Transcript Memoir Creative Writing

Memoir
Creative Writing
Course Target: I can create nonfiction with authentic voice, word
choice, and tone.
Take notes on whatever is in pink!!!
Memoir: A General Definition
The French word memoire simply means
memory.
 An account of the personal experiences of an
author.
 A memory
Characteristics of Memoir
 Focuses on a brief period of time or series of
related events.
 Has similar elements of short story including
setting, situation, and character!
 Has an underlying theme.
 It has a fictional quality even though the
story is true.
Characteristics of Memoir
 It has a higher emotional level
 It has a more personal reconstruction of the
events and their impact.
 A memoir is often a writer writing to figure
out the meaning of his/her memory.
 It can be a therapeutic experience for the
memoirist.
Memoir vs. Autobiography
 The memoir may be more emotional
and concerned with capturing particular
scenes, or a series of events, rather
than documenting every fact of a
person’s life from birth to fame.
 A memoir is usually shorter than an
autobiography.
Why should
I write a memoir?
 Writing a memoir may help
you establish or define an
identity.
 It’s very flexible in form.
 It is about actual people
and real events who and
which may be an
important part of your life.
 We ALL have something
worth writing about. Each of
us has unique memories people, places, sounds and
smells that are personally
significant.
Do Memoirs tell the
truth?
According to J.A. Cuddon, “An autobiography may
be largely fictional. Few can recall clear details of
their early life and are therefore dependent on
other people’s impressions, of necessity equally
unreliable. Moreover, everyone tends to
remember what he wants to remember.
Disagreeable facts are sometimes glossed over or
repressed.
-Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary
Theory
Do Memoirs tell the truth?
 Some memoirs alter the accuracy of
events to achieve the accuracy of
interpretation.
 In other words, changes are made to better
express your underlying theme.
 The work battens on your memoriesevery time you remember something, you
change something about it!
Voice of the Memoir
 It should sound like the writer is speaking.
 The tone is balanced between formal writing and a
strict recording of speech.
 A powerful memoir consists of highlights that point
out an underlying theme.
 The highlights are linked in a story form, similar to
fiction, with an emphasis on why something
happened or on a resolution to a problem.
Reminder: Tone is the attitude the author takes towards the subject, the
characters or the audience. Mood is the feeling created in the reader,
evoked through the language of the text! The author’s tone sets the
reader’s mood!