Muskan

· 30 Dec 2021

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What is a memoir

A memoir is a factual, first-person account of the author's life events and memories. Memoirs (French for "remember" or "reminisce") are writings that emphasise personal experience, intimacy, and emotional truth—memoir authors typically use their recollections and real-life experiences to create great stories. Want to know more about memoirs? Keep reading!!  

Popular Types and Subgenres of Memoirs
Despite the fact that there is no official list of memoir subgenres, most works will fall into one of several major categories, with a lot of overlap.
•    Nostalgia- These types of memoirs discuss another time and place, either to show readers what life was like in another century or to reflect back on an author's own experiences.
•    Inspirational- Books that represent a terrible moment in the author's life aren't meant to depress the reader; rather, they're meant to show how the author overcame adversity. The theme of restoration appears in nearly all of these memoirs, with the book's author typically serving as the story's last redemptive chapter.
•    Celebrity- Celebrity autobiographies already have a ready-made audience eager to learn more about their heroes. That isn't to say they always provide details about the author's personal life (you can get that on social media). Rather, they keep track of all of the key moments in their meteoric rise to fame and money, intermingled with juicy anecdotes (ideally featuring other famous faces).
•    Confessional- This type of memoir is unabashedly risky. Frequently, the author divulges a painful or difficult secret — such as a problem with addiction or sexual identity — or exposes their background, maybe providing insight into the dynamics of a broken family.
•    Travel- In a trip memoir, the setting is a major character, not the author. Beyond that, there are no restrictions — this last subgenre opens up a plethora of possibilities for authors who have been bitten by the travel bug.

Elements of memoir
When evaluating the characteristics of a memoir, the narrative style must come first. Memoirs are frequently written from the first-person point of view. This denotes that it was written from the perspective of a single pronoun. The story is told from the perspective of "I" rather than "you" or "us." Here are some other qualities to consider when writing a memoir.
It concentrates on a certain topic: Memoirs can cover practically any subject. Many people are fixated on certain persons or events, but there are no hard and fast rules to follow. If the significance of the event or link being addressed is clearly expressed, leaving one broad image in the minds of most readers, a precise focus has been attained.
It brings the subject to life: When reading a memoir, the reader should feel as though they have a personal relationship with the author. It should be personal and fascinating, containing vital information that can only be obtained from the author's perspective.
Have a three basic narrative arc (Intro body Conclusion); Memoirs must be more than a collection of recollections. They must follow a plot arc and have a clear, comprehensible end objective for the reader. The introduction is the opening paragraph. It tells the reader what to expect from the story. The body is the main part of the story, in which all of the promises made at the start are kept.  The final part is the conclusion, which neatly sums together everything that has gone before.
A strong narrative: One of the benefits of telling a memoir is that the story is conveyed from the author's perspective. The identical incident can be witnessed by two persons and remembered in two distinct ways. This is why, while accuracy is important, the facts in a memoir don't have to be faultless to be successful. Rather than giving the reader a history lecture, the goal here is to provide a personal perspective.
Natural dialogue: This may be the most difficult feature to master when writing a memoir. When reading a debate, it's important to have the specifics for the remembrance correct, so the tale reads more like a newspaper article. Concentrate on the thoughts and feelings that surfaced throughout the talk for the greatest results, avoiding adverbs whenever possible. Readers won't be able to tell the difference between totally correct and partially correct dialogue unless they are present throughout the conversation.

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