How do you write a memoir?
- A focused theme around a specific period, relationship, or experience.
- 60,000-90,000 words for trade memoir.
- First-person POV throughout.
- Permissions or pseudonyms for real people.
- 3-5 major revisions before submission.
You write a memoir by choosing a focused theme around a specific period, relationship, or experience — not your whole life — and building 60,000-90,000 words around that theme in first-person POV. Memoir requires permissions for real people named, fact-checking for verifiable claims, and emotional truth over strict factual chronology. Most published memoirs go through three to five major revisions.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Memoir is the most-attempted and most-failed genre for first-time authors. The failure mode is consistent: trying to tell a whole life instead of a focused story. Memoirs that sell — Tara Westover's Educated, Michelle Obama's Becoming, Cheryl Strayed's Wild — all have tight thematic focus. Knowing the genre conventions before drafting saves writers from the most common failure.
Chapter ii·What to include
- A focused theme: a specific period, relationship, or transformation.
- 60,000-90,000 words for trade memoir.
- First-person POV throughout.
- Permissions or pseudonyms for real people.
- Fact-checking for verifiable claims.
- 3-5 major revisions before submission.
Chapter iii·Example
A debut memoirist's first draft attempts to cover her whole life (110,000 words). Her developmental editor narrows the focus to a single year — her father's terminal illness and her own divorce in 2018-2019. Revised draft: 78,000 words, single arc, single year. The narrowed focus is what sells the manuscript to an agent.
WriteLoom's Plan studio holds memoir structure, character permissions, and fact-check notes in one project.
See the Plan studio