Writing a memoir is a daunting task. When I tell people that’s one of my main goals (and has been since I was 12), they usually either ask, “oh, aren’t you too young to have lived an interesting life?” or “how do you remember everything well enough to write about it?”
First of all, you don’t need to have lived an insanely exotic life to write a memoir. Obviously this helps (my life has had many plot twists, just you wait and see), but what makes memoirs so good is our ability to relate to certain parts of them, as well as the quality of the writing. You could have lived on a pirate ship for a year and have hundreds of wild tales, but if you tell those tales poorly, you’ve got a bad memoir. The best writers can write about anything and make it captivating, including their own ordinary lives.
Many people assume the only way to write an authentic memoir is to have a stack of old diaries or journals that depict the details of their lives. Sure, if you wrote in a diary throughout your life, that would be super helpful to refer back to. But people seem to forget that our lives are already centered around documenting every little thing we do. I can scroll back through my Facebook profile and see everything I’ve posted since I was 13 (this isn’t necessarily for the best). If you’re trying to dig up memories from your past in the hopes of turning them into great writing, read through your tweets. Peruse your Instagram pictures. Look through your photos and texts and handwritten letters. Call a friend or family member and ask them for a story. I’m sure you’ll stumble across things you had forgotten about and create stellar writing out of them.
Memoirable Moments 