If you want to write a memoir that will sell to the widest audience possible, you want to know these three types of memoir that sell. Don’t get too caught up in worrying about the details of each style of story, they are really archetypal blueprints, if you will, that trigger an emotional response – many stories fall into more than one of these categories.
That said, bestselling memoirs can generally fall into one of the following three story categories. A gripping story actually brings on a physical response – and so to tell a page-turning story that physically, emotionally and mentally stays with the reader you need to follow certain rules, whether you’re writing a movie, a great ad, or telling a tale on the phone!
Even if you’re writing a literary memoir, you still want it to sell, right? If you don’t want it to sell (perhaps you’re just writing a memoir for your family), I’m sure you want people to finish reading it.
When you look at bestselling memoirs such as Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, or Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, or my favourite, Lit by Mary Karr, they each follow one of the three types of ‘story’ outlined below. When you’re looking at your competitive titles, you might also like to see which category each falls into.
By pinpointing the structure of other bestselling memoirs, it help you choose the way you want to tell your personal story.
Make note of the key themes in each type of memoir for what to include.
1: The redemption memoir
This is typically a memoir of how you overcame any adversity, big or small. It could be an addiction, or an injury, or a limiting belief.
Perhaps you achieved something momentous?
Commercial memoirs such as those written by sports stars or celebrities very often follow the redemption storyline trajectory.
Typically the main character explores their key theme or obstacle (addiction, grief, world record to use the examples below) in intense detail, failing a number of times to resolve it, until the final third of the book, where they overcome and ‘redeem’ themselves to the reader.
The last third of the book is when you’re cheering for the author because they’ve achieved something that seemed so far off in the beginning of the book.
KEY THEME IN A REDEMPTION MEMOIR
- There needs to be something in the past that the narrator has done, which the reader will eventually need to ‘forgive’. It could be an addiction, an evil, a lie, even a crime. The redemption memoir can be really powerful, because they explore such universal themes of failure and imperfection, and we love to be on the ‘inside’ in how someone overcomes such an adversity.
- We all love to see someone hit rock bottom and then overcome adversity, or make a complete mind-shift when it seems they’ve lost everything (or are unredeemable in some other way). If you want to see the redemption narrative in a TV series, I highly recommend Sinner on Netflix.
Examples of the redemption memoir:
Lit by Mary Karr. Dry by Augusten Burroughs. WILD by Cheryl Strayed, Mr Ordinary Goes to Jail by Wil Paterson.
2: The ‘walking away from it all’ memoir
This is typically a memoir of how you walked away from a certain kind of life (a job, a relationship, a partying lifestyle, a place), and moved into a completely new way of being.
Lots of travel memoirs follow this journey, memoirs about divorce or breakup, and also many health memoirs follow the ‘walking away from it all’ pattern.
KEY THEME IN A ‘WALKING AWAY FROM IT ALL’ MEMOIR:
- Typically, the ‘walking away from it all’ memoir starts with a catalyst scene which is a wake-up call that leads the narrator to start a completely new life which follows none of the conventions of the previous one.
- I personally love to see how others have started over from scratch. While every memoir must have conflict and obstacles, the difference with the walking away from it all memoir is that the challenges are completely new and fresh to the narrator. Archetypally, they really have entered a ‘new’ world, when they’ve walked away from whatever they’ve left.
- It might be a health crisis that brings on the walk away, so that the person goes on to discover an entirely new lifestyle. Or walking away from a faith or religion, such as Tara Westover’s incredibly well-written Educated.
Examples of the ‘walking away from it all’ memoir:
Eat, Pray, Love by Liz Gilbert, When in Rome by Penny Green, Almost French by Sarah Turnbull. Holy Cow by Sarah Macdonald, Educated by Tara Westover, Tracks by Robyn Davidson.
3: The ‘you are not alone’ memoir
This kind of memoir can sometimes border on or overlap with self-help or creative non-fiction, or even a non-fiction which explores a subject by uses personal story to show how to do something.
The ‘you are not alone’ memoir dives into what happens when we fail or go through a typically human (universal) experience.
Perhaps your memoir is about knitting, and you could be exploring how knitting saved you from adrenal burnout (or helped you quit smoking) or soothed you when your mother died. It could be as light as a craft memoir or as deep as an addiction memoir, but the key theme is that you’re exploring a topic that many people can relate to, and allowing people who love or also share an interest with that topic, to deeply connect to you and gain tips and experiences that will inspire, uplift, educate or comfort them.
KEY THEME IN A ‘YOU ARE NOT ALONE’ MEMOIR:
- You explore your vulnerabilities around a topic, theme, hobby, addiction, health issue, relationship or passion. Minute details draw the reader into your very personal, but universal issue or theme. You may even have a step-by-step guide or toolkit that you also give to the reader.
- Making yourself vulnerable by exposing clear details and scenes that everyone can relate to allows the reader to deeply relate to what you’ve gone through, seeing your personal story as a very relatable story. It could be about your family agonies or an addiction, but the key is vulnerability and everyday detail. It can be as deep as Mary Karr’s Liars Club or as light as Marian Keyes’ cookery book / memoir of overcoming depression.
Claire Dederer’s Poser is about yoga, which sounds small and everyday, but by taking us into the story of how she struggled to overcome the basic poses (and put up with a selection of painful yoga classes), we perhaps don’t feel so alone next time we’re at yoga and we just want to storm off and get a pizza!
All memoirs have a driving desire and a central character who changes in some way, but the key with the ‘you are not alone’ memoir is that there’s no clear-cut redemption at the end. That’s not to say the reader isn’t satisfied: all memoirs have a clear beginning, middle and end, but by choosing this as your memoir style, you can see how you could blend the style with another type of non-fiction such as self-help or step-by-step guide.
Examples of the ‘you are not alone’ memoir:
Saved by a Cake by Marian Keyes, Poser by Claire Dederer, Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, Liars Club by Mary Karr, You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero (technically a self-development book but she uses so much personal anecdote that I think it’s a blend).
Yes, many memoirs overlap, and that’s fine too! But by looking at an archetypal structure you can really nail down the outline of your memoir and find some comparative titles, which is a key element of your book proposal.
YOU’LL ALSO LOVE:
MEMOIR STUDY: MY PARIS DREAM BY KATE BETTS
A KEY INGREDIENT TO YOUR MEMOIR PROPOSAL
Writers block I’m afraid. I’ve written half of my Memoir, I need help bridging the gap. My current Mentor keeps on suggesting I write in past tense, I do try but find I get confused and stilted. I write in present tense. Any suggestions.
Thank you Louisa, for keeping me in the loop and posting.
Warm regards,
Mona
If it’s easier for you to write more in the present tense, then do that! The main thing is to get that first (awful) draft done, so you have something to edit, polish, improve. Stick with it!
What helps me is to clear my head about any ideas of what I should be writing, where it should lead or what it should follow. Then even take away the idea that what you would be writing has to make sense and just write out whatever words come to your mind, not thinking about it too much, just writing whatever comes to you. It just gets your mind flowing fluidly again. Even if you don’t ever use what you have written
Totally! That’s why journalling (for no-one’s eyes but your own) is so crucial for memoir
Thanks for this – I hadn’t realised there were certain types of memoir. The one i’m currently working on is (and most likely will continue to be) redemption, although there may be a ‘you are not alone’ along the way somewhere too.
Great! Often they blend, but one aspect might stand out a bit more… It just gives you a good ‘container’ to structure the story, to be able to put them into one of these categories 🙂
This is awesome information and didn’t know about these types of memoirs. My memoir is more along the lines of redemption but has a little of the other two in it also. I started writing in April of this year. Goal is to be done writing it by end of this year.
I’m writing a Historical Memoir (working title now: Invisible Value: Leading from the Middle of the Women’s Movement).
Your article helps me see that it could fit either. under “Walking Away from It All,” as in not accepting societies path for women in the 1970’s. Your statement, “moved into a completely new way of being,” certainly fits – possibly best fit.
It also fits into “You Are Not Alone.”
Anyone who has ever seen an injustice and tried on some level to change it, might see themsel in my memoir. My take away from what you wrote, check whether I’ve revealed those numerous moments of vulnerability.
Thank you for these memoir themes.
Thank you. Helpful.
Great tips, thank you for sharing your expertise!
Thank you for all you do in the name of writers. Re: this entry – I feel to add – my editor at the NY Times, where I have published 8 Op-eds, told me recently “Publishers want what sold last year and that’s it.” Something blows up and the industry follows. It has zero to do with the quality of your writing, but whether or not the book will sell, just like corn flakes or dishwashing detergent.” A cold hard fact, and no one is going to stop writing because of a pesky little thing called “Nobody wants my book.” Cheers and thank you again. 🙂
Thank you for your wisdom and experience Louisa!