How to Use Your Life Events and More Tips for Writing a Memoir

Unsure how to get started with your memoir? Don't skip this article!

Writing your personal story, or memoir, is one of the most powerful ways to tell your life story. While we all have life events worth writing about, the challenge we all face is how to structure those events into a cohesive and engaging narrative. This requires not only a deep level of vulnerability and honesty but also a basic understanding of narrative and structure regarding storytelling.

Today, I’m walking you through how to take key life events and shape them into an interesting memoir, as well as tips on structuring your story and building a strong narrative arc that will keep readers interested in your story.

If you’re working on a story about your life—memoir, personal testimony, autobiography—this article is for you.

How to Start

Don’t overcomplicate the starting point of your project—or oversimplify it, either. First, I want you to start by doing research. Yes, every book, even one about your own life, requires a certain level of research. This research period, however, will help you reflect on your own life. Pull out journals you kept, photo albums, letters you may have, yearbooks, and anything else that comes to mind that will help you see the full picture of your life from the beginning to the present day.

Identify Key Life Events