The thing to remember about writing memoir is to focus on your truth. This is your opportunity to tell your story from your own point of view. The fact that you may be an unreliable narrator makes the tale all the more authentic and compelling.

Faced with the prospect of writing a memoir, many of us don’t know where to start. How can you fit a whole life into 70,000 words? What do you put in, what should you leave out?

As with fiction, memoir should contain setting, character(s) and plot. You need a strong narrative, and you need to bring in tension and suspense to grab the reader’s attention.

Before you start, it helps to decide on a theme. What element of your life do you want to focus on? It might be your upbringing. It could be your career or profession. Or it may be centred around your own role in a particular event that made history.

There are numerous sub-genres that fit within the heading of memoir. Here’s a few:

• Political: politicians often write memoirs once they’ve left the political arena e.g The Benn Diaries – Tony Benn’s nine volumes span half a century of British politics.
• Professional: the focus is on the writer’s profession e.g. James Herriot All Creatures Great and Small.
• Travel: a personal take on travel writing e.g. Bill Bryson’s travel books
• Rags to riches: rising from poverty and obscurity to wealth and fame e.g. Maya Angelou’s I know Why the Caged Birds Sings and her other six books of memoir.
• Celebrity: revealing the pasts of famous people e.g. Keith Richards’ Life.
• Survivor: overcoming adversity such as conflict or abuse, e.g. Dave Pelzer, A Child Called It.

Memoir writing exercise

To get started, it can help to think about where you come from. Not just the geographical place, but the cultural and historical landscape you grew up in. What were the sounds, sights and smells you remember from your childhood? Who were the main characters in your early life? What was going on around you and in the wider world?

Today’s exercise is called: ‘I am from’ and uses a poem by Anne Murphy, a Nottingham poet who grew up in Northern Ireland during the troubles. This piece is itself inspired by another poem, ‘Bread and Butter’ by Jo Roach.

I am from

I am from the rubble, the remnants and the roadblocks
 
I am from kick the tin, 
Red rover, on the hillside stands a lady 
Games  going on and on into long summer evenings 
On streets with barricades and soldiers 
 
I am from  top of the morning, 
The emerald isle, the Guinness, land of saints and scholars   
With the six counties the size of Yorkshire  
And  over 3,000 dead 
 
I am from the land of the flags – 
The green white and orange  – the red white and blue 
My  tribe and your tribe 
And  the endless peace walls to keep us apart 
 
I am from the Black and Tans  – the B Specials – the Brits 
The Provos  – the red hand commandos 
The Shankill butchers 
The IRA, the UDA, the RUC And any other thug with a gun.
 
I am from the mountains.
The hills and the shucks 
The lonely countryside – the oil lamps 
Soda bread and boiled eggs on summer visits 
 
I am from the grammar school 
Walking murder mile to get there
The Poor Clares behind their grill 
The women churning the butter
Mending the clothes, baking the bread 
 
I am from Top of the Pops – 
Teenage kicks 
Donny Osmond – David Cassidy 
And learning the truth at seventeen.
 
I am from A Levels and University   
Living and partly living 
The hunger strikes
The black flags  – the rattling of the bins 
Ulster says NO 
 
I am from the borders, the ports 
Larne to Stranraer 
The comings and goings 
I am from the escape 
The getting out while you’re young 
 

Published by kind permission of Anne Murphy

Exercise

• Read the poem.
• Think about what shaped your early life, who was there, what was going on around you?
• Recall the sights, sounds and smells of your childhood and adolescence.
• Write your own version, starting with the line, ‘I am from..’
• It can be in any form, prose or poetry.

This produced some powerful and entertaining writing when we tackled it in the Creative Writing Group at Maggie’s Nottingham If you have a go at this exercise, I’d love to hear how you got on! If you’d like to share your work, you can post in the comments below.