Unless you’re at least in your 70s, I wouldn’t recommend writing an autobiography, which is a book about your entire life. Instead, I’d suggest a memoir. If an autobiography is the whole pie, then a memoir is a slice of it. Writing a memoir is a deeply personal and reflective journey, one that allows you to share pieces of your life and experiences with the world. If you’re considering writing your own memoir but ain’t sure where to begin, here are three ideas that could spark your creativity:
1. Career Growth
A memoir focused on career growth allows you to dive deeply into the transformative experiences, challenges, and triumphs that shaped your professional life. Whether you’re sharing your journey in a specific field, recounting moments of self-discovery in your work, or revealing how you overcame significant obstacles to succeed, a career-focused memoir can offer both inspiration and valuable insights.
In this type of memoir, you might recount key moments such as landing your first job, overcoming professional setbacks, pivoting to a new career, or achieving personal milestones, like a major promotion or completing a long-term project. This narrative could also explore the emotional side of work—how certain jobs or work environments shaped your identity, your confidence, and your relationships.
Briefly, Perfectly Human is a poignant memoir that reflects on Alua’s experience as a death doula and her exploration of mortality, grief, and what it means to live a meaningful life. Through personal stories and lessons from her work, she delves into the beauty and vulnerability of human existence, offering a meditation on life, death, and the connections that define us.
2. A Life Shaped by a Single Event
Another interesting approach for a memoir is to center the story around one major life event that shaped who you are today. This could be something dramatic like surviving a near-death experience, losing a loved one, experiencing a life-altering accident, or a major career breakthrough. The idea is to explore how this one event impacted your life, relationships, and perspective—how it transformed you as a person.
In this type of memoir, you wouldn’t just recount the event itself, but delve into the ripple effect it had on your daily life, mental health, personal identity, and future decisions. You can explore themes of healing, grief, resilience, and how the event shaped your worldview moving forward. Focusing on a singular event offers readers the opportunity to empathize with a transformative moment in your life. It’s a way to examine how an event can feel like a turning point, and how life can never be the same once certain things happen.
One pivotal event that deeply shapes her life is the molestation she experienced at a young age, which sets off a chain reaction of self-destructive behavior, including drug addiction, criminal activity, and emotional turmoil. As the story unfolds, we see the profound impact this event has on her ability to trust others, her sense of self-worth, and her ability to break free from destructive patterns.
3. Living in Two Worlds
This type of memoir can explore the tension between two cultures, whether that be your upbringing as an immigrant in a new country, being raised in two different cultural traditions, or navigating different social or class structures. A cultural memoir can offer insight into the complexities of identity and belonging—chronicling how these contrasting worlds shaped your sense of self and your values.
A cultural memoir can provide readers with a window into a world they may not be familiar with while allowing you to express your own unique experiences. It also taps into the universal themes of identity and belonging, which resonate with many readers, especially those who have felt torn between different two worlds.
The memoir delves into how his identity was shaped by living between two worlds—his Black mother’s world and the predominantly white world of his father. This duality influenced every aspect of his life, from his relationships and sense of belonging to the way he navigated the societal divisions of South Africa during apartheid.
Writing a memoir is a powerful way to share your story, and these examples show how focusing on key moments or identities can help shape a narrative that resonates deeply with readers. Whether you’re navigating the complexities of a career, exploring the impact of a single life-changing event, or embracing the duality of cultural identity, there are beaucoup ways to write a good life story.
If you’re ready to start your memoir and need guidance, I’d love to work with you. I can help you get started, help you finish it, or edit it for you. Email me to get started: Trelani@SoFundamental.com