We Love Memoirs Day (August 31st)
A memoir is not the same as an autobiography. An autobiography covers the entire life of a person. A memoir does not do this. Instead, it can focus on a significant period or moment in a person’s life. Perhaps the most famous memoir of all-time is The Diary of a Young Girl, which is the memoir of Anne Frank.
Learn about We Love Memoirs Day
We Love Memoirs Day has been created so that readers and authors can be brought together to observe this incredible style of writing. A memoir is more focused than an autobiography. It looks at an intimate moment in time, rather than going through the full History of a person’s life. On We Love Memoirs Day, we honor this incredible form of writing and we take the time to appreciate some of the amazing memoirs that have been published over the years. We are also provided with the perfect opportunity to start our own memoir, should we wish.
History of We Love Memoirs Day
We Love Memoirs was set up on 31st August 2013 by two memoir authors, Victoria Twead and Alan Parks, who wanted to create a place where memoir readers and authors could come together and chat.
Victoria Twead is a New York Times bestselling author of “Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools” and the “Old Fools” series, while Alan Parks is the author of “Seriously Mum, What’s an Alpaca?” and the “Seriously Mum” series. Victoria and Alan were determined to foster a warm community and have always discouraged authors from pushing their own books at readers.
The results have been astounding, and WLM has grown quickly. New friendships are formed every day, and WLM meet-ups across the globe have become common. Small wonder that the We Love Memoirs community – which can be found here – is often described as “the friendliest group on Facebook”.
Not only is it important to understand the History of We Love Memoirs Day, but it helps to know about the History of the memoir itself. This can be dated to 397 AD, when The Confessions of Saint Augustine was written by St. Augustine of Hippo. He used this as an opportunity to tell the world about his sins. Ever since then, getting to know a stranger intimately is something that we have all had a bit of an obsession with, especially when this stranger is someone famous or has been involved in a well-known incident.
How to celebrate We Love Memoirs Day
There are a number of different ways that you can celebrate We Love Memoirs Day. For example, why not observe the day by writing your very own memoir? Alan Parks and Victoria Tweed have both expressed that they think a great way of getting started when it comes to writing a memoir is simply to make some notes whenever something interesting happens to you. You can celebrate We Love Memoirs Day by starting this process. Of course, no one expects you to be able to start and finish your memoir in one day. However, starting the process is often the most difficult part of the process, so simply writing down a few things that come to mind can make all of the difference.
Another way to celebrate We Love Memoirs Day is to join an online writing group. There are many different forums and groups for writers online today. These are great because you will be able to pick up some handy tips and learn advice from one and other. You will also feel like part of something, and you can make some really great friends along the way. There is even a We Love Memoirs Day group, so you might want to begin by looking into this.
You can also pay honor to We Love Memoirs Day by reading a memoir. There are lots of great memoirs to get stuck into. We have already mentioned the famous memoir written by Anne Frank, but what other memoirs are worth reading? Some other memoirs we recommend include Vivian Gornick’s Fierce Attachments, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club, Christopher Hitchens’ Hitch-22, Gore Vidal’s Palimpsest, and Hilary Mantel’s Giving Up the Ghost.
Tips on writing a memoir
If you are interested in writing a memoir on this date, we have a number of different tips that can help you. Firstly, you need to narrow your focus. It is vital to recognize that a memoir is not an autobiography. This means that it needs to be a snapshot of one theme of your life, rather than telling people about your life from the moment you were born. Think about a cake. A memoir is simply one slice of the cake, rather than being the entire bake.
Although your focus should be narrow, you also need to think about the bigger picture when you are writing your memoir. A memoir that Hillary Clinton wrote is a prime example of this. She wrote a memoir detailing bringing up a child in the White House. While this was the focus, she also pulled in different tidbits to make the story more exciting. This includes information on how she dealt with the Politics of parenting while in the White House, as well as details on who she let visit her daughter during sleepovers and how she handled the media during this time. Of course, all of this information is relevant to the period of time she is focusing on, yet it helps to create the full picture and give more details. Tap into your thoughts and feelings, not just the facts of what happened.
Aside from this, it is important to make sure that you tell the truth when you are writing a memoir. A lot of people are tempted to bend the truth or even tell an outright lie because they want to make the story as interesting as possible. However, a memoir is only going to be powerful if it is genuine and honest. Needless to say, this can also be difficult because you may be worried about hurting people along the way. Nevertheless, as an author, telling your truth is imperative, even if the journey is a difficult one. This is what people are going to relate with and, ultimately, this is what is going to make your memoir a success.
The final tip that we are going to give you is to create an emotional journey when you write your memoir. Taking your readers on an emotional journey is what is going to encourage them to turn the page and read the next one. The most effective way of evoking these feelings in your audience is by connecting your emotions with key events that occur during your narrative.
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