One of my writing clients recently asked: “What is the difference between a memoir and autobiography. I’m not sure what to call the book I am writing about my life.”
Answer: The definitions of a memoir and autobiography are similar, so this can be confusing. Yet there is a subtle but important difference that goes right to the heart of why you are writing about your life. Understanding what a memoir is as opposed to an autobiography can actually change how you might write your book. Both are a form of personal narrative.
A personal narrative is any writing about yourself. It is often the first type of writing that a budding author explores. This is a perfect springboard for a new writer—it is far easier to relate actual events and your true emotions than to create fictional situations. You were there—you felt the impact of the event. For this manuscript you are the one and only expert on that subject! A personal narrative can be in the form of an autobiography or a memoir.
An autobiography is a “written account of the author’s life.” That means your whole life (to date) and all the facts and figures that show your particular historical record as well as how your experiences fit the times in which you lived. Where you were born, when, who your parents and others in your family were. It shows your stages of life, the changes that molded you into the person you became. It is usually book-length and the focus is on delivering a factual account of your life.
A memoir is an author’s account of his or her personal experiences. It can cover your entire life to date (like an autobiography) or a brief period only. It may be limited to:
- one specific eventful period in your life (like a man’s memoirs of his experiences in the Korean War)
- a particular career (like a woman’s memoirs of her experiences raising and showing horses)
- just one relationship situation (like one afternoon when the author reunites with a past lover)
- a single experience (like grieving/accepting the death of a spouse)
Whether it encompasses your whole life or just a part of it, it demonstrates the emotions, goals, disappointments and successes of that particular time or event, all from your unique perspective, observations, interpretations, and emotions. A memoir can be a short article or book-length and it explores a situation with the author’s view as the spyglass through which we see an event in that author’s life or in history itself.
Gore Vidal, in his memoir Palimpsest, explains that “a memoir is how one remembers one’s own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked.”
Which is Preferred? Autobiographies were more popular in earlier periods. People wanted the facts and figures, people and events. Today memoirs are often preferred by publishers and authors. We, as a society, seem to want to delve deeper than just the facts now, to grasp the underlying emotions, and to see through another’s unique perspective. We tend to like to “get into the skin” of authors more today. Be aware, however, that many autobiographies include personal perspectives and memoirs benefit by having enough facts and dates to support the framework. So the terms can be slippery.
Which to Write? That depends on you. If you want to chronicle your life for your family or maybe write a history of your family’s business or enterprises, then an autobiography will best suit your intention. For that you want facts and figures and the characters involved to shine through as a clear historical record.
If you want to purge the painful events of your childhood, share the joys of your accomplishments, or show your personal interpretation of an event or time, then a memoir suits your purpose. If you aren’t sure what you want, just write what you feel and what you want. Chronicle your life but as you do so, include your emotions and interpretations of the events also. In the end you may sit back and see you have a touching autobiography with the depth of a memoir in it. Or you may find you’ve written all or part of your life from that highly personal perspective of a memoir.
No matter what label you end up giving your manuscript, the results will be stronger if you include enough facts to clearly set up the situation for the reader, and the results will be more touching if you allow your personal interpretation of the event to etch itself into the reader’s heart.