The memoir focuses on past and life-changing experiences. In short, the personal memoir aims at answering the three questions: What event or events were important in the author’s life? Why were they so crucial? How they affected the author’s life? 📜 Example of Memoir About Yourself. We’ve created a great example of a personal memoir. What exactly are short memoirs? I define them as essay-length works that weave together life experiences around a central theme. You see examples of short memoirs all the time on sites like Buzzfeed and The New York Times. Others are stand-alone pieces published in essay collections. Memoir essays were my gateway into reading full-length memoirs.

Memoirs can be a lot of fun to write. You get to dive into some nostalgia, offer life lessons to others, and tell a great story. Life really is about how each of our stories connects with one another. A short memoir puts the stories we already tell to others in writing so others can enjoy them.

Knowing how to write a short memoir sounds easy in concept, but can sometimes be difficult to write. After all, the short memoir is more of a vignette instead of a full story. This requires the creation of a solid intro, body, and conclusion while offering a meaningful lesson in only a few thousand words.

These tips will help you to get the process started so you can write about what happens to you each day in a meaningful way.

#1. Short memoirs are always written in the first person.

You’re telling a personal story. Don’t use impersonal pronouns when writing a short memoir. Write this story as if you were telling it to someone else.

#2. Keep the narrative in a familiar tone.

This is where the “show it, don’t tell it” aspect of writing comes into play for the short narrative. Introduce the key players of your narrative as if the reader already knows these people. They won’t know them right away, but through the context of your story, they’ll understand that you’re talking about your wife, a close friend, your son, your son’s teacher, and whomever else has a starring role.

#3. Keep it to one key point.

A short memoir doesn’t have the space necessary to convey multiple lessons in a meaningful way. You’ve got the time to make one solid key point. Focus on that as the thesis of your story and you’ll be able to make this a meaningful memoir.

#4. Add some flare or drama to your memoir.

This is the reason why some storytellers attract large audiences and others just yawn and tune out the story. Add some flair and drama to your short memoir. Put in an element of danger if it exists. You want people to be at the edge of their seats, trying to figure out what is going to happen.

#5. Make the narrative feel familiar to the reader.

One of the best ways you can create feelings of familiarity within a short narrative is to allude to something that most people are going to understand. You might consider current events, specific actions you take when something happens, or an event that many people will know.

#6. Write with your audience in mind.

The danger of a short memoir is that it can be written in such general terms that it has no real meaning to anyone. You need to write this story with a certain type of reader in mind. Others outside of this specific demographic can still pick up on the lessons being taught in your story, while the targeted reader is going to find the short memoir to be a profound thought worth replicating in their own life.

#7. Try to include recent experiences as much as possible.

When memories are fresh in the mind, the details that can be discussed are much more vivid. You remember sights, sounds, and smells with much more accuracy if something happened yesterday compared to 10 years ago. Now, this doesn’t mean older memories aren’t also vivid – it simply means older memories tend to be about life-altering events while recent memories tend to deal with the business of life. And, in many ways, it’s the business of life that makes a short memoir such an attractive piece of literature. Key life changing moments deserve a long-form memoir.

#8. Make sure to give your short memoir a meaningful ending.

Short Memoir Examples For Middle School

The one issue with a short memoir that many writers face is the ending. The drama comes during the events that happen. Ending that drama in a meaningful way to give the reader an outcome seems almost anticlimactic. Yet you also don’t want to leave a reader wondering what happened afterward. Even if the ending is short and sweet [“I survived and you can too.”] the memoir will be more meaningful to every reader who encounters it.

Knowing how to write a short memoir means being personal, being real, and being precise with your words. You have no room for meaningless phrases or sentences. Grab the reader with a good idea, keep them hooked through the drama of what happened, and let them learn something from the experience. When you can do that, you’ll have written something that is quite fantastic.

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Short Story Definition

A short story is a fully developed story which is shorter than a novel and longer than a fable. It typically takes just a single sitting for reading. Short Story focuses on the incidents bigger or smaller and evokes strong feelings from its readers. A short story often has a few characters in the plot.

Features of a Short Story

As a short story is mostly a short narrative and has few features. The standard features include exposition, complication, crisis, climax, and resolution of the crisis. However, it is not essential that all short stories follow the same pattern.

Examples of Short Stories from Literature

Example #1

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

The Happy Prince is one of the best stories written in English Literature written by Oscar Wilde. The story shows how the elites of that kingdom neglect the poor. And the statue of the Happy Prince takes help of a Swallow to help the poor of the city. One by one, the Prince starts losing his precious stones, rubies, and gold leaves when the Swallow starts plucking them give to the poor that the Prince can see from his high pedestal. The dramatic irony of the story reaches the climax when the city mayor sees the dead bird and the ugly broken statue. When the statue is sent to a furnace, God invites the Prince and the Swallow to live in the City of Gold in heaven.

What Is A Short Memoir

Example #2

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In the short story of The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte sheds light on the difficulties faced by the narrator of the story, due to depression after the childbirth. Her husband John, a physician, takes her to a countryside home for the cure and assumes that she is suffering from hysteria. He doesn’t allow her to do her favorite activities, like writing which helps her escape reality. She is also distant to her child. After a while, she is obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room and imagines that a woman, like her, is stuck in it and wants to come out. To help the imaginary woman, the narrator starts peeling the wallpaper. By the end of the story, John, sees her creeping around the room and faints. The story also highlights how many women are ignored by their spouses, leading them to depression.

Example #3

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is another wonderful example of a short horror story. In the story, the anonymous narrator tells about the murder of an old man that he has committed in cold-blood because he had ‘vulture eyes’. The story is told in the first-person narrative and explores the state of mind of a person. The narrator has hallucinations after the murder when he feels guilty. He convinces the readers that he is not insane. By the end of the story, he continues to hallucinate and asks what to do to make the old man’s heart stop. This is an excellent example of a short story having a few characters and a complicated theme.

Example #4

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

This story is an extraordinary piece of its time. Louise Mallard, probably oppressed by her husband, is relieved when she sees the prospects of freedom after the death of her husband. She rejoices and imagines a bright future after receiving the news. However, Brently Mallard, Louise’ husband returns home. The pain of her failing dreams causes her to suffer a heart attack and death. The doctor assumes that she has died of heart failure as she couldn’t absorb the happiness at her husband’s arrival.

Example #5

The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant

Short Memoir Examples For Students

The Necklace is one of the best short stories. It revolves around the life of a clerk in the ministry of education and his extraordinarily beautiful wife, Mathilda. She borrows an expensive necklace from her friend for a ball but loses it when they are returning home. They, somehow, arrange to replace it after purchasing the original necklace with borrowed money and spend their lives in the struggle to pay back the loan. After several years, they met the same friend again. To their horror, she tells them that her necklace was fake.

Example #6

To Build a Fire by Jack London

To Build a Fire is the story of an anonymous character who leaves home for a destination on the Yukon trail but faces heavy snow which makes him fall. He tries to kill his dog to keep himself alive, but the dog also senses his intentions. Later, he tries to make the fire but does not succeed and dies. His struggle and his wrong notion about his strength and thinking power prove fatal for him. This is one of the best short stories without the names of the characters.

Short Memoir Examples For Kids

Short Story Meaning and Function

Short Memoirs For Teens

A short story presents one aspect of the life of a character. It could be an incident, an event, a description of a feeling, or even a simple act. A short story can also impact a reader and even inspire them. For persons who cannot read novels, enjoy reading the short stories. Moreover, in a short story, the characters also share their innermost thoughts, their motives, their feelings, their emotions, and different notions.

Short Memoir Examples