Memoir is a type of creative non-fiction. Unlike the autobiography, which focuses on the entire life of the writer, the memoir takes place during a particular period of time. Essentially, it is a slice of life. Thus, memoir in itself is a genre. However, you can write a memoir using the technique of a fiction genre like romance, tragedy, thriller or comedy.
A large section of bloggers write some or the other type of memoir. Travel bloggers share their travel stories, parent blogger narrate their parenting journey, food blogger tell stories around food, and few even write confessional memoirs or talk about some dark part of their lives. Some discuss about their diseases. They do this to release the trauma. In a nutshell, memoir is not uncommon as it may sound and bloggers have been using various blogging niche to write them.
If you are a blogger who is exploring on some ideas to write your own memoir then you should first select the incident that you want to write about. Then analyse in which genre you can fit it. If the incident is related to your first love then try to write it as a romantic genre, if it was something exciting then write it as a thriller, if you ever saw a ghost then choose the horror genre, so on and so forth. Our life itself is sometimes tragic, sometimes comic, sometimes romantic then why can’t our memoirs be such? Therefore, we should see the different colours of a rainbow in our life. No wonder, I named my book of memoirs “Golden Rainbow“.
If you wish to buy my book to get inspired to write a memoir then please click here. Also available here.
Following are few examples to help you see how you can write a memoir using various genres. I would discuss in detail in my following post.
Examples of different Genres of Memoirs:
When we found a dead body on the terrace was written using the thriller/suspense genre. Even though it had a Scooby Doo ending (sorry for the spoiler) it was kept as a suspense in the beginning. If you have encountered any such scary or suspicious incident in your life then try writing it down using this genre.
The Homeless Man in Budapest was also written with a bit of suspense in it.
Kalyan Da, the outcast lover was written using the Romance genre. This memoir was about someone else I knew and I loved their ‘love-story’ therefore decided to write about it.
Mona, the girl who was traded was about a girl who was sold. Her tragic story would affect anyone. It was written using the genre of tragedy.
How I met your Father was written spoofing the name of a popular sitcom to create comic effect.
How Staying Away from Social Media and The Art of Pause were written using the ‘Self-Help’ genre. One was written as a guide to help others stay away from social media. The other was written to help others control their anger. Unlike other self-help books here I used my own example.
Paris Sightseeing is a typical example of a travelogue. How Bengali helped me in Europe was also a travelogue where I wrote in a more focused manner. When our car broke down at Bhimashanker was also a travelogue with a pinch of Horror in it.
I hope these examples helped.
Oh this is interesting, Bala. š
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This is very insightful. There are plenty of pointers here that we can apply to our own writing. Thank you for sharing!
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This is a great post. Very interesting and informative
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Thanks dear.
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That’s a good way to write a memoir. I think most of us have been doing it already without being aware of it. Looking at it this way can help us polish it up so much better.
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Yes Tulika, many bloggers have been writing about their lives either as a parenting blog or travel blog. Most blogs originated from a personal point of view and they are in a way presenting a slice of their lives. Therefore all of us have been writing memoirs without realizing perhaps. Thanks for reading dear.
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I am now on the lookout for some ghosts Balaka…so that I can write Horror! Hehehe…Jokes apart, your post gave me a good insight into treating every episode of life with a tadaka of an appropriate genre from fiction. Afterall reality is stranger than fiction.
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Dear Anagha, reality is indeed stranger than fiction. I think our lives are way more interesting than fiction. You just need to look at it from a different prism. I hope you meet a ghost but till then an amazing fiction on horror genre would be great from your pen (keyboard?
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Amen
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This is an informative post.
After reading this post, The question which comes to my mind is how does a person who has no knowledge of classifying writing in different genres go beyond his/her instincts?
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As a writer you need not classify them. Some are instinctive writes and they should follow the instincts. However before writing the memoir you can analyze and see if you can fit it in a particular genre. We should remember that whatever we write should be an interesting read for the reader. I am planning to do few more posts on these.
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I will be looking forward to your posts on memoir writing.
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I will try my best to post something both meaningful and helpful.
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Oh this makes me even more interested in memoirs. Thinking of writing one. Thanks for this. š
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Please do write
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Congrats for the collection of short stories. I am planning to do a collection and let’s see if am able to, by doing 10 series at one shot…hehe Almost wrapped a short story around 1200 words for the blog but took one week to finish š
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I love reading your memoirs. You have such a way with words… The narration and story line always leaves me with a smile. Thank you for these wonderful points.
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Awww!!!! Thank you so much. It makes me feel so happy when I read comments like this. Deep gratitude.
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Very helpful post. Thanks
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This is a very helpful post, Balaka. The addition of examples will definitely make it easier to understand the whole concept. Good one, Balaka.
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