A memoir (/ˈmɛmwɑːr/; from French: mémoire: memoria, meaning memory or reminiscence) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author’s personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEMOIR. The voice is first person singular: I, not we, one, or you. The memoirist is the main character, the someone for readers to be within the story. The writer�s thoughts and feelings, reactions and reflections, are revealed.

A good memoir has universality while being truthfully original. A good memoir is novelistic, with an unfolding story line, or plot, and scenes intermixed with narrative. Different from fiction, memoir is a true story, it is your story, not the story of someone you know or characters you have created for the page.

Utilize 5 Elements of Memoir: Truth, Theme, Voice, POV, Musing 2.

Your outline doesn’t need to be strict, but it should include a list of key events leading up to and following the climax of your memoir. If you like the idea of outlining, take it a little further. Divide your memoir into chapters and sketch out what you’d like to discuss in each chapter.

Tell a Story

1. DO THIS: Establish a story arc.
2. NOT THIS: Include every detail of your life in your memoir.
3. DO THIS: The inspiration needs to come from the story.
4. NOT THIS: Tell the reader why the story is inspiring.
5. DO THIS: Find your hook and emphasize an element of your story that makes it unique and marketable.

While there is no single best way to start a memoir, you can always consider beginning by making the readers:

1. wonder.
2. smile.
3. relate.
4. worry.
5. roll their eyes.
6. sympathize.
7. say “yuck!”
8. sigh.

Although I’m a fan of well-written narrative prose, a memoir without dialogue is not a complete memoir. A general rule of thumb is that any given chapter be 20%-40% dialogue. It moves the story along.

9 Ways to Have an Authentic Conversation in 10 Minutes

1. Create Human Moments. Human moments occur when you’re face to face with someone.
2. Take People as They Are.
3. Resurrect a Positive, Past Experience.
4. Introduce the Four-Sentence Rule.
5. Notice More People.
6. Express Your Feelings.
7. Look for Commonality.
8. Adopt a Conversational Tone.

Here are some common examples of dialogue tags:

• He said.
• She whispered.
• They bellowed.
• He hollered.
• They sniped.
• She huffed.
• He cooed.
• They responded.

How to Format Dialogue in a Story

1. Use Quotation Marks to Indicate Spoken Word.
2. Dialogue Tags Stay Outside the Quotation Marks.
3. Use a Separate Sentence for Actions That Happen Before or After the Dialogue.
4. Use Single Quotes When Quoting Something Within the Dialogue.
5. Use a New Paragraph to Indicate a New Speaker.

Even with dialogue that is clearly attributed, start a new paragraph with each new speaker. The reader shouldn’t have to wait until after the dialogue is spoken to understand who is saying it. Readers form ideas and draw conclusions as they read.

Ten Keys to Write Effective Dialogue

1. Know your characters well.
2. Play the role of your characters.
3. Be dynamic.
4. Do not explain – move forward.
5. Interrupt once in a while.
6. Make your characters hesitate.
7. Make each dialogue important.
8. Break up the dialogue with action.

Here are dialogue words you can use instead of ‘said’, categorised by the kind of emotion or scenario they convey:

• Anger: Shouted, bellowed, yelled, snapped, cautioned, rebuked.
• Affection: Consoled, comforted, reassured, admired, soothed.
• Excitement:
• Fear:
• Determination:
• Happiness:
• Sadness:
• Conflict:

What is another word for it states?

A comma is used after the dialogue tag, OUTSIDE of quotation marks, to reintroduce the dialogue. End the dialogue with the appropriate punctuation (period, exclamation point, or question mark), but keep it INSIDE the quotation marks.

Here are some adjectives for dialogue: trenchantly satirical, witty and trenchantly satirical, pert, low, second-rate theatrical, long pantomimical, real corny, frustrating, inscrutable, brief but historic, perfunctory, domestic, flimsy fine, interminable padded, constructive bipartisan, surely interesting, plain and …