From The Confessions of Saint Augustine, to I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai, Becoming by Michelle Obama, Eat Love and Pray by Elizabeth Gilbert memoir writing was a means of expressing one’s self, mere venting or conveying a message. Memoir writing is telling others about your very special life. When someone decides to write about his/her life it is not a random or impulsive action that was taken over night. When the person is overwhelmed by happiness or sorrow, takes pride in an achievement big or small, is emotionally attached to a specific part of his time, it is then that he would like to tell everyone about it. The writer decides to expose his/her life and share its details with the whole world in a published book. 

Memoirs give people insight into the life of others. Authors recount their experience during a significant part of their life and believe that the impact it had on them should go beyond their limited circle of acquaintances. Trauma triggers a memoir. You do not have to be a celebrity or a high profile member of society to tell your story. Ordinary people have a lot to say. When you go through a life changing experience and you truly benefited from, you are so keen on sharing it with others. If you overcame addiction, had a hard life as a child or was subject to domestic abuse or is a survivor of a rare disease; as I did in my book Happy Crutches, you finish your journey successfully and feel motivated to speak about it with other people. You either want them to avoid the mistakes you did or you just want to give them golden rules to follow or inspire them to do their best or see the light at the end of the tunnel.

When a reader picks a memoir, he is expecting a touching story. He opens the book and he could nearly hear the voice of the author speaking directly to him/her disclosing emotions, challenges, weakness and strength.  When you- as a writer decide- to register your experience, you are bound to the truth and nothing but the truth unlike writing a novel that is mere fiction. Nevertheless, these true incidents might intertwine with other people’s stories and disturb their privacy. You cannot be honest in recalling what happened to you without mentioning the role of other people and the impact they had on you whether it was good or bad. 

Writing a faithful memoir is like walking in a minefield. A writer should be wise as well as courageous. It is not easy to express all the follies or admit the mistakes. It is brave to recount the influence others had on your upbringing or life experience. Be wise when you write. Freedom to write is constrained by the freedom of the mentioned characters to be part of the story or not. Try to get consent if you can. Anticipate their reactions.  Change names for privacy. Skip irrelevant incidents. Some publish houses are reluctant to accept memoirs because of the fear of legal actions. 

What drives a reader to be hooked to a memoir is how inspiring it is. The more honest and explicit the write is the more attached the reader is to his experience. Everyone has a story to tell whether it is huge or minor a reader will resonate to something between the lines. A pivotal moment in someone’s life triggered a book to be written. Charlotte Brontë said,” There are countless afflictions in the world, each perhaps rivalling-some surpassing- the private pain over which we are too prone exclusively to sorrow.”