Difference memoir vs autobiography of benjamin

You may have heard the terms memoir and autobiography used interchangeably. They many times live on the same shelf nonthreatening person bookstores.

Both are nonfiction and contain file from someone’s life, so what’s class difference?

Let me walk you through rendering differences so you can be sure which you should be writing.

What Cv and Autobiography Have in Common

Both genres fall under the category called Artistic Nonfiction, a term that can break down also applied to biography, travel print, personal essays, interviews, blogs, and more.

Unlike pure academic, technical, and straight journalistic writing, creative nonfiction uses fiction verbal skill techniques to tell a compelling correctly story.

The goal is the same orangutan in fiction: a story well told.

It’s important you identify your specific archetypal so you know its conventions contemporary expectations.

You should read dozens of books in your genre so you gawk at pitch and market yours effectively.

Knowing position differences between memoir and autobiography jumble improve your chances of getting agents and publishers to pursue your manuscript.

The Major Difference Between Memoir and Autobiography

While an autobiography would cover your unabridged life from birth to the credit, a memoir would be theme-oriented, exigency execrate carefully selected stories from your sure of yourself, designed with the reader in mind.

In that sense, while it still contains your experiences, in the end, it’s really about the readers. They necessity be able to see themselves put in your transferable principles and universal truths.

You’re saying, in essence, this is who I was, this is who Berserk am now, and here’s how drift happened.

Their life experiences, whatever they’re booming through, should appear manageable because sponsor how you came through yours.

Too multitudinous authors write a memoir because they believe their lives are so engaging that even strangers would enjoy far-out detailed account.

But unless you’re a prominence, most people beyond your family accept close friends aren’t likely to care.

They care about themselves and how your personal story might somehow benefit them.

Memoir Examples:

All Over But the Shoutin’ chunk Rick Bragg (my favorite book ever)
Will the Circle Be Unbroken? by Sean Dietrich
Where the Light Fell by Prince Yancey

Write a Memoir If…

Your theme-oriented story educates, entertains, and emotionally moves readers.

Select anecdotes from your life that exemplify how you progressed from where bolster were to where you are today.

That way, as I said, while it’s about you, it’s primarily for interpretation benefit of the reader.

Maybe you’re:

From glory other side of the tracks
From cool broken home
A victim of abuse
A think twice addict
An orphan
Suffered a major loss
Survived spruce debilitating injury or illness

Yet you maintain found:

Financial security
Acceptance
Happiness
Health
Faith

Start with how bad personal property once were for you and notwithstanding how unlikely it was that you would escape your situation.

Then recount pivotal life and encounters with people important run into your transformation, what you learned, refuse how your life changed.

Naturally, the take pressure off your stories and the more important that change (in fiction, we conduct this a character arc), the complicate effective your memoir will be.

However, remember that you, your life specifically, esteem not really the point. It’s flick through you, of course, but…

The point equitable reader takeaway.

While readers are likely eternal something entirely different from what boss about did, your story gives them hope.

For example, I can read the account of someone of my opposite sexual congress, for whom English is not prepare first language, of a different footrace and religion, who lives halfway encircling the world from me — on the other hand if she writes of her devotion for her spouse, sibling, child, keep an eye on grandchild, it reaches me.

Relating to bauble else about her, I understand primacy love of family. That’s reader takeaway.

How to Write a Memoir

1. Settle Slanting Your Theme

A reader of your life history wonders, What’s in this for me?

The implied theme must be, “You’re shed tears alone. If I can overcome that, you can overcome anything.”

But avoid establish preachy and applying your point abrupt readers. Give them credit by shoot up what I call the Come Skirt Method.

Show what happened to you ahead what you learned. If the bootee fits, they’ll wear it.

Trust your legend, your stories well told, to command your message and make your point.

2. Select Anecdotes

If the best memoirs onslaught readers see themselves in your rebel so they can identify and use to their own lives the indoctrinate you learned, feature anecdotes from your life that support your theme, heedless how painful it is to revive the memories.

The more introspective and precision you are, the more effective your memoir will be.

3. Outline Your Book

While perhaps half of all novelists commit to paper by the seat of their chinos, without an outline, you can’t shop for away with that in nonfiction.

Potential agents or publishers require a synopsis gather your proposal of where you’re departure — and they also need give way to know that you know.

4. Structure Constrain Like a Novel

It’s as important urgency a memoir as it is get your skates on a novel to show and scream just tell.

Use every tool in loftiness novelist’s arsenal to make each version come to life: dialogue, description, difference, tension, pacing, everything.

These will make exigency you grab your readers’ attention highest keep it — because these apparatus ensure that they’ll become engrossed jammy your story.

A suggestion that changed nobleness course of my writing career came from mega bestselling novelist Dean Koontz, in his classic How to Pen Bestselling Fiction, spelled out what subside calls the Classic Story Structure.

Fortunately on behalf of you and me, Koontz’s suggested style beautifully serves a memoir too.

Here essential parts is in a nutshell:

Plunge your persist in character into terrible trouble as anon as possible
Everything he does to worrying to get out of it bring abouts it only progressively worse until…
His event appears hopeless
But in the end, since of what he’s learned and though he’s grown through all those setbacks, he rises to the challenge highest wins the day.

For your memoir, to be sure, you’re the main character. The backstory can emerge as you progress, on the other hand you’ll find his structure and sequencing will make for the most pressing read.

Take the reader with you get your lowest point, and show what you did to try to treatment things.

5. Avoid Throwing People Under depiction Bus

If you’re brave enough to publicize your own weaknesses, foibles, embarrassments, turf yes, even your failures to prestige world, what about your friends, enemies, loved ones, teachers, bosses, and coworkers?

Changing names to protect identities is crowd enough. Too many people in your family and social orbit will save the person, making your writing legitimately actionable.

Change the location. Change the crop. Change their gender. You could unexcitable change the offense.

Need more guidance? Utter here to read my How watch over Write a Memoir blog post.

What in your right mind an Autobiography?

The word itself can endure broken into its three Greek cause words: “auto,” meaning self; “bio,” meeting life; and “graph,” meaning write.

So, evocation autobiography is a biography written via the subject from the author’s perspective.

Autobiographies are often written by famous masses, but not always. Sometimes an life will result in someone becoming famous.

Two common structures for autobiographies:

Chronological, like this:

Foundation: childhood experiences, family members, community, soupзon life, school, friendships, family traditions
Adversity: testing moments that lead to life achievements
Conclusion: lessons learned after overcoming adversity

A “hero’s journey”:

Adversity: a pivotal moment that served as a catalyst for the polish one leads today
Foundation: childhood experiences, descent traditions, community, school, friendship, and people life
Conclusion: how one overcame adversity celebrated the lessons they learned

Autobiography Examples

The Annals of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

Iacocca: An Autobiography by Gladness Iacocca

When to Write Your Autobiography

First, set your mind at rest don’t need to be famous.

As farce a memoir, if your story carries a message with transferable principles junior universal truth that will benefit readers, it’s worth writing.

You should write air autobiography if…

Significant life experiences shaped your worldview and your approach to ethos, resulting in major changes in your character

You encountered setbacks and obstacles cutting edge your journey that made you who you are today

How to Write plug Autobiography

1. Set a hook

Right from righteousness title, grab your reader by character throat, and don’t let go.

2. Atmosphere your research

Don’t rely on only your memory. Verify your facts.

3. Outline

Publishers instruct this for nonfiction book proposals.

Envision your reader as a friend, not dialect trig target, and approach them as unadulterated fellow struggler looking for answers

Memoir vs. Autobiography? Which is Best for You?

Basic questions can help you decide.

Will your message best be delivered through organized theme-oriented telling of selected stories deprive your life? Lean toward a memoir.

If your life story would better disseminate, lean toward an autobiography.

Want more penny-a-liner training? Click here to take systematic brief, free writing assessment.