Is memoir on your mind? It’s one of the most popular (and powerful) forms in nonfiction. Learn how to write memoir and plan, shape, and tell true stories.
What is Memoir? Memoir vs Autobiography
Both are stories you write about your life. Yet while autobiography sticks to a start-to-finish timeline, memoir often zooms in on a theme, feeling, or moment in time.
Memoir also plays with structure. It might skip around in time or be told in fragments. The word itself comes from memoria, Latin for “to remember.” Which is exactly what memoir does: it captures what matters, as remembered.
Types of Memoir: From Activism to ‘Traumoir’
The best thing about memoir?
You don’t have to tell your whole life story. Just the parts that will make the greatest impact.
Here are some popular angles to explore:
Activist/political memoir
Life writing that documents participation in activist movements and political change.
Example: Buses Are a Comin’: Memoir of a Freedom Rider (2021) by Charles Person with Richard Rooker.
The memoir explores the experiences of one of the youngest Freedom Riders who rode interstate buses in 1961 into segregated areas to challenge non-enforcement of Supreme Court rulings that desegregated buses.
Celebrity memoir
Books that document the experiences of fame (or unseen aspects of it).
Example: Viola Davis’ memoir Finding Me, which explores her path from a childhood of poverty and trauma to becoming an EGOT-winning actress.
Memoirs-in-essays
Life writing that uses the essay form to capture snapshots of a life.
Example: David Sedaris’ hilarious essay collections that explore growing up, including droll incidents and funny family dynamics.
Memoirs-in-fragments
Books that capture fragments of memory in a modular or circuitous way.
Example: The famous theorist Roland Barthes’ book, Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes (1975).
Barthes uses childhood photos with captions and short fragments to explore memory, ideas, and emotion. It’s a loose, non-linear style that pushes the boundaries of what memoir can look like.
‘Momoir’
A term coined for books that explore the ups, downs, surprises and joys of motherhood.
Example: A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother by Rachel Cusk, which received polarized responses for its frank depiction of becoming a mother.
Nature or animal memoir
Books that explore memories and encounters with the wild or nature, or ecological themes. You could call this ‘Zoo-moir’.
Example: A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter (1938). The book covers a year its author spent living in a remote hut in the Antarctic.
Travel Memoir
Memories and experiences of travel and adventure.
Example: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. The book explores Strayed’s decision to hike more than 1000 miles with little experience in this kind of trail following the death of her mother.
‘Traumoir’
Another new term, combining ‘trauma’ and ‘memoir’. Memoirs about difficult or dysfunctional upbringings.
Example: Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, which explores themes of resilience and redemption and was adapated into the 2017 movie of the same name.
These are just some types of memoir. What’s your favorite kind? Share your thoughts below.
Why Write Memoir?
Here are just a few reasons:
Memoir is Among the Most Popular Nonfiction Formats
According to a 2018 study published on SpringerOpen, biographies and memoirs are the most popular genres within non-fiction, accounting for half of all bestsellers.
Editor Alyssa Matesic writes that in 2025, ‘Memoirs remain in demand, with agents looking for raw, authentic, and well-crafted personal narratives.’
Memoirs Allow Play with Form and Structure
You can tell your story in letters, fragments, or even through someone else’s legacy. The way Geoff Dyer does in Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence. Dyer explores his obsession with the author and his struggle to write a traditional biography.
True stories don’t have to follow the rules. You can use fiction’s tools to make real life even more vivid.
Your Story Matters
What makes memoirs powerful? They offer a window into real, deeply felt experiences.
Agents and publishers often look for memoirs that speak to the moment. For example, stories of surviving conflict or navigating diaspora identities. Others spotlight medical journeys and the strength it takes to keep going.
There’s space for levity and humor too. Weaving pop culture into personal reflections, for example.
Whatever your voice or writing style, there are truths you’re in the best position to tell.
How to Structure Memoir: Planning, Timelines and Arcs
Not sure how to structure your memoir? That’s where Plottr comes in. Start by asking: what shape fits the story you want to tell?
Watch this short video on how to structure memoirs. Keep reading below for further ideas.
Use and Adapt Plot and Beat Templates
Use plotlines to sequence events and narrative arcs.
Say you’re writing a memoir about starting a business. You could create a plotline with scene cards for each step:
- First Idea. Where did the spark come from? Did you spot a gap in the market, or stumble into it by chance?
- The Call. What pushed you to act? Maybe you quit a draining job, or someone gave you the nudge you needed.
- Refusing the Call. What doubts or real-life blocks got in your way? A little uncertainty adds suspense and depth.
- Meeting a Mentor. Who helped you figure things out? A coach, friend, or advisor who gave key advice can add heart and humor.
- Crossing the Threshold. What moment marked the point of no return? Maybe you spent your savings, left a job, or signed your first big client.
- Tests, Allies and Enemies. What challenges popped up? Who surprised you, either by helping or standing in your way?
- Reconfirming Faith. When things got hard, how did you keep going? Who or what helped you stay on track?
- The Biggest Test. What was the toughest moment of all? Even if it happened early, memoir gives you license to move it here for impact.
- Claiming Reward. Success brings new challenges. What changed after you hit your goal?
- Consequences. Victory is not without consequences. What new challenges did hard-won reward bring?
- Great Sacrifice or Struggle. Was there a hard call or loss you had to face along the way?
- Great Change. How did the journey change you? What do you know now that you wish you’d known, then?
If the above seems familiar, it’s based on The Hero’s Journey template.
Here’s an example showing an idea for a business memoir on one plotline, and the adapted beats above on another.
Try Other Templates to Structure Your Memoir
Write Your First Non-Fiction Book
This is a nonfiction template by author and strategic book coach Honorée Corder, available as a starter template in Plottr.
Corder’s method breaks a book into a prologue and eight chapters, ending with a clear call to action. It’s a simple, powerful way to structure nonfiction: and easy to explore in Plottr with a free 30-day trial.
Best for: Business memoirs, thought leadership.
12 Levels of Intimacy
A romance-focused template that follows how love grows over time.
Best for: A romantic memoir (or ‘romoir’) that tells the story of a relationship that changed your life.
The Fichtean Curve
A crisis-driven plot template that traces a story in rising action, falling action, and moments of crisis.
Best for: Memoirs about ups and downs or traumatic experiences.
Plan Out Wrenching Emotional Moments
Why does the Hero’s Journey work so well for a business memoir? It helps you think of structuring a memoir like plotting a story.
It hits lifelike beats we all know: getting pushed out of your comfort zone, the struggles of chasing big goals, and the lessons learned the hard way.
Create a Calendar of Dates
Add a plotline just for dates to keep things clear and spark memories. It helps you track what happened when (and may even bring back extra details).
Build a Dossier of Key People in Your Memoir
Another way to plan your memoir in Plottr: create a character dossier.
Add notes for each person in your memoir: funny things they said, what they meant to you, or how they shaped your journey.
Track and Flesh Out Places That Matter to Your Story
The Places view in Plottr is another useful tool for planning memoir. Maybe you want to jot down specific memories of your childhood home. Or the first, less than glamorous place your business called home.
Tagging moments in your plotlines with the places where events unfolded will help you remember what happened, where.
Memoir Structure Examples: Dual Timelines and In Medias Res
Memoir coach and writing teacher Marion Roach Smith shares creative ways to structure a memoir. Try one of her approaches in Plottr to build a custom template that fits your story.
Two Timelines. Tell your story in alternating chapters from timelines for two separate events or time periods.
Example: Alchemy of the Afterlife by Linda McKinnon, RN. Anthony Doerr does something similar (but for dual POVs) in All the Light We Cannot See.
Caitlin Berve at Ignited Ink unpacks how McKinnon weaves together brushes with death from her childhood and her experiences as a hospice nurse (and why the book still qualifies as memoir and not autobiography).
Starting in the middle. Start your memoir with a dramatic event, then circle back to events that led up to that point (Plottr has an in medias res template for that).
Example: The Liars’ Club by Mary Carr (1995). The book opens in the middle of an unnerving event when the author was seven, then circles back to show the lead-up to that moment.
Advice from Memoirists
What do acclaimed authors and memoirists say about memoir?
Be Honest to Capture What Rings True
Elie Wiesel, who wrote the 1960 memoir Night about his Holocaust experiences with his father, said (when asked by Time about the controversy around fabrication of events in James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces):
‘I will say, with memoir, you must be honest. You must be truthful.’
Find What Uplifts or Illuminates
Many memoirs, even when documenting harrowing experiences, give comfort in small moments of humor and hope.
Like Leonard Cohen writes in ‘Anthem’, ‘There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.’
Mitch Albom (whose memoir of visiting his dying professor, Tuesdays with Morrie, is the bestselling memoir of all time) told Writer’s Digest:
‘A memoir should have some uplifting quality, inspiring or illuminating, and that’s what separates a life story that can influence other people.’
Connect through Character, Story and Emotion
Acclaimed Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie told The Guardian in 2013 that the parts of her works that are seen as ‘unbelievable’ are often the ones based on true events:
‘Non-fiction, and in particular the literary memoir, the stylised recollection of personal experience, is often as much about character and story and emotion as fiction is.’
What is your favorite thing about memoir, or what would your advice be on how to write it? Share it below.
Outline Your Truest Stories
What truths do you want to share with the world? Start outlining your memoir with a free 30-day trial of Plottr.
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