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Memoir, Biography, Autobiography: What’s Right for You?
A definitive guide to the differences and similarities of these nonfiction genres
I shared an article on social media that I wrote a while back about the five memoir writing exercises I use and teach to memoir writers, when someone commented that memoir is birth to death, not a specific experience.
Confused, I asked them to elaborate; as I understand, having written three memoirs and taught many workshops about it, what they were describing was more of an autobiography.
They further elucidated their point: nobody young should ever write a memoir because they haven’t lived enough life to interpret their experiences. Also, the definition of memoir has changed from only having older adults writing them to any young person who thinks they’re interesting enough.
This is a widespread misperception. Even the New York Times weighed in a while back, with two writers taking each side.
The term memoir comes from the French word mémoire, meaning memory or reminiscence. Not one’s entire life. In fact, Julias Caeser wrote Julius Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico (also known as Commentaries on the Gallic Wars) about that specific time period of his life.
