What is the difference between memoir and a set of memories, transcribed?
This is a matter of confusion for some would-be memoirists. Some of the memoir manuscripts people give me to read are simply recountings of ‘things that happened in the past’. This may be sufficient if you are a celebrity. But for us lesser mortals, bigger questions have to be in play.
A close examination of you and those around you is absolutely crucial for anyone aspiring to write memoir ( rather than autobiography, which is what most celebrities deal in). This close scrutiny has the power to compensate for any superficial lack of drama. My memoir, ‘The Scent of Dried Roses’ was written about one of the most uninspiring social landscapes in Britain - suburban, working-class London, in which nothing whatsoever happened, ever. I turned it into something readable by going up close, asking myself painful questions about who and my family really were.
Will Storr, in his book, ‘The Science of Stortelling’ defines what he calls The Dramatic Question. This question is what gives life to fiction or memoir. The question is,’who is this person?’.
None of us really know who we are, or who the people around us are.
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