Method to Memoir

Tell Me a Story — But Tell Me Why It Matters

Turn personal memory into a meaningful essay through reflection and theme.

The author’s photo of herself, her father and brother in Alaska

Over and over again, as an editor, I read submissions and think, “It’s a good story and well-written, but I’m not sure what it’s about.”

If I say this to a writer, they respond with something like this: “It’s about that time in sixth grade when the class bully convinced the other kids to gang up on me and how they pushed me in a snowbank. I got a bloody nose and was humiliated. That’s what the story’s about!”

Is this right? Yes — and no.

Memoir, at its most powerful, is not just about what happened. It’s about what the happening means. That’s where so many drafts falter: in the gap between personal recollection and narrative resonance.

As the wise and ever-insightful Dinty W. Moore — memoirist, teacher, and founder of Brevity Magazine — puts it in a recent blog post:

“We define memoir writing (or personal essay) as a work of creative nonfiction that illustrates a personal experience using literary techniques and narrative devices such as dialogue, character, setting and scene.”