The Best books for Writing Your Memoir
You’ve started writing your memoir, but your draft isn’t what you imagined it would be. You know your story is meaningful, but it’s not coming out right just yet. What you want is to learn how to write a memoir that moves readers, that pulls them in and changes them.
Great writing is learned partly by reading great writers. Read as many memoirs as you can. Find one you love, and try to identify what it is you love about it. Experiment and practice by imitating the structures you find in good memoir. Keep reading memoir for examples and inspiration.
If you’d also like to learn from instructional books, here are a few of my favorites, the ones I feel are most helpful to memoir authors.
by Vivian Gornick
An excellent classic. There is a section titled “memoir,” but don’t skip ahead in this book. In The Situation and the Story, Gornick clarifies why and how to write personal narrative, and distinguishes the plot, or situation, from the story, the self-examination at the heart of memoir. She shows how to develop your narrator persona, the you that can tell your story in a way that’s useful and interesting to others. Many excerpts from literary memoir, with analysis of why they are effective.
by Tristine Rainer
Practical and comprehensive, Your Life as Story covers determining your unique angle, structuring your memoir, discovering your voice, writing characters and scenes, and especially writing the deeper, difficult truths. The book is full of helpful examples, prompts, and exercises.
by Marion Roach Smith
The Memoir Project is a short, direct book that will show you how to pay attention to the details of your life, find the meaning in them, and use those details to illustrate stories which share universal themes.
by Beth Kephart
A book to dip in and out of, Handling the Truth holds essay-like chapters of bits and pieces of memoir craft, excerpts, and exercises from the creative nonfiction classes Kephart teaches. There’s a lengthy appendix of suggested reading—an annotated list of memoirs worth learning from.
When you’re writing your memoir and feel like it’s not working or you’re stuck, taking a break to read for inspiration and instruction is sometimes the best way to find your flow again. But the other part of learning great memoir writing is practice. When you’ve learned something new, practice, try it out in your writing. Most of all, keep writing.
Over on Substack, I’ve collected additional resources for memoirists. Check out my post for recommended courses, podcasts, and Substack communities.
