Differences Between Memoir and Autobiography

Are you writing a memoir? An autobiography? Do you know the difference between the two forms? In 2009, while my husband and I were on an overseas trip, I received a lesson in an outdoor classroom about the difference between autobiography and memoir. My teacher? A small brown snail.

The snail lived in Indonesia, where, on the island of Bali, I met him when we stayed for two months in a traditional Balinese hotel in the town of Ubud. My husband was doing research in Bali, poor guy, but someone has to do it, right? One feature of the hotel was an outdoor dining area, its architecture pavilion-like, which is common in Bali. Surrounded by tropical plants and orange, pink, and white flowers in a jungle-like garden, we had breakfast every morning. Paradise found.

One morning, a little snail appeared in the foliage near our breakfast table, creeping fairly close to me and cute as a button, its conical house riding on its back. I dropped my fork, grabbed my camera, and took a series of photos of that little guy, chronicling its travels over, under, around, and up the broad, bright green leaves. I had plenty of time to click, click, click while that snail creeped along, since (yeah, I know) it moved at a snail’s pace.

Memoir or Autobiography?

That warm and sunny morning, my photojournalism of the little creature’s journey captured only a few adventurous moments of his life. Afterwards, as I reflected on that session, I thought it was a good example for showing the difference between memoir and autobiography. At the time, I was writing a memoir, and several friends had asked about the difference.

Memoir

The word, “memoir,” comes from “memory.” Like the snail’s leafy adventure that morning, memoir is a slice of someone’s life told in a story that can read like a novel, or take other forms, such as a series of related essays. For more on memoir forms, refer to Julia Barrington’s, Writing the Memoir: A Practical Guide to the Craft, the Personal Challenges, and Ethical Dilemmas of Writing Your True Stories.

The memoir author writes about a segment of his or her personal TRUE story, but what makes a memoir a memoir? It includes reflections on the author’s life from her/his current point-of-view. That is the main hallmark of the genre. For example, my Balinese snail friend is writing a memoir that goes like this:

“One day alongside the breakfast pavilion at Hotel Paradise, I was inching my way along a bright green leaf, and all of a sudden this eccentric tourist lady grabbed her camera and spent about half an hour taking pictures of me. I felt shy at the time, since my parents had never prepared me for paparazzi. Considering my picture is now all over the internet, I appreciate the attention showered on me. Usually I am ignored, since all I do is just crawl around in the background, but by capturing me in photos, she has made me feel important and beautiful!”

By nature, memoirs are subjective, not as objective as journalistic reports as in an article in the New York Times; however, memoir writers should do their best to research whatever facts they report about things, people, and places in their memoirs. One of my favorites is Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family.

So, there’s a THEN and a NOW aspect in a memoir that, if you’re not used to reading or writing one, may feel odd at first. If what you usually read are novels (fictional stories) or newspapers (journalism) that do not have the THEN and the NOW perspectives woven like threads in and out of each other, then memoirs will give you a new and refreshing genre to explore.

Autobiography

Merriam-Webster tells us an autobiography is “a biography written by the person it is about.” Unlike memoir, which is only a slice of life, autobiography is nearly the whole pie (I know what you’re thinking … it cannot go to the very end!) It’s auto (self) bio (life) graphy writing).

Autobiography has some reflection too, otherwise it would be pretty dry reading, but reflection is not as big a feature as it is supposed to be in memoir, because the emphasis in memoir is on remembering and reflecting on what is remembered, not chronicling a life, i.e. I was born, then this happened, and that happened, etc. Some autobiographies are more artfully written than that, but you get the idea. Here’s an interesting one, Me: Elton John Official Autobiography.

I highly recommend these books about writing memoir:

• Writing the Memoir by Judith Barrington
• The Art of Time in Memoir: Then and Now by Sven Birkerts
• Composing a Life by Mary Catherine Bateson
• Your Life as Story by Tristine Rainer