Most of us write memoirs to document a time or event in our lives. We choose that time or event because it was important to us. But what's important to us isn't necessarily important or interesting to strangers. What's a writer to do?
First thing is to write it anyway. It's your story to tell any way you like. But, if you want others to enjoy reading it, it helps to think of it as a story. And stories usually have the same elements whether they are made up or real. For example, having a beginning, a middle, and an ending are standard story telling approaches. You probably do this naturally when you write your memoir and, if you are like most of us, you tell the story in the order that it happened. The chronological approach makes sense, but it isn't always interesting. A dramatic opening is often better than the actual way the story began.
Is this "cheating?" No. Memoir is assumed to be a true telling and you should keep it that way. But there is no rule about how you tell it. If an interesting thing happened in the middle, you can still move it to the beginning. (Or the end.)
Which is why I want to talk about "drama."
(1) Don't Be A Slave To "Real Time"
Often I find dramatic moments put in memoirs in the order in which they happened.
Example: A story about the first time a girl gets up the nerve to ask someone for something she wants: beautiful grapes from a neighbor's vine. She gets them, eats them, then explains why this moment is important to her.
Had she done all the explaining and ended by eating the grapes, how much more dramtic and wonderful! Then we would have watched her ask for the grapes, explain to us why this was important, and then have us witness her getting what she wanted. If she had described in detail what it felt and tasted like, even better. (plump, juicy grapes...juice running down her hand, her tongue turning purple) By moving the actual eating to end, we would build up the drama.
Note that the "drama" here isn't a huge life event like death or betrayal. Drama in a memoir can be small, personal, and quiet. It's dramatic for the writer.
But for the reader, well, we want to feel something. To see, smell, taste something. Even if it is a small event.
(2) Don't Bury The Dramatic Dialogue
The other way to add drama is to find a bit of dialogue that has potential.
Too often these moments are written in a matter-of-fact manner.
Example: A writer visiting his mom in a nusing home. He explains why she is there, describes the place, and his feelings. Somewhere in the middle of the second paragraph his mom says, “Nobody should live this long.” Wow! If that opened the story it would be so much more compelling than a description of a nursing home.
Again, it doesn't really matter exactly when she said those words. The fact is that she said them.
(3) Don't Let The Genie Out Of The Bottle More Than Once
If there is an incident or feeling you want to write about that is important and maybe even dramatic, do it once.
Example: A man is traveling to a foreign country and didn't bother to get a visa. He tells us this right up top. Then he gets to the gate and is asked for the visa. He says he doesn't have it. This is pretty dull. If he had not told us that he didn't have the visa, then we get to experience the surprise and anxiety when we find out.
It's not a major event in somone's life, but tiny dramatic moments like this can improve the reader's enjoyment of your work if you do the "reveal" only once.
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