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MEMOIR
What is a memoir?
More focused than an autobiography, a memoir is an intimate look at a moment in
time. – Jessica Dukes
The memoir genre satisfies two of our most human desires: to be known, and to
know others. Here’s how we define memoir, types, and how to get started writing your
own.

“Memoir” Definition
A memoir is a narrative, written from the perspective of the author, about an
important part of their life. It’s often conflated with autobiography, but there are a few
important differences. An autobiography is also written from the author’s perspective, but
the narrative spans their entire life. Although it’s subjective, it primarily focuses on facts –
the who-what-when-where-why-how of their life’s entire timeline. Booker T. Washington’s
Up from Slavery is an example of autobiography – the story begins with his childhood as
a slave, proceeds through his emancipation and education, and ends in his present life
as an entrepreneur.
To define memoir, we loosen the constraints of an autobiography. Memoir authors
choose a pivotal moment in their lives and try to recreate the event through storytelling.
The author’s feelings and assumptions are central to the narrative. Memoirs still include
all the facts of the event, but the author has more flexibility here because she is telling a
story as she remembers it, not as others can prove or disprove it. (In fact, “memoir” comes
from the French “mémoire” or “memory.”) In Night, the Nobel Prize-winning title, Elie
Wiesel tells his own story about one period of his life – how he survived his teenage years
at Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

Types of Memoir
There is no finite number of memoir sub-categories, just as there are no finite types
of experiences we have as thinking, feeling human beings. So, what does memoir mean
today? Most of them fall into several large types, but with a definite chance of overlap.
• Transformation memoirs are written after an author has endured a great
challenge. These stories almost always include a theme of redemption, whether
it’s achieved or missing. For example:
o Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares is Aarti Namdev
Shahani’s family immigrant story, of how an unknown dealing with a drug
cartel led to her father being sent to Rikers Island, and a study in how
difficult it is to make it in America.
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o Educated is Tara Westover’s incredible account of how she overcame a

childhood spent in survivalist camps in rural Idaho and worked her way into
Harvard and Cambridge universities.

• Confessional memoirs are unapologetically bold. The author shares painful or

difficult secrets about themselves or their family and how it has affected them. For
example:
o Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions shocked readers in that it was a
secular coming-of-age story, and because it contained unexpected details
of his life, like his sexual preferences.
o Running with Scissors is Augusten Burroughs’ childhood laid bare. His
mother left him to be raised by her psychiatrist who lived in squalor, never
sent him to school, and never protected him from the pedophile living in the
back yard.

• Professional or celebrity memoirs cover important moments in the author’s rise

to fame and success. Some examples include:
o I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai details her horrible attack by the Taliban,
her recovery, and her decision to fight for girls’ education worldwide.
o Just Kids by Patti Smith is a beautiful recollection of her friendship with
Robert Mapplethorpe in the years before they became famous.

• Travel memoirs let us escape with the author and learn about a time and place
through their experiences. For example:
o Cheryl Strayed’s Wild takes us on her emotional solo journey along the
Pacific Crest Trail as she grieves the loss of her mother and her marriage.
o A Year in Provence is Peter Mayle’s heartwarming account of the year that
he threw caution to the wind and moved his family into a crumbling, 200-
year-old farmhouse in the French countryside.

How to Write a Memoir

Is there a part of your life that is begging to be turned into a story? It might be time
for you to write a memoir. Here’s how to get started.
1. First, choose a pivotal moment in your life. It can be as broad as “my childhood” or
as narrow as “that time I went to prison.”

2. Consider why this time period is important. What struggles did you endure? What
lessons did you learn? What universal truths will capture a reader’s imagination?

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3. Start gathering your memories, as many as you can. List the people you
experienced this moment in time with, how they looked, and the conversations you
had with them. Capture your feelings about every event and don’t hold back. The
best memoirs bare it all.

4. Now, structure your memoir like a novel. There should be a clear story arc. The
retelling of your memories should include descriptions of settings, and three-
dimensional characters that readers will care about. Recreate dialogue as faithfully
as you can.

5. Ultimately, readers want to know “how.” How did you survive this situation? How
are you now? Most importantly, how have you changed? If memoirs have one thing
in common, it’s an author who shares the lessons of his or her life for the greater
good of all.

Example:

Ted “Spike” Yabut Jr. calls his work a

memoir, but then explains that it is a
“coming of age” story that is part tribute
to his parents, Teddy and Cota Yabut,
and to the cast of interesting characters
that inhabited his world.

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TRAVEL WRITING

What is travel writing?

Travel writing is a form of creative nonfiction in which the narrator's encounters

with foreign places serve as the dominant subject. Also called travel literature.

"All travel writing—because it is writing—is made in the sense of being constructed,

says Peter Hulme, "but travel writing cannot be made up without losing its designation"
(quoted by Tim Youngs in The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing, 2013).

Travel writing is writing about places, persons, and things in other places--also
writing about how to travel, when to travel, and advice on traveling–all with the reader in
mind. It’s about relaying your travel experiences to others so that they may emulate them
or at the very least not make the same mistakes you did. And it’s writing about things in
your own back yard that are exotic to everyone else---a local farmer's market, historic
site, restaurant, museum.

To be a good travel writer, you need to be ON all the time, not just when you want
to. When you’re on vacation, you do what you want when you want. You’re mind focuses
on the place you’re visiting only when it wants to. But to interpret a destination for your
readers, you have to look for new angles on the same old things while at the same time
sharing your pleasure with your readers.

How did travel writing begin?

Travel has a long history. People have always traveled--from ancient

caravansaries to modern resorts. But travel writing began, more or less, during
Elizabethan times. Shakespeare got much of the background material for his plays, such
as the "Merchant of Venice" and "Romeo and Juliet" from Elizabethan travel guides to
Italy.

Why is it needed?

Travel writing celebrates the differences in manners and customs around the
world. It helps the reader to understand other people and places. And it helps readers
plan their own trips and avoid costly mistakes while traveling. But, most of all, it lets
readers travel to far-off destinations that they may never see.

5 tips for travel writing

Writing about these stories will not only fulfill your storytelling itch, but also improve
your general writing skills. Whether it’s refining your powers of observation or enhancing
your ability to reflect on meaningful experiences, writing about your travels can be a
masterclass in everything from memoir to nature writing to world-building.

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Here are 5 tips for writing a travel essay.

1. State your quest. Every journey is a quest, whether you know it or not.

• Ask yourself: How did it start? What are you aiming to do or achieve?
• Your quest can be as abstract as ‘find myself’ or as specific as ‘swim in the Atlantic
Ocean.’ It can be as monumental as ‘change my life completely’ and as small as
‘replace the glass ring my best friend gave me in 1999.’
• This quest doesn’t have to be the ONLY reason you’re going to this new place. It
can be part of the reason, or become important once you arrive and spend time in
this place.
• Think about it: all good travel memoir books and essays have a quest at their
center.
• Once you start writing about your quest, your readers will want to know: does she
achieve her quest? Does she get the thing she wants? Keep your reader guessing
until the end.

2. Plant a question in the reader’s mind. What’s the difference between a well-read
story and a not so well-read story?

• The opening. Plant a question for the reader as early in your opening as you can.
The question doesn’t have to be life-or-death or profound. It can be very simple.
Such as:
I suppose I should have warned Rand. (from Pranzo in Italy)
This is a very short and simple opening. But do you want to know more? Of course,
you do! You want to know what she should have warned Rand about. And who is
Rand anyway?

• The question needs to provide enough intrigue to keep the reader interested.
There’s a fine line between creating curiosity or puzzlement, so don’t aim to
befuddle your reader. You must also answer your question at some point in your
story.
• As soon as you plant a question, the reader is going to be curious about what
happens next. It’s simply human nature to want to know the answer. It’s all in the
way you phrase the opening.

3. Tell the story of what drew you to this place. What were your impressions of this
place before you arrived? Dive deep into your memory to uncover some specific basis for
these impressions.

• It could be literally anything. Even having no impression is an impression—how

did this place slip your radar completely?
• You may think this information doesn’t matter. After all, everyone wants to go to a
place like Hawaii, don’t they? Sure, it’s a dream trip for many. But what is that
dream for YOU? Only you can tell that story.

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• Writing about your initial impressions of a place and how it met or didn’t meet your
expectations will make for a much richer travel story.

4. Tell a small story.

• Don’t try to write about everything that happened during your summer in Sri Lanka
or even your week in Hanoi.
• Choose a very small story instead.

5. End with a change. Travel changes us. Every time. So how did you change? Did you
accomplish your quest?

• Whether your answer is a yes or a no, you learned something in the process of
trying to achieve it. All travel memoir stories end with some kind of change. It can
be huge, or it can be very small. Just a shift in perspective is quite enough to satisfy
a reader.

Example:

BOUNTIFUL BOHOL ISLAND

By Irene Butler
(for Travel Writers' Tales)

Island hopping in the Philippines is a must with the country's many highlights-the
difficulty is choosing when you have time only for one. From the country's chaotic capital
of Manila on a north island, my husband Rick and I are drawn to Bohol in the central
island group by a strange geographical phenomenon known as the Chocolate Hills and
the hopes of seeing Tarsiers, the world's tiniest primates.

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Along with our driver/guide Lino, we leave Bohol's village-like capital of Tagbilaran,
and breeze towards the 40-metre mounds. Arriving at Chocolate Hills National Monument
Lino explains, "It's the dry season when the scrub vegetation on the hills is sun-scorched
to a brownish colour, hence the name." A lofty viewing deck is accessed by 214 steps or
by a winding path; we choose the latter. Gazing over the hills in every direction I am
amazed at how their conical and symmetrical shapes really do resemble endless rows of
chocolate drops (it is said there are 1268 if you care to count). Geologists believe they
were formed by the uplift of coral deposits long ago that have since been sculptured by
erosion. Legend has it that they are the calcified tears of a broken hearted giant, while
another tale pegs them as the leavings of a giant carabao (water buffalo) with distressed
bowels. Spunky young people leap in place while friends snap their picture at ground
level, giving the appearance of bounding across the hilltops in the photo. We try, but a
jump six inches off the ground is not enough to create this illusion.

Photo 2: Chocolate Hills - leaping girl

Backtracking to the town of Loboc, it is high-noon and high-time for lunch on the
River Watch Floating Restaurant. Along with 30 other passengers, we savour a delicious
spread of buffet items. A crooner serenades with heart-warming tunes such as "Over the
Rainbow" and "Moon River" as our boat glides down the Loboc River. Small thatched roof
houses line the shores. Children swing out on ropes tied to trees and gleefully drop into
the water. Pulling up to a platform jutting from the shore we are entertained by a local folk
band, singers and dancers, before returning to our starting dock.

We next arrive at Tarsier Sanctuary Visitors Centre. Lino introduces us to Bernard,

the Tarsier specialist, who leads us along a root-tangled path to where a few of the elusive
creatures perch in the jungle foliage. "The tarsiers are nocturnal," Bernard whispers, "so
each morning I go looking to find where a few have ended up for their day's sleep." We

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learn that although Philippine Tarsiers (Tarsius Syrichta) are often referred to as
monkeys, they are more closely related to lemurs and tree shrews.

Bernard points to a leafy haven where huge fore and hind limbs in proportion to its
10cm body grip a branch with adhesive pads. Even more super-sized for this 120-gram
brownish fur ball are its saucer eyes peering down at us. We silently walk up to another
with its back to us; its ultra-keen hearing prompts a disconcerting 180 degree head twist
to check us out with sleepy half-closed orbs. Its tail droops from the branch, twice its body
length. I can imagine this appendage acting like a 5th limb while leaping up to 3-metres
during the Tarsiers' nightly hunt to satiate their ferocious appetite, consuming about 8
crickets a night (or an equivalent of beetles, termites, or perhaps an available lizard or
frog).

This fascinating mammal has been around for a staggering 45 million years; since
the early Eocene period! Encroaching humans thinking them to be pests that ate rice
crops, along with no knowledge of their environmental needs brought them to near
extinction. Solitary and territorial, each tarsier requires at least one hector of lush foliage
to roam and hunt. Triggered by scent to breed once a year, females give birth to one baby
after a six month gestation period. Since the establishment of the Tarsier Foundation in
1996 Tarsiers have been protected in this 167-hectare reserve. Armed with the study
results of their behaviour and habitat needs, the slow reversal process is now in effect to
protect these living treasures. What a gift to be able to see these little alien-like creatures
in this environment under the strict guidance of a tarsier expert!

Getting back to Tagbilaran in the late afternoon we still have time to cross the
nearby causeway to stretch out on the white sands of Panglao Island beach until sunset,
and to ponder Bohol's natural wonders.

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