five steps in storytelling. Your life is not a resume; it is a story!
- 1. Introduce the main characters and provide a backstory. It may present or hint at the central conflicts that will emerge later through an “exciting force” or “inciting incident.”
- 2. Write about the “Rising action” in which conflict or complexities in your life begin to increase.
- 3. Bring the work to more climactic conflicts or major events and scenes as the chapters progress.
- 4. If there is a “falling action” in which the drama of your life experiences lessens, include the series of events that lead to the resolution of previous conflicts, emotional hangups, etc.
- 5. Resolution. The last chapter is the end, resolution, or denouement of the story, although it may include a teaser of things to come in a different publication. Here, you should tie up loose ends and bring the narrative to a close, writing either a tragic or a happy ending, or a preview of “what’s next.”
- Pacing refers to both the use of language and things like making all chapters and anecdotal stories of similar length.
2. Content Editing (Often overlaps with developmental editing)
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Definition: Focuses on clarity, coherence, tone, and factual accuracy. Ensures events are well-explained and logically connected, which is especially important in autobiographies.
3. Line Editing
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Definition: Refines the style and language at the sentence and paragraph level. Looks at word choices, tone, rhythm, and overall readability.
4. Copyediting
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Definition: Checks for grammar, punctuation, spelling, syntax, and consistency in style (e.g., capitalization, abbreviations). Ensures the manuscript follows a style guide (like the Chicago Manual of Style or the AP Style Guide).
5. Fact-Checking
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Definition: Verifies names, dates, places, quotes, and historical or public facts to ensure accuracy, which is especially critical in nonfiction and autobiographical works.
- Note: In my autobiography, I used lots of links to reference places and events. However, the writer must be aware that links can become outdated, broken, renamed, or otherwise unavailable to the reader. Furthermore, links do not work in PDF formats or other written documents. At this point, they are rarely used in books. If you’re writing your history to share with loved ones and can leave it as a Word or similar document, the links might be valuable. (Of course, doing that makes them editable by others, as well, so think carefully about potentialities.)
6. Legal Review
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Definition: Ensures the manuscript does not contain potentially libelous content, copyright violations, or breaches of privacy. This is particularly important when the writer describes events that involved friction and contentiousness with people who might interpret events differently and might even want to sue you for your representations of them.
7. Sensitivity Reading
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Definition: Evaluates the manuscript for potentially biased, insensitive, or harmful portrayals, particularly if discussing race, gender, trauma, or marginalized groups.
8. Proofreading
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Definition: The final check before publication. Catches typos, formatting issues, and layout errors after all other editing is complete. Don’t hire a proofreader until you think you are through making all changes. Their role is to catch inadvertent errors – like “typos” – not to do deeper content editing.
Invitation to Learn More About Many Kinds of Editing for Books and Other Projects
Challenge: Getting Your Work Published!
For “Self-Publishing” on Amazon Only
Victor was great, and the turn-around time between when I gave him the project and the date on which the book was published was very fast. (He has clients far and wide – not just locally – so contact him, if you want to explore possibilities with him.)
Susan Crossman, Author of The Write Way
Classes & Coaching by Crossman Communications
Susan Crossman is a well-known author who offers wonderful courses in support of author wannabes, as well as for professional writers. She and her staff can help you with all things involved in book writing. The trick, of course, is to get one’s work published. In that connection, I gladly steer you to her website section about book publishing.
Writer’s Digest
Writer’s Digest has articles about “pretty much everything” an author needs to know. That includes information about how to sell one’s work. https://www.writersdigest.com/get-published-sell-my-work/the-market-for-memoirs
