100 word memoir assignment

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Mentor Texts

How to Write a 100-Word Narrative: A Guide for Our Tiny Memoir Contest

Step-by-step directions for telling a meaningful, interesting and short true story from your life — with 25 mentor texts to help.

By Katherine Schulten

Can you tell a meaningful and interesting true story from your life in just 100 words? That’s the challenge we’re posing to teenagers this fall with our 100-Word Personal Narrative Contest , and in this guide we’ll not only prove that you can, but we’ll walk you through steps that can help make your submission sing.

Our contest was inspired by Tiny Love Stories, part of the Style section’s Modern Love column , and we’ve used examples from that series throughout as mentor texts to illustrate various “writer's moves” for narrative in general, and 100-word stories in particular.

Many of you know that for three years we’ve run a Personal Narrative Contest that allowed students 600 words to tell a story and that we have created a whole unit for teaching with it. The good news is that nearly everything in that unit is applicable to and useful for this challenge. In fact, in the places below where individual lesson plans expand on something we discuss, we’ve linked them so that you can easily go further.

Of course, this time around we’re asking you to shave 500 words, but as our 2021 Six-Word Memoir Challenge showed, less can definitely be more. We hope you’ll have a good time experimenting with new ways to tell the stories that matter to you.

Finally, to give you a place to practice as you learn, we’ve posted a student forum that asks the question, “ What Story From Your Life Can You Tell in 100 Words? ” Whether you plan to participate in the contest or not, we invite you to experiment there with writing tiny stories just for fun. If there’s a prompt that spurs your imagination as you follow the steps of this lesson, consider posting your draft in the forum for others to enjoy.

Have fun! If you are submitting to our 2023 contest , do so by Nov. 1.

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🖋 50 Impactful Memoir Writing Prompts to Get You Writing TODAY

If you’re thinking about writing your memoir but facing a blank page, I have a few great memoir writing prompts that will get you writing TODAY . Let’s do this! ⚡️

Writer’s Block? Nah!

Creative writing prompts are useful tools for unlocking memories so you can get your life stories onto the page. I have a deep respect for the creative process, and I’m a fan of creative writing prompts because they work. They’re a diving board into your memories, helping to unlock past experiences you may have forgotten. If you struggle with writer’s block, memoir prompts are more like the well-meaning swim coach that gives you a purposeful nudge, right into the water. Once you’re in, you’re in! 🏊🏻‍♀️

Writing is an intuitive process, and this is especially true for memoir . It can be helpful to think about specific memories or moments in your life that were particularly meaningful to you. Other times, it can be helpful to focus on a specific theme or area of your life that you would like to explore in your writing. Don’t be surprised if you end up pivoting in a different direction, too. If you stay open, the story you are meant to write will reveal itself to you (this might sound silly, but it’s been true for me and all the books I’ve written ).

Creative writing prompts can be a warm-up to the actual writing, or the writing itself. You can decide the shape of your memoir once you know what you’re writing about and have generated enough material that can serve as the foundation of your memoir. You can smooth your prose and make everything cohere into a memoir everyone will want to read. 🤗

But right now? Get writing.

Using Creative Writing Prompts

Creative writing prompts and writing exercises that help you write your memoir by providing structure and ideas to get you started. They offer simple but thoughtful questions to help you excavate the stories that are wanting to be discovered. ⛏

Prompts can be as simple as asking you to describe a significant event in your life, or they can be open-ended, like asking you to write about a specific theme or feeling. Sometimes you’ll end up writing about something completely different than the memoir prompt, and that’s okay. Trust wherever it takes you.

The more writing you do, the more memories will get unlocked. Not only that, but a little bit of writing each day adds up to a lot of writing if you just keep going . And as an added bonus, you’ll be developing your writing skills with each prompt you write. 🏋🏻‍♀️

Memoirs are a great way to share your life story with the world. These prompts will help you get the most out of your writing and get your creative juices flowing.

Why Memoir Writing Matters

Memoir writing as a creative process that serves the writer and ultimately the reader. 🤓

For the writer, writing our personal narratives is a way to remember and process our own life experiences, to help us understand the significant events of our lives that helped shaped who we are. Writing these stories down can be a source of comfort and healing, providing a space to reflect on our past and make sense of our present. They offer a creative outlet for exploring our thoughts, feelings, and memories, and are a great way to connect with our past selves.

For the reader , memoirs can be a source of inspiration for others, offering a glimpse into someone else’s life and providing hope, motivation, and insight. I’ve always viewed memoir as proof that we’re not alone, that others have been through similar experiences and can relate to us. Great stories help us appreciate what we have in the present moment, and offer compassion for ourselves and others.

What are Some Good Memoir Topics to Write About?

Unless you already know what you want to write about in a memoir, and it can be difficult to know where to start. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Some good topics include your childhood, your family and friends, your education and career, your hobbies and interests, and any significant life events. These topics can also be used as creative writing prompts to help you get started on writing your memoir, even if you plan to focus on something different.

Most memoirs have a specific theme, which can help you frame your writing and your manuscript. Learn more about themes (vs topics) here , and download a printable list of themes that you can use while writing and revising your work.

Memoir Prompt Writing Tips

Before you begin, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Be honest and raw

Be honest with yourself and your writing. Don’t worry about putting on a show or looking perfect. Don’t start changing family members’ names because you’re worried they’ll get mad. Remember that no one is going to see your work at this stage unless you show it to them.

Experienced memoir writers know it takes many drafts to get to a polished manuscript, but you have to start at the beginning, and beginnings are usually pretty messy. Give yourself permission to write without any inhibitions — no censoring of your words or thoughts. Just get it down, and then decide what to do with it once you’re finished. If you really hate it or feel horribly embarrassed, you can always toss it out. But you probably won’t. 😉 

Write by hand

When it comes to writing prompts, I’m a strong proponent of writing by hand. Before you panic, you’ll only be doing this for ten minutes (see below), and there’s a connection that’s made between the brain and the page when you write by hand. I do most of my writing on my computer — I’m a fast typist and a fast thinker, so I prefer to have my fingers on the keyboard … except when I’m responding to a prompt. Something important happens when we write by hand, and it gets missed when we’re on the computer or on our phones.

If you’re not convinced, try it for one week and see what happens.

Establish a daily writing practice

When you decide you’re going to write, a daily practice helps keep you on track. Have a writing process in place ensures that you get the writing done, and with each day that passes, you become a better writer.

Some memoir writers swear by Julia Cameron’s morning pages , which I love but don’t always have the time to do. My recommendation is to set the bar low — begin with writing ten minutes a day. Choose a prompt, set the timer, and keep your hand moving (thank you, Natalie Goldberg ). When the timer goes off, stop. You can spend another 10 minutes revising and reshaping the work, or you can put it aside to rest.

If you do this daily, you’ll have 365 individual vignettes by the end of the year (366 if it’s a leap year). Whether you choose to use them in your memoir is up to you, but these are excellent starting points and you’ll usually find some gems in there, which you can submit individually to literary magazines or string together into a collection of personal essays or narratives. If micro memoirs are your thing, I have some proposed writing schedules here that might help.

The most important thing is to write, and write daily. 📆

Tell a story and give us details

Every memoir tells a specific story the writers wants to share. Memoirs are not a recounting of every fact or statistic of your entire life like an autobiography or biography, but a glimpse into a particular moment.

I like to use the example of a photograph — sometimes what is outside the frame is just as important as what’s inside the frame. Use sensory details to bring us in the moment with you. What’s happening?

When you’re ready, and once you’ve selected the pieces you want to spend time on, you can revise your work. This will give you a chance to do a deeper dive into whatever it is that want to say, and shape the work for a reader. But again, you don’t have to worry about that now, just be assured that you can “fix” whatever you need to fix, later. 👩🏻‍🔧

Mem oir Writing Prompts & Ideas

Let’s get started! Use the following memoir prompts to get your creativity flowing. These open-ended prompts are very flexible so choose at random, switch them up, make them yours. Use them as a starting point, trust the process, and GO. 🏃🏻‍♀️

• The Alphabet Autobiography (similar to the abecedarian poetic form). You’ll write one sentence of line for each letter of the alphabet, from A to Z. Start with the letter A, and think about something (or someone) in your life that begins with A. It doesn’t have to “important” — don’t overthink it. Go with whatever comes up first, and keep going until you reach the end of the alphabet.
• Write about a family heirloom.
• What were the cartoon characters of your childhood, and which one did you identify with?
• Write about your first best friend. 
• Not everyone has owned a pet, but we all have animal companions in some form. Think stuffed animal, class pet, a totem animal. Write about the first one that comes to mind.
• Write about a favorite teacher. 
• What’s the first thing you did this morning? 
• Have you ever had a near-death experience?
• Write about your first love.
• What was the most embarrassing thing that happened to you in high school?
• What is the best memory you have of a place you traveled to?
• When was the last time you saw a relative you don’t know very well? Tell us what you think about them. How are they related to you?
• Tell us about your favorite article of clothing. Where did you get it, why do you love it, what does it say about you?
• What was the first thing you ever bought yourself?
• What is your favorite gift you’ve ever given (or received)?
• Who do you love to spend time with? Why?
• Think of a time you lied.
• Think of a time when you stole something.
• Think of a time when you laughed so hard, you cried.
• Think of a time when you felt triumphant.
• Think of a time when you were completely and utterly in love.
• What was the worst day of your life?
• What’s your favorite season? Why?
• What’s your favorite holiday? Why?
• When were you the happiest you’ve ever been?
• When you were the saddest you’ve ever been?
• What is one of your most vivid memories of your parents?
• When was the last time you felt jealous?
• Write about a random act of kindness someone did for you. 
• What is your favorite smell?
• Write about your name. What does it mean? Do you have a nickname? Does it suit you?
• What is something no one knows about you?
• Tell us a recipe that you make by heart. How did you learn it? How often do you make it?
• Did you have a comfort object growing up? What was it, and when did you need it?
• Write about a recurring dream.
• When you look in the mirror, what feature do you notice first? Write about that.
• What was the first place you ever traveled to?
• How has your worldview changed since you were a child?
• What was your first car?
• When was the last time you went swimming?
• What’s a job you would love to do?
• How many siblings do you have, and what are their names?
• Tell us about your favorite kind of sandwich.
• Write about your scars.
• What’s your go-to cocktail?
• How many times have you moved in your life?
• Describe the house you grew up in.
• How many tattoos and piercings do you have, and why did you get them?
• Write about the last time you were in nature, and what happened.
• Write about a camping trip.

More Great Resources

• Experiment with micro memoirs and establish a simple writing practice to help you write regularly.
• Read this post,  10 Tips on How to Write a Book About Your Life , for an overview of the writing process.
• Read this post, Top 10 Must-Read Books on How to Write a Memoir , which features books by some great writers of the genre.
• Want to know when I add more prompts? Join my newsletter ! 💌

63 Best Memoir Writing Prompts To Stoke Your Ideas

You’re writing a memoir. But you’re not sure what questions or life lessons you want to focus on.

Even if only family members and friends will read the finished book, you want to make it worth their time. 

This isn’t just a whimsical collection of anecdotes from your life.

You want to convey something to your readers that will stay with them. 

And maybe you want your memoir’s impact to serve as your legacy — a testament to how you made a small (or large) difference. 

The collection of memoir questions in this post can help you create a legacy worth sharing.

So, if you don’t already have enough ideas for a memoir, read on. 

A Strong Theme

Overcoming obstacles, emotional storytelling, satisfying ending, examples of good starting sentences for a memoir , 63 memoir writing prompts , what are the primary parts of a memoir.

Though similar to autobiographies, memoirs are less chronological and more impressionable – less historical and more relatable.

Resultantly, they’re structured differently. 

With that in mind, let’s look at five elements that tie a memoir together, rendering it more enjoyable.

Biographies are histories that may not hew to a cohesive theme. But memoirs focus on inspiring and enlightening experiences and events.

As such, books in the genre promote a theme or idea that binds the highlighted happenings to an overarching reflection point or lesson.

Many people are super at sniffing out insincerity, and most folks prefer candidness.

So while exact dates and logistical facts may be off in a memoir, being raw and real with emotions, revelations, and relational impacts is vital. To put it colloquially: The best personal accounts let it all hang out. 

People prefer inspiring stories. They want to read about people overcoming obstacles, standing as testaments to the tenacious nature of the human spirit. Why?

Because it engenders hope. If this person was able to achieve “x,” there’s a possibility I could, too. Furthermore, people find it comforting that they’re not the only ones who’ve faced seemingly insurmountable impediments.

Readers crave emotion. And for many of the stoic masses, books, plays, television shows, and films are their primary sources of sentimentality.

Historically, the best-performing memoirs are built on emotional frameworks that resonate with readers. The goal is to touch hearts, not just heads.

In a not-so-small way, memoirs are like romance books: Readers want a “happy” ending. So close strongly. Ensure the finale touches on the book’s central themes and emotional highlights.

End it with a smile and note of encouragement, leaving the audience satisfied and optimistic.

Use the following questions as memoir writing exercises . Choose those that immediately evoke memories that have stayed with you over the years.

Group them by theme — family, career, beliefs, etc. — and address at least one question a day. 

For each question, write freely for around 300 to 400 words. You can always edit it later to tighten it up or add more content. 

1. What is your earliest memory?

2. What have your parents told you about your birth that was unusual?

3. How well did you get along with your siblings, if you have any?

4. Which parent were you closest to growing up and why?

5. What parent or parental figure had the biggest influence on you growing up?

6. What is your happiest childhood memory?

7. What is your saddest or most painful childhood memory?

8. Did you have good parents? How did they show their love for you?

9. What words of theirs from your childhood do you remember most, and why?

10. What do you remember most about your parents’ relationship? 

11. Were your parents together, or did they live apart? Did they get along? 

12. How has your relationship with your parents affected your own love relationships?

13. Who or what did you want to be when you grew up? 

14. What shows or movies influenced you most during your childhood?

15. What were your favorite books to read, and how did they influence you?

16. If you grew up in a religious household, how did you see “God”? 

17. How did you think “God” saw you? Who influenced those beliefs?

18. Describe your spiritual journey from adolescence to the present?

19. Who was your first best friend? How did you become friends? 

20. Who was your favorite teacher in elementary school, and why?

21. Did you fit in with any social group or clique in school? Describe your social life?

22. What were your biggest learning challenges in school (academic or social)? 

23. Who was your first crush, and what drew you to them? How long did it last?

24. What was your favorite subject in school, and what did you love about it?

25. What do you wish you would have learned more about growing up?

26. What did you learn about yourself in high school? What was your biggest mistake?

27. What seemed normal to you growing up that now strikes you as messed up?

28. How old were you when you first moved away from home?

29. Who gave you your first kiss? And what do you remember most about it?

30. Who was your first love ? What do you remember most about them?

31. Was there ever a time in your life when you realized you weren’t straight? 

32. Describe a memorable argument you had with one of your parents? How did it end?

33. Have you lost a parent? How did it happen, and how did their death affect you?

34. What was your first real job? What do you remember most about it?

35. How did you spend the money you earned with that job? 

36. At what moment in your life did you feel most loved? 

37. At what moment in your life did you feel most alone?

38. What do you remember most about your high school graduation? Did it matter?

39. What’s something you’ve done that you never thought you would do?

40. What has been the greatest challenge of your life up to this point?

41. What did you learn in college that has had a powerful influence on you?

42. How has your family’s financial situation growing up influenced you?

43. How has someone’s harsh criticism of you led you to an important realization? 

44. Do you consider yourself a “good person”? Why or why not?

45. Who was the first person who considered you worth standing up for?

46. If you have children, whom did you trust with them when they were babies?

47. Did you have pets growing up? Did you feel close or attached to any of them?

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48. Describe someone from your past whom you’d love to see again. 

49. Do you have a lost love? If yes, describe them, how you met, and how you lost them. 

50. Describe a moment when you made a fool of yourself and what it cost you. 

51. What is something you learned later in life that you wish you’d learned as a child?

52. How do you want others to see you? What words come to mind? 

53. What do you still believe now that you believed even as a child or as a teenager?

54. What do you no longer believe that you did believe as a child or teenager?

55. When have you alienated people by being vocal about your beliefs? 

56. Are you as vocal about your beliefs as you were when you were a young adult ?

57. Are you haunted by the consequences of beliefs you’ve since abandoned? 

58. How have your political beliefs changed since you were a teenager? 

59. Have you ever joined a protest for a cause you believe in? Would you still? 

60. How has technology shaped your life for the past 10 years? 

61.Has your chosen career made you happy — or cost you and your family too much?

62. What comes to mind if someone asks you what you’re good at? Why does it matter?

63. How is your family unique? What makes you proudest when you think about them?

We’ve looked at the elements that make memoirs shine. Now, let’s turn our attention to one of the most important parts of a personal account: the opening sentence.

We’ve scoured some of the most successful, moving memoirs of all time to curate a list of memorable starting sentences. Notice how all of them hint at the theme of the book.

Let’s jump in.

1. “They called him Moishe the Beadle, as if his entire life he had never had a surname.” From Night, a first-hand account of the WWII Holocaust by Elie Wiesel

2. “My mother is scraping a piece of burned toast out of the kitchen window, a crease of annoyance across her forehead.” From Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger, foodie Nigel Slater’s account of culinary events that shaped his life.

3. “Then there was the bad weather.” From A Moveable Feast , Ernest Hemingway’s telling of his years as an young expat in Paris

4. “You know those plants always trying to find the light?” From Over the Top: A Raw Journey of Self-Love by Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s beloved star, Jonathan Van Ness

5. “What are you looking at me for? I didn’t come to stay.” From Maya Angelou’s masterpiece, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , the story of persevering in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles

6. “I’m on Kauai, in Hawaii, today, August 5, 2005. It’s unbelievably clear and sunny, not a cloud in the sky.” From What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, a memoir about the fluidity of running and writing

7. “The soil in Leitrim is poor, in places no more than an inch deep. ” From All Will be Well , Irish writer John McGahern’s recounting of his troubled childhood 

8. “The past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time.” From Educated , Tara Westover’s engrossing account of her path from growing up in an uneducated survivalist family to earning a doctorate in intellectual history from Cambridge University 

9. “I flipped through the CT scan images, the diagnosis obvious.” From When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, the now-deceased doctor’s journey toward mortality after discovering he had terminal cancer

10. “Romantic love is the most important and exciting thing in the entire world.” From Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton, a funny, light-hearted memoir about one woman’s amorous journey from teenager to twentysomething

Final Thoughts

These memoir topics should get ideas flooding into your mind. All you have to do, then, is let them out onto the page. The more you write, the easier it will be to choose the primary focus for your memoir. And the more fun you’ll have writing it. 

That’s not to say it’ll be easy to create a powerful memoir. It won’t be. But the more clarity you have about its overall mission, the more easily the words will flow. 

Enjoy these memoir writing exercises. And apply the same clarity of focus during the editing process. Your readers will thank you. 

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100-Word Memoir

Add in your assignment and REFLECT:

Write at least three-four sentences for each question:

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What could you have done differently for this assignment?

What skills did you learn from this assignment?

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Writing the 100-Word Memoir

by Fija Callaghan

Fija Callaghan is an author, poet, and writing workshop leader. She has been recognized by a number of awards, including being shortlisting for the H. G. Wells Short Story Prize. She is the author of the short story collection Frail Little Embers , and her writing can be read in places like Seaside Gothic , Gingerbread House , and Howl: New Irish Writing . She is also a developmental editor with Fictive Pursuits. You can read more about her at fijacallaghan.com .

With more and more life-changing memoirs hitting the shelves, emerging writers are feeling themselves increasingly drawn to the creative nonfiction genre. But embarking on any book-length project can be intimidating… even when the subject is your own life.

To warm up your writer’s muscles and get some practice crafting a narrative, why not try challenging yourself with a 100-word memoir? These snapshot stories may not take up much space on the page, but they can pack a substantial punch.

We’ll take you through everything you need to know to start writing your own miniature masterpieces.

What is a memoir?

First, let’s clarify: what exactly is a memoir? And is that the same as an autobiography or personal essay?

A memoir is an exploration of a memory or series of memories—often the ones that shaped the person you are today. Unlike an autobiography or biography, it isn’t a landscape of your entire life. Instead, a memoir will usually just focus on a period of a few years.

Some memoirs combine other types of nonfiction, too. For example, many cookbooks are hybrid memoirs—they feature recipes alongside anecdotes about the writer’s personal experiences. Our lives are rich in engaging stories, and these moments can make traditional nonfiction feel more accessible.

To learn more, you can check out the link to our detailed lesson on memoirs and autobiographies here .

Why write a 100-word memoir?

Writing a 100-word memoir—or a series of them—is fantastic training for emerging writers and students at any stage of their journey. It forces you to focus on your word choice and figurative language in a precise, crystalline way; it develops your ability to create a big impact through small moments in time—a good thing even in longer works of writing.

Through the writing process, you’ll learn to make every single word fight for its place on the page. These are skills that you can take with you into other types of writing—whether it’s a longer short story, a personal essay, a poem, an academic paper, a teaching lesson, or your breakout debut novel.

Does your memoir need to be exactly 100 words?

Really, any short story should be as minuscule or as sprawling as it needs to be—whether that’s 50 words or 5,000. But consider your 100-word memoir as a personal challenge, or an exercise for the mind. If your memoir ends up being 103 words, which of those three words can you live without? If it’s 80 words, which moment can you give a bit more depth?

Your mini-memoir doesn’t need to be exactly 100 words, but you’ll find the practice more beneficial for your journey as a writer if you push yourself to hit your target dead centre. Plus, publication outlets often set strict word limits and won’t accept submissions that are too short or too long.

We’ll look closer at ways to send your 100-word memoir out into the world below.

Micro-memoir examples

To get an idea of how to create small stories of your life, take a look at these excerpts from honest, thought-provoking literature.

Reasons to Stay Alive , by Matt Haig

My mum and dad were at the airport. They stood there looking tired and happy and worried all at once. We hugged. We drove back. Mum turned around in the passenger seat and looked at me and smiled and the smile had a slightly crumpled quality, her eyes glazed with tears. I felt it. The weight of Mum. The weight of being a son that had gone wrong. The weight of being loved. The weight of being a disappointment. The weight of being a hope that hadn’t happened the way it should have.

This example, an excerpt from a longer memoir and guide to understanding mental illness, creates a big picture in a very small space. It doesn’t waste time setting up the writer’s challenges, but instead lets them come through naturally in the actions of the characters.

This snapshot makes a point of focusing closely on one small moment in time, and the experience of the narrator as they struggle to understand what they’re feeling.

The Bell Jar , by Sylvia Plath

My grandfather and I had a standing joke. He was the head waiter at a country club near my hometown, and every Sunday my grandmother drove in to bring him home for his Monday off. My brother and I alternated going with her, and my grandfather always served Sunday super to my grandmother and whichever of us was along as if we were regular club guests. He loved introducing me to special titbits, and by the age of nine I had developed a passionate taste for cold vichyssoise and caviar and anchovy paste.

Sylvia Plath’s iconic work of autofiction takes this moment to reach back into the protagonist’s life and visit a happier time. This vignette creates a clear relationship between the narrator and their grandfather, as well as framing the person the narrator goes on to become.

With only a few words the reader can see an entire childhood.

“Crush,” by Brenda Miller

Years ago, on the island of Santorini, I walked the village at sunrise, gazing at vineyards that grow differently there—close to the ground, like mounded beans, rather than the upright regiments I knew in California. In Greece, the grapes sprawl in leisure, indifferent to the future. Or not indifferent, but plump with it, glad to be turned to a greater purpose. I always want to be there, in that village at dawn; I want to be those grapes beholden to the wine, born to a pleasure that comes only after the crush.

Unlike the first two examples from larger works, this piece of flash fiction stands alone as it takes the reader to a Grecian island through the eyes of someone seeing it for the first time. The author uses figurative language and personification to bring the setting, and their experience with it, to life.

Art Matters , by Neil Gaiman

I was lucky. I had an excellent library growing up, and met the kind of librarians who did not mind a small, unaccompanied boy heading back into the children’s library every morning and working his way through the card catalogue, looking for books with ghosts or magic or rockets in them, looking for vampires or detectives or witches or wonders. They were good librarians. They would help me find other books. They would help. They treated me with respect. I was not used to being treated with respect as an eight-year-old.

This excerpt from Neil Gaiman’s novella-length memoir shows how a storyteller was born in a short, standalone story from the writer’s childhood.

Childhood memories are excellent short story fodder, especially since we can understand their effects on us better in retrospect (we’ll look at more at ideas for 100-word memoirs below).

Conversations With Friends , by Sally Rooney

Bobbi and I often performed at spoken word events and open mic nights. When we were outside smoking and male performers tried to talk to us, Bobbi would always pointedly exhale and say nothing, so I had to act as our representative. This meant a lot of smiling and remembering details about their work. I enjoyed playing this kind of character, the smiling girl who remembered things. Bobbi told me she thought I didn’t have a “real personality,” but she said she meant it as a compliment.

Although this example is from a work of fiction, the first-person narrative effectively illustrates how evocative a mini-memoir can be. In this excerpt, the narrator focuses on a singular memory in order to explore her relationship with her best friend and co-performer.

Tips for crafting your own 100-word memoir

Now that we know what these micro-memoirs look like in practice, here are a few things to keep in mind as you begin the writing process of crafting your own story.

Choose a small moment in time

As you can see from these examples, the most effective way to create a 100-word memoir is to zoom in on a specific moment or memory and crystallise it for the reader. Instead of trying to tell your entire life story, focus on a pivotal moment that would go on to have a larger impact and shape your onward journey.

This might be something like an eye-opening first date, a family event, the moment you discovered a small fortune behind your house, or a childhood summer memory that stayed with you all your life.

Our existence is a series of these small, interconnected moments; your job is to choose one and show the reader why it made an impact on the person you are now.

Moments that might inspire your memoir:

Here are some more ideas to spark your creativity.

A life-changing minute during a summer holiday

An early memory with your mother or father

A conversation overheard on a bus ride

A moment with your friends that still makes you laugh

A stranger who taught you an unexpected lesson

The moment you met your husband/wife/partner

One of the many adventures you had as a child

The time you learned the truth about a childhood belief

If you’re looking for more ideas, follow this link to some writing prompts to get your creativity flowing!

Consider your theme

Even though you’re only taking up a small amount of space on the page, your 100-word memoir should resonate emotionally with the reader—and you accomplish this by giving it a message.

Think about what you want your short story to convey. Hope for a better future? The importance of intergenerational storytelling? Stranger danger? What key lesson do you want the reader to listen to as they read your story? See if you can condense your 100-word memoir into a single, clear idea.

Themes to explore in your 100-word memoir:

When writing about events in our lives, we want to extend a powerful message to the reader. Here are some more core themes you can touch upon in your short memoirs.

Self respect is worth more than an easy payout

Real friendship means always having your back

Always keep learning, no matter your age

Money can’t buy happiness

Lived experience is the best education

Mean people are mean because they’re afraid

When something seems too good to be true, it probably is

Life is too short for regrets

You don’t have to travel far to find adventures

Teaching is the best way to learn

Found family is more important than blood family

These are just a few ideas. A good way to find your theme is to look at the moment you’re writing about and ask yourself, “What lesson did I learn from this?” “What new perspective did I gain?” “How did this moment in time change me?” Your answer will reveal the story’s true theme.

Embrace specificity

Instead of wasting valuable words on sprawling description, focus on just a few key details and bring them to life. If your 100-word memoir is about a love affair gone wrong, how can you hint at the broad scope of the story in the space of only a few moments? How can certain elements hint at the past and future of the characters? Consider sight, smell, sound, mood, objects and their meaning.

A great example is this poem by Katie Wilson , which uses the smell of burning to ground a pivotal memory about the writer’s mother.

See if there’s a way you can condense a big story into a single sensory detail—using targeted word choice to convey an entire life in the same amount of space as a few minutes of lived experience.

Tips for specificity in your micro story:

In prose writing, we’re often told to use all the senses. Because you’re working in such a small space, you may find it more effective to describe just one or two. You can zoom in on something you hear, like the sound of someone’s voice as they tell you some bad news; something you smell, like Katie Wilson’s burning toast; or something you feel, like the sensation of sand caught in a bathing suit.

The more close and detailed you can get to a particular sense or sensation, the more your memoir will come to life for the reader.

It also helps to avoid sprawling across time too much. Instead of writing about an entire music lesson, write about the moment you hit the right note. Instead of writing about the two years you spent in therapy, choose a few minutes in which the therapist said something that opened your eyes.

Limit your characters

While it can be tempting to introduce all your friends and family into your 100-word memoir, you’ll find that your story will be more powerful if you focus on just a couple of people—two or three at most.

Remember, specificity is your secret weapon. 100 words is a small amount of space to get to know these people, so you’ll find the process less challenging if you allow fewer characters more real estate on the page.

Plus, with fewer characters you can focus on the ways these relationships affected you and your growth as a person. How did your experiences with your friend, partner, or parent shape the person you’ve become?

Stories are all about humanity, and the 100-word memoir is a good place to explore these relationships.

Ideas for characters to explore in your memoirs:

There’s no limit to the sort of people you can write about in your 100-word memoir. Your mother, father, sibling, husband, and squad are all rich in writing inspiration. But , consider reaching farther out and discovering people who have impacted you in small ways.

Here are a few ideas.

A stranger who helped you when you were in trouble.

The cashier who made you feel better when you were having a hard day.

An encouraging teacher who changed the course of your life.

Your first childhood crush

A kind stranger whose compliment made you smile for the rest of the week

A child who taught you an unexpected lesson

A writer who encouraged you when you were feeling lost

A tourist you met while on holiday

Use an objective voice

Because you’re expressing a small, precise moment, you may find it helpful to use the objective voice—letting the actions of the story speak for themselves, rather than using a lot of character emotion.

Instead of saying, “My parents hurt my feelings when they missed my graduation,” show the way you reacted and what you did to cope with those feelings (this, by the way, comes from the classic writing rule of “ Show, don’t tell ”).

When you use objectivity in your 100-word memoir, you don’t lose the emotional impact of your words—you make them even more powerful.

Your title is your last step

While you may want to choose a title at the very beginning, you might find that the right title becomes clearer after you’ve written your 100-word memoir and have a better idea of its core theme. The right title can make your reader laugh, or reveal more nuance in your story.

Next steps for your 100-word memoir

Now that you have an expertly crafted 100-word memoir—or a series of them—how can you get them into the hands of readers?

Unlike a novel, a 100-word memoir isn’t going to sit on the shelves of your local Barnes and Noble. But! There are a few ways you can send these words out into the world.

Seek out journals for miniature stories

There are a number of literary journals that specialize in 100-word stories including the OG 100 Word Story as well as Friday Flash Fiction , The Citron Review , The Drabble , Microfiction Monday , Splonk (through their 100-word branch SplonkMicros), and, for you genre fiction aficionados, Martian Magazine .

All of these journals focus on microfiction and nonfiction of 100 words or less! Plus, they’re a great source of inspiration for how other writers have flourished within the constraints of the 100-word story. (And if there’s one word you just can’t bear to part with, there’s a journal for that too— 101 Words .)

Gain international renown

There are also contests devoted to the short-short form, including the internationally respected Fish Flash Fiction Prize and the Bath Flash Fiction Award—both of these have upper limits of 300 words. The Bridport Flash Fiction Prize has a limit of 250 words.

Other contests, like the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize, have higher word counts but welcome small, concise stories.

Use small moments to create a big picture

But sometimes, you may have several 100-word memoirs or stories that fit together to create a larger whole—a mosaic of your life. In this case, a long-form book might be the answer after all. You can link together a string of your 100-word memoirs so that they work to create a complete novella-length memoir. This novella-in-flash story format is becoming increasingly popular, and it’s a good way to reach an audience with your bite-size memories.

Explore your life through the 100-word short story

Our lives are made up of tiny moments—the beautiful, the challenging, the inspiring, and the defining. Using these experiences to create these mini memoirs is a great way to stretch your limitations as a writer, improve your mastery of language and word choice, and convey the story of your life in a fresh new way.

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Last updated on Apr 06, 2021

21 Memoir Examples to Inspire Your Own

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Writing a memoir is a daunting endeavor for any author: how do you condense your entire life story into a mere couple hundred pages? Of course, you'll find plenty of online guides that will help you write a memoir by leading you through the steps. But other times that old adage “show, don’t tell” holds true, and it’s most helpful to look at other memoir examples to get started. 

If that’s the case for you, we’ve got you covered with 21 memoir examples to give you an idea of the types of memoirs that have sold well. Ready to roll up your sleeves and dive in? 

The autobiographical memoir

The autobiographical memoir — a retelling of one’s life, from beginning to present times — is probably the standard format that jumps to most people’s minds when they think of this genre.

At first glance, it might seem like a straightforward recount of your past. However, don’t be deceived! As you’ll be able to tell from the examples below, this type of memoir shines based on three things: the strength of the author’s story, the strength of the story’s structure, and the strength of the author’s voice.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. The woman who Toni Morrison said “launched African American writing in the United States,” Angelou penned this searing memoir in 1969, which remains a timeless classic today.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Less of a singular memoir than a collection of humorous anecdotes framed around his life as a transplant to Paris, the star of this book is Sedaris’ dry voice and cutting humor.

A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby. Chacaby’s remarkable life — from growing up abused in a remote Ojibwa community to overcoming alcoholism and coming out as a lesbian as an adult — is captured in this must-read autobiography.

The “experience” memoir

One of the most popular memoirs that you’ll find on bookshelves, this type focuses on a specific experience that the author has undergone. Typically, this experience involves a sort of struggle, such as a bitter divorce, illness, or perhaps a clash with addiction. Regardless of the situation, the writer overcomes it to share lessons learned from the ordeal.

In an "experience" memoir, you can generally expect to learn about:

• How the author found themselves facing said experience;
• The obstacles they needed to overcome; and
• What they discovered during (and after) the experience.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Faced with the prognosis of terminal cancer at the age of thirty-six, Paul Kalanithi wrote an unforgettable memoir that tackles an impossible question: what makes life worth living?

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. An account of drug and alcohol abuse that one reviewer called “the War and Peace of addiction,” this book became the focus of an uproar when it was revealed that many of its incidents were fabricated. (In case you’re wondering, we do not recommend deceiving your readers.)

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. Adapted in 1999 into a critically acclaimed film starring Angelina Jolie, Girl, Interrupted enduringly recounts the author’s battle with mental illness and her ensuing 18-month stay in an American psychiatric hospital.

The “event” memoir

Similar to the “experience” memoir, the “event” memoir centers on a single significant event in the author’s life. However, while the former might cover a period of years or even decades, the “event” memoir zeroes in on a clearly defined period of time — for instance, a two-month walk in the woods, or a three-week mountain climb, as you’ll see below.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau. In July of 1845, Henry David Thoreau walked into the woods and didn’t come out for two years, two months, and two days. This is the seminal memoir that resulted.

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer. The controversial account of the 1996 Everest disaster, as written by author-journalist Krakaeur, who was climbing the mountain on the same day that eight climbers were killed.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Immortalized as one of the classic books about mourning, The Year of Magical Thinking recounts the grief Didion endured the year following the death of her husband.

The “themed” memoir

When you look back on your own timeline, is there a strong theme that defines your life or ties it all together? That’s the premise on which a “themed” memoir is based. In such a memoir, the author provides a retrospective of their past through the lens of one topic.

If you’re looking to write this type of memoir, it goes without saying that you’ll want to find a rock-solid theme to build your entire life story around. Consider asking yourself:

• What’s shaped your life thus far?
• What’s been a constant at every turning point?
• Has a single thing driven all of the decisions that you’ve made?

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. Throughout an up-and-down upbringing complete with a debilitating battle with depression, the single consistent thread in this author’s life remained football and Arsenal F.C.

Educated by Tara Westover. If there’s one lesson that we can learn from this remarkable memoir, it’s the importance of education. About a family of religious survivalists in rural Idaho, this memoir relates how the author overcame her upbringing and moved mountains in pursuit of learning.

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth. Now best known for its BBC adaptation, Worth’s account of her life as a midwife caught people’s imagination with its depiction of life in London’s East End in the 1950s.

The family memoir

In a family memoir, the author is a mirror that re-focuses the light on their family members — ranging from glimpses into the dysfunctional dynamics of a broken family to heartfelt family tributes.

Examples of this type of memoir

Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat. A love letter to her family that crosses generations, continents, and cultures, Brother, I’m Dying primarily tells the intertwined stories of two men: Danticat’s father and her uncle.

Native Country of the Heart by Cherrie Moraga. The mother is a self-made woman who grew up picking cotton in California. The daughter, a passionate queer Latina feminist. Weaving the past with the present, this groundbreaking Latinx memoir about a mother-daughter relationship confronts the debilitating consequences of Alzheimer's disease.

The childhood memoir

A subset of the autobiographical memoir, the childhood memoir primarily focuses (spoiler alert!) on the author’s childhood years. Most childhood memoirs cover a range of 5 - 18 years of age, though this can differ depending on the story.

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. The groundbreaking winner of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, McCourt’s memoir covers the finer details of his childhood in impoverished Dublin.

Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl. Evoking his schoolboy days in the 1920s and 30s, the stories in this book shed light on themes and motifs that would play heavily in Dahl’s most beloved works: a love for sweets, a mischievous streak, and a distrust of authority figures.

The travel memoir

What happens when you put an author on a plane? Words fly!

Just kidding. While that’s perhaps not literally how the travel memoir subgenre was founded, being on the move certainly has something to do with it. Travel memoirs have been written for as long as people could traverse land — which is to say, a long time — but the modern travel narrative didn’t crystallize until the 1970s with the publication of Paul Theroux’s Great Railway Bazaar and Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia .

In a travel memoir, the author isn’t the star of the show: the place is. You can expect to find these elements in a travel memoir:

• A description of the place
• A discussion of the culture and people
• How the author experienced the place and dealt with setbacks during the journey

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Proof that memoirs don’t have to tell catastrophic stories to succeed, this book chronicles Gilbert’s post-divorce travels, inspiring a generation of self-care enthusiasts, and was adapted into a film starring Julia Roberts.

The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux. A four-month journey from London to East Asia (and back again) by train, this is the book that helped found the modern travel narrative.

The celebrity memoir

The celebrity memoir is just that: a memoir published by a celebrity. Though many celebrity memoirs are admittedly ghostwritten, the best ones give us an honest and authentic look at the “real person” behind the public figure.

Note that we define “celebrity” broadly here as anyone who is (or has been) in the public spotlight. This includes:

• Political figures
• Sports stars
• Actors and actresses

Paper Lion by George Plimpton. In 1960, the author George Plimpton joined up with the Detroit Lions to see if an ordinary man could play pro football. The answer was no, but his experience in training camp allowed him to tell the first-hand story of a team from inside the locker room.

Troublemaker by Leah Remini. The former star of TV’s The King of Queens tackles the Church of Scientology head-on, detailing her life in (and her decision to leave) the controversial religion.

It’s Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong. This is a great lesson on the way authors often write books to create their own legacy in the way they see fit. As history confirmed, Armstrong’s comeback success wasn’t entirely about the bike at all.

Now that you know what a memoir looks like, it’s time to get out your pen and paper, and write your own memoir to pass down family generations ! And if you want even more memoir examples to keep being inspired? We’ve got you covered: here are the  30 best memoirs of the last century .

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18 Essay-Length Short Memoirs to Read Online on Your Lunch Break

We scoured collections, magazines, and online journals to bring you the 18 best short memoir examples you can read over your lunch break.

Emily Polson

Emily Polson is a freelance writer and publishing assistant at Simon & Schuster. Originally from central Iowa, she studied English and creative writing at Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi, before moving to a small Basque village to teach English to trilingual teenagers. Now living in Brooklyn, she can often be found meandering through Prospect Park listening to a good audiobook. Twitter: @emilycpolson | https://emilycpolson.wordpress.com/

View All posts by Emily Polson

I love memoirs and essays, so the genre of essay-length short memoirs is one of my favorites. I love delving into the details of other people’s lives. The length allows me to read broadly on a whim with minimal commitment. In roughly 5–30 minutes, I can consume a complete morsel of literature, which always leaves me happier than the same amount of time spent doom-scrolling through my various social news feeds.

What are short memoirs? 

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. It was not until I took a college class on creative nonfiction that I realized memoirs were not just autobiographies of people with exciting lives. Anyone with any amount of life experience can write a memoir—no dramatic childhood or odd-defying life accomplishments required. A short memoir might be an account of a single, life-changing event, or it may be reflection on a period of growth or transition.

Of course, when a young adult tells people she likes writing creative nonfiction—not journalism or technical writing—she hears a lot of, “You’re too young to write a memoir!” and “What could someone your age possibly have to write about?!” As Flannery O’Connor put it, however, “The fact is that anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days. If you can’t make something out of a little experience, you probably won’t be able to make it out of a lot. The writer’s business is to contemplate experience, not to be merged in it.”

Memoir essay examples

As the lit magazine Creative Nonfiction puts it, personal essays are just “True stories, well told.” And everyone has life stories worth telling.

Here are a few of my favorite memoir examples that are essay length.

SHORT MEMOIRS ABOUT GROWING UP

Scaachi koul, “there’s no recipe for growing up”.

In this delightful essay, Koul talks about trying to learn the secrets of her mother’s Kashmiri cooking after growing up a first-generation American. The story is full of vivid descriptions and anecdotal details that capture something so specific it transcends to the realm of universal. It’s smart, it’s funny, and it’ll break your heart a little as Koul describes “trying to find my mom at the bottom of a 20-quart pot.”

ASHLEY C. FORD, “THE YEAR I GREW WILDLY WHILE MEN LOOKED ON”

This memoir essay is for all the girls who went through puberty early in a world that sexualizes children’s bodies. Ford weaves together her experiences of feeling at odds with her body, of being seen as a “distraction” to adult men, of being Black and fatherless and hungry for love. She writes, “It was evident that who I was inside, who I wanted to be, didn’t match the intentions of my body. Outside, there was no little girl to be loved innocently. My body was a barrier.”

Kaveh Akbar, “How I Found Poetry in Childhood Prayer”

Akbar writes intense, searing poetry, but this personal essay contextualizes one of his sweetest poems, “Learning to Pray,” which is cradled in the middle of it. He describes how he fell in love with the movement, the language, and the ceremony of his Muslim family’s nightly prayers. Even though he didn’t (and doesn’t) speak Arabic, Akbar points to the musicality of these phonetically-learned hymns as “the bedrock upon which I’ve built my understanding of poetry as a craft and as a meditative practice.” Reading this essay made me want to reread his debut poetry collection, Calling a Wolf a Wolf , all over again.

JIA TOLENTINO, “LOSING RELIGION AND FINDING ECSTASY IN HOUSTON”

New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino grew up attending a Houston megachurch she referred to as “the Repentagon.” In this personal essay, she describes vivid childhood memories of her time there, discussing how some of the very things she learned from the church contributed to her growing ambivalence toward it and its often hypocritical congregants. “Christianity formed my deepest instincts,” she writes, “and I have been walking away from it for half my life.” As the essay title suggests, this walking away coincided with her early experiences taking MDMA, which offered an uncanny similarity to her experience of religious devotion.

funny short memoirs

Patricia lockwood, “insane after coronavirus”.

Author Patricia Lockwood caught COVID-19 in early March 2020. In addition to her physical symptoms, she chronicled the bizarre delusions she experienced while society also collectively operated under the delusion that this whole thing would blow over quickly. Lockwood has a preternatural ability to inject humor into any situation, even the dire ones, by highlighting choice absurdities. This is a rare piece of pandemic writing that will make you laugh instead of cry–unless it makes you cry from laughing.

Harrison Scott Key,  “My Dad Tried to Kill Me with an Alligator”

This personal essay is a tongue-in-cheek story about the author’s run-in with an alligator on the Pearl River in Mississippi. Looking back on the event as an adult, Key considers his father’s tendencies in light of his own, now that he himself is a dad. He explores this relationship further in his book-length memoir, The World’s Largest Man , but this humorous essay stands on its own. (I also had the pleasure of hearing him read this aloud during my school’s homecoming weekend, as Key is an alumnus of my alma mater.)

David Sedaris, “Me Talk Pretty One Day”

Sedaris’s humor is in a league of its own, and he’s at his best in the title essay from Me Talk Pretty One Day . In it, he manages to capture the linguistic hilarities that ensue when you combine a sarcastic, middle-aged French student with a snarky French teacher.

SAMANTHA IRBY, “THE WORST FRIEND DATE I EVER HAD”

Samantha Irby is one of my favorite humorists writing today, and this short memoir essay about the difficulty of making friends as an adult is a great introduction to her. Be prepared for secondhand cringe when you reach the infamous moment she asks a waiter, “Are you familiar with my work?” After reading this essay, you’ll want to be, so check out Wow, No Thank You . next.

Bill Bryson, “Coming Home”

Bryson has the sly, subtle humor that only comes from Americans who have spent considerable time living among dry-humored Brits. In “Coming Home,” he talks about the strange sensation of returning to America after spending his first twenty years of adulthood in England. This personal essay is the first in a book-length work called I’m a Stranger Here Myself , in which Bryson revisits American things that feel like novelties to outsiders and the odd former expat like himself.

Thought-provoking Short memoirs

Tommy orange, “how native american is native american enough”.

Many people claim some percentage of Indigenous ancestry, but how much is enough to “count”? Novelist Tommy Orange–author of There There –deconstructs this concept, discussing his relationship to his Native father, his Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood, and his son, who will not be considered “Native enough” to join him as an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. “ How come math isn’t taught with stakes?” he asks in this short memoir full of lingering questions that will challenge the way you think about heritage. 

Christine Hyung-Oak Lee, “I Had a Stroke at 33”

Lee’s story is interesting not just because she had a stroke at such a young age, but because of how she recounts an experience that was characterized by forgetting. She says that after her stroke, “For a month, every moment of the day was like the moment upon wakening before you figure out where you are, what time it is.” With this personal essay, she draws readers into that fragmented headspace, then weaves something coherent and beautiful from it.

Kyoko Mori, “A Difficult Balance: Am I a Writer or a Teacher?”

In this refreshing essay, Mori discusses balancing “the double calling” of being a writer and a teacher. She admits that teaching felt antithetical to her sense of self when she started out in a classroom of apathetic college freshmen. When she found her way into teaching an MFA program, however, she discovered that fostering a sanctuary for others’ words and ideas felt closer to a “calling.” While in some ways this makes the balance of shifting personas easier, she says it creates a different kind of dread: “Teaching, if it becomes more than a job, might swallow me whole and leave nothing for my life as a writer.” This memoir essay is honest, well-structured, and layered with plenty of anecdotal details to draw in the reader.

Alex Tizon, “My Family’s Slave”

In this heartbreaking essay, Tizon pays tribute to the memory of Lola, the domestic slave who raised him and his siblings. His family brought her with them when they emigrated to America from the Philippines. He talks about the circumstances that led to Lola’s enslavement, the injustice she endured throughout her life, and his own horror at realizing the truth about her role in his family as he grew up. While the story is sad enough to make you cry, there are small moments of hope and redemption. Alex discusses what he tried to do for Lola as an adult and how, upon her death, he traveled to her family’s village to return her ashes.

Classic short memoirs

James baldwin, “notes of a native son”.

This memoir essay comes from Baldwin’s collection of the same name. In it, he focuses on his relationship with his father, who died when Baldwin was 19. He also wrestles with growing up black in a time of segregation, touching on the historical treatment of black soldiers and the Harlem Riot of 1943. His vivid descriptions and honest narration draw you into his transition between frustration, hatred, confusion, despair, and resilience.

JOAN DIDION,  “GOODBYE TO ALL THAT”

Didion is one of the foremost literary memoirists of the twentieth century, combining journalistic precision with self-aware introspection. In “Goodbye to All That,” Didion recounts moving to New York as a naïve 20-year-old and leaving as a disillusioned 28-year-old. She captures the mystical awe with which outsiders view the Big Apple, reflecting on her youthful perspective that life was still limitless, “that something extraordinary would happen any minute, any day, any month.”  This essay concludes her masterful collection,   Slouching Towards Bethlehem .

Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried”

This is the title essay from O’Brien’s collection, The Things They Carried . It’s technically labeled a work of fiction, but because the themes and anecdotes are pulled from O’Brien’s own experience in the Vietnam War, it blurs the lines between fact and fiction enough to be included here. (I’m admittedly predisposed to this classification because a college writing professor of mine included it on our creative nonfiction syllabus.) The essay paints an intimate portrait of a group of soldiers by listing the things they each carry with them, both physical and metaphorical. It contains one of my favorite lines in all of literature: “They all carried ghosts.”

Multi-Media Short Memoirs

Allie brosh, “richard”.

In this blog post/webcomic, Allie Brosh tells the hilarious story about the time as a child that she, 1) realized neighbors exist, and 2) repeatedly snuck into her neighbor’s house, took his things, and ultimately kidnapped his cat. Her signature comic style drives home the humor in a way that will split your sides. The essay is an excerpt from Brosh’s second book, Solutions and Other Problems , but the web version includes bonus photos and backstory. For even more Allie classics, check out “Adventures in Depression” and “Depression Part Two.”

George Watsky, “Ask Me What I’m Doing Tonight”

Watsky is a rapper and spoken word poet who built his following on YouTube. Before he made it big, however, he spent five years performing for groups of college students across the Midwest. “Ask Me What I’m Doing Tonight!” traces that soul-crushing monotony while telling a compelling story about trying to connect with people despite such transience. It’s the most interesting essay about boredom you’ll ever read, or in this case watch—he filmed a short film version of the essay for his YouTube channel. Like his music, Watsky’s personal essays are vulnerable, honest, and crude, and the whole collection, How to Ruin Everything , is worth reading.

If you’re looking for even more short memoirs, keep an eye on these pages from Literary Hub , Buzzfeed , and Creative Nonfiction . You can also delve into these 25 nonfiction essays you can read online and these 100 must-read essay collections . Also be sure to check out the “Our Reading Lives” tag right here on Book Riot, where you’ll find short memoirs like “Searching for Little Free Libraries as a Way to Say Goodbye” and “How I Overcame My Fear of Reading Contemporary Poets.”

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100 word memoir

Memoirs in 100 Words - Writing with Mentor Texts - Personal Narrative Writing

100 - Word Memoir

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The Magic of the 100-Word Memoir: in Retrospect

So, here are the values and beliefs that our experience of the 100-word memoir brought to light, mostly after the fact:

1.  Short pieces offer even the most reluctant writers a sense of accomplishment.  Those writers who need more time than their classmates — and we all see them right away — turned in their notebooks with a complete draft within the allotted time frame. Every single student turned in a complete draft (even if the rest of their notebooks were still in progress). Just a guess, but an early sense of “I can do what’s being asked of me in this class” can set a tone of that invites rather than excludes.

2. The value of re-vision in its truest sense becomes apparent, even palatable.  I’m sure we are all used to the experience of reading a student draft that gets to any substance only at the very end, close to the word count. With the 100-word memoir, more students than I can count on two hands (out of 83 total) saw this in their own writing. They were not only willing to but intent on rewriting. Questions went from “Is it good enough if I just fix …?” to “If I’m rewriting the whole thing, should I do that in my notebook first?”

3. Students begin to understand their own processes as writers.  The above questions naturally led to a class discussion of the difference between meeting a teacher’s requirements and cultivating good writing. Even my youngest students (sophomores) are mature enough to understand the value of knowing themselves as writers. “Do you prefer to rewrite the draft by hand? Or will you ‘revise’ as you retype the draft into a document?” The offer of that respect to them as real writers was a major trust builder at this critical early moment in the year. The concept of writing conferences is still alien for most students. But when they called for a one-on-one conversation about whether another “first” draft was required if they were completely rewriting, a conversation opened up about their own process. Doing so, I had the opportunity to point out we were in the midst of a writing conference right then. I don’t think it’s overly optimistic (no one has ever accused me of such a stance) to imagine that any trepidation a student had about a writing conference with me was at least a little dispelled — and I made sure that fellow writers at that table who were conspicuously keeping their heads in their notebooks heard that, too.

4. Students writers can benefit by learning the art of DELETING.  Kristin Jeschke writes thoughtfully here about the value of teaching students to be incisive. Our 100-word memoirs aren’t long enough for us to do literal paper-cutting (or are they … hmm), but the practice of incision with a short piece can instill this habit early on. In Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom , Amy Burvall and Dan Ryder discuss — among other innovative cross-curricular ideas — the notion of “creative constraints.” I’ve pretty much fallen in love with this phrase in place of language resembling “criteria” or “learning targets” (and the meanings can conveniently satisfy the paperwork of performance evaluations). The phrasing helped students to see “criteria” as a creative challenge: at best, inspiring and at worst, less arbitrary than some assignment “criteria” can be. AND, as Mariana pointed out, inevitably our seniors must cure the logorrhea in their college essays, and the 100-word “creative constraint” gives them practice.

I have no intention of giving up my private, critical post-practice litanies. But the experience of the 100-word memoir lowered the volume of that familiar, reproachful teacher-self. At least for a day or so.

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[…] having early assignments that put emphasis on concision. These can be 100 word memoirs, 6 word stories, haikus, sonnets or anything else where the parameters mean one has to be surgical […]

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WCDS Student's Writing Published by New York Times

A Westchester Country Day School student was recently published by the New York Times.

Eleventh grader Kirian Veach is one of 15 winners in the New York Times’ second annual 100-Word Narrative Contest. Her tiny memoir of a meaningful life moment was selected from about 13,000 entries by teens from around the world.

WCDS English teacher Allison Albert encouraged Veach and her AP English Language classmates to submit their narratives to the NYT teen contest following a 100-word memoir assignment a few months ago.

Her memoir titled “Messi in the Making” is an amusing retelling of how Veach won a participation award in a youth soccer game.

Veach writes, “I could see my destiny before my eyes — with the goalie distracted, my talent would finally shine through! I thought to myself, she shoots, she scores, my moment, and the crowd goes … mild? Confused, I looked to see my coach’s disappointed face.”

The full 100-word story and a photo of her childhood soccer trophy are featured on the New York Times website , along with the other winning narratives.

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6 Word Memoir Assignment and Rubric

Examples of six word memoirs--, say it in six words, six word memoirs by teens, types of point of view: the ultimate guide to first person and third person pov, 6 word memoirs.

This unit explores the memoir and writing memoirs using only six words. 

Six Word Memoir Unit

Overview-- Today you will be learning the meaning of the word memoir, exploring other memoirs written by teens, and writing your own memoir,  

There are activities, videos, and reading material to complete along the way, so be sure to check each added resource. 

This Powerpoint introduces you to the concept of what a "memoir" is and I have modeled some of my own to demonstrate that in only 6 words, you learn a lot about a person.  Be prepared to answer the questions together as we get to then on the slides.

As you view the video, "Six Word Memoirs by Teens," think about which one stood out to  you and think about why.  Did it have strong words, did it pull on some emotional strings, did it realate to you?

Reading Material

As you get ready to write your own 6 word memoir, refresh your writing knowledge on the difference between first person and 3rd person.  Remember the memoir you are going to write will need to be in 1st person. 

Examples of 6 Word Memoirs

Check out these examples of six word memoirs.  See which ones stand out to you.    

Six Word Memoir Practice

On this pdf file, you will practice your 6 word memoir writing. 

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Information Literacy Teaching Toolkit

• Research Assignment Design
• Information Literacy Toolkit
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Designing Effective Research Assignments

• Designing a Research Assignment
• Designing an Information Literacy Curriculum

Below are questions to ask yourself when designing an assignment that promotes information literacy and critical thinking skills.

• What will students learn as a result of completing this assignment?
• What are the information literacy student learning outcomes?
• What are the writing or presentation outcomes?
• What are the discipline-specific outcomes?
• Are these goals clear to students?
• Does our library have these resources? Are they freely and easily available elsewhere?
• Is there a link to the library (or other needed resources) in the assignment and/or syllabus?
• Is there a link to any related student services (peer tutoring, technology help desk, etc.) in the assignment and/or syllabus?
• Does this model a process students can repeat in the future? Is that clear to students?
• Is there space for students to reflect on what they are doing, which strategies are working and which aren’t?
• Does this provide enough time for students to be successful?
• Does it provide time for you to give feedback to students, and for students to revise and/or integrate that feedback into their next piece of work?
• Do you have grading criteria or a rubric to help you score student work? Is this available to students?
• Might you ask past students if you can use their work as a sample, or can you create your own?
• How will students access the sample(s)? Hand out in class, provide in Moodle, etc.?

Source: Greenfield Community College Library.  “Information Literacy Toolkit for Faculty.”  gcc.mass.edu, Greenfield Community College. Accessed 1 Jan. 2021.

Scaffolding and reinforcing information literacy skills and concepts throughout your courses and program, will allow students to develop and master their skill set. Below are a number of questions to think about while creating course and program materials. 

• Is it clear to students how these skills connect to continued study and/or real life?
• What do they already know? Can you assume, or do you need to find out?
• Which information literacy skills do you need to teach, in addition to your course content?
• What can a librarian help teach?
• What needs to be done during class time (for face-to-face classes)?
• What can be done outside of class, as homework?
• What supports does the library already have available (i.e. Moodle plug-ins, videos, handouts, etc.)?
• If you want a librarian to teach, where does that fit in the course schedule?
• If not, what needs to change? Course content, the research assignment, or both?

Greenfield Community College Library.  “Information Literacy Toolkit for Faculty.”  gcc.mass.edu, Greenfield Community College. Accessed 1 Jan. 2021.

Ideas and Examples

• Classic Examples of Research Assignments
• Ideas for Research-related Assignments

Assignments below are linked to documents. Please feel to download and edit for your classroom or context and to remix assignments. A librarian would be happy to tailor a version of an assignment or scaffold research skills into your class.

Example of a short assignment that asks students to think critically about two news sources.

Example of an annotated bibliography assignment that asks students to think critically about their sources.

Example of a research paper abstract assignment that asks students to closely evaluate their topics and sources needed.

Example of an assignment that asks students to brainstorm and evaluate research questions.

Example of an assignment that asks to compare and evaluate various sources.

Example of an assignment that asks students to critically approach source use and paraphrasing.

Example of an assignment that asks students to detail the research process by recording search strategies and resources located.

Example of an assignment that asks students to choose and refine a research topic.

Example of an assignment that asks students to think critically about sources.

Example of an assignment that asks students to crucially evaluate their research topic by evalauting sources.

There are any number of library-related assignments that can be incorporated into a course. Here are a few examples that can be adapted to most subjects (assignments may be repeated across categories).

Critical Evaluations & Comparisons

• Locate a popular magazine article, then find a scholarly article on the same subject. Compare the two articles for content, style, bias, audience, etc.
• Analyze the content, style, and audience of three journals in a given discipline.
• Choose an autobiography of someone related to the course content. Find secondary sources which deal with an idea or event described in the autobiography. Compare and contrast the sources.
• Evaluate a website based on specific criteria.
• Determine the adequacy of a psychological test based on the literature about the test. Then develop a test battery designed for a particular clinical (or other) situation, by using published tests and the literature about them.
• To develop the ability to evaluate sources, students prepare a written criticism of the literature on a particular issue by finding book reviews, by searching citation indexes to see who is quoting the context of the scholarship in a particular field.
• Students use bibliographies, guides to the literature and the Internet to find primary sources on an issue or historical period. They can contrast the treatment in the primary sources with the treatment in secondary sources including their textbook.
• Write a newspaper story describing an event--political, social, cultural, whatever suits the objectives-based on their research. The assignment can be limited to one or two articles, or it can be more extensive. This is a good exercise in critical reading and in summarizing. The assignment gains interest if several people research the same event in different sources and compare the newspaper stories that result.
• Contrast journal articles or editorials from recent publications reflecting conservative and liberal tendencies.
• Write a review of a musical performance. Include reference not only to the performance attended, but to reviews of the composition's premiere, if possible. Place the composition in a historical context using timetables, general histories and memoirs when available, using this information to gain insight into its current presentation.

Fact-Finding Research

• Read an editorial and find facts to support it.
• In biology or health classes, assign each student a 'diagnosis' (can range from jock itch to Parkinson's Disease). Have them act as responsible patients by investigating both the diagnosis and the prescribed treatment. Results presented in a two-page paper should cover: a description of the condition and its symptoms; its etiology; its prognosis; the effectiveness of the prescribed treatment, its side effects and contradictions, along with the evidence; and, finally, a comparison of the relative effectiveness of alternate treatments. This can also be accompanied by oral or visual presentations, slideshow, poster session, etc.
• Students follow a piece of legislation through Congress. This exercise is designed primarily to help them understand the process of government. However it could also be used in something like a 'critical issues' course to follow the politics of a particular issue. (What groups are lobbying for or against a piece of legislation? How does campaign financing affect the final decision? etc.).
• Similar to the above, have students follow a particular foreign policy situation as it develops. Who are the organizations involved? What is the history of the issue? What are the ideological conflicts?
• Nominate someone or a group for the Nobel Peace Prize. Learn about the prize, the jury, etc. Justify the nominations.
• Write an exam on one area; answer some or all of the questions (depending on professor's preference). Turn in an annotated bibliography of source material, and rationale for questions.

Career-Based Research

• Assemble background information on a company or organization in preparation for a hypothetical interview. For those continuing in academia, research prospective colleagues' and professors' backgrounds, publications, current research, etc.
• Ask each student to describe a career they envision themselves in and then research the career choice. What are the leading companies in that area? Why? (If they choose something generic like secretarial or sales, what is the best company in their county of residence to work for? Why?) Choose a company and find out what its employment policies are-flex time, family leave, stock options. If the company is traded publicly, what is its net worth? What is the outlook for this occupation? Expected starting salary? How do the outlook and salaries vary by geography?

Personal Research

• Locate primary sources from the date of your birth. You may use one type type of material only once, i.e., one newspaper headline of a major event, one quotation, one biography, one census figure, one top musical number, one campus event, etc. Use a minimum of six different sources. Write a short annotation of each source and include the complete bibliographic citation.

Historical Research (for any subject)

• Select a scholar/researcher in a field of study and explore that person's career and ideas. Besides locating biographical information, students prepare a bibliography of writings and analyze the reaction of the scholarly community to the researcher's work.
• Pick a topic and research it in literature from the 60s and 70s. Then research the same topic in the literature of the 80s and 90s. Compare and contrast the topic in a bibliographic essay.
• Write a biographical sketch of a famous person. Use biographical dictionaries, popular press and scholarly sources, and books to find information about the person.
• Everyone becomes an historical figure for a day. Students research the person, time-period, culture, etc. They give an oral presentation in class and answer questions.
• Similar to the above, students adopt a persona and write letters or journal entries that person might have written. The level of research required to complete the assignment can range from minimal to a depth appropriate for advanced classes.
• News conferences offer good opportunities to add depth to research and thus might work particularly well with advanced students. A verbatim transcript of an analytical description of a news conference can serve as a format for simulated interviews with well known people of any period. What questions would contemporaries have asked? What questions would we now, with hindsight, want to ask? How would contemporary answers have differed from those that might be given today? Here students have an opportunity to take a rigorous, analytical approach, both in terms of the questions to be asked and the information contained in the answers.

Biographical Research

(annotated) bibliography variations.

• Prepare an annotated bibliography of books, journal articles, and other sources on a topic. Include evaluative annotations.
• Create a Web page on a narrow topic relevant to the course. Include meta sites, e-journals, discussion lists, and organizations.
• Update an existing bibliography or review of the literature.
• Compile an anthology of readings by one person or on one topic. Include an introduction with biographical information about the authors, and the rationale for including the works [justify with reviews or critical materials].
• Choose a topic of interest and search it on the Internet. Cross reference all search engines and find all websites which discuss the topic. Like a research paper, students will have to narrow and broaden accordingly. The student will then produce an annotated bibliography on the topic, based solely on internet references.
• Create an anthology. The model for this format is the annotated book of readings with which most students are familiar. In this case, however, rather than being given the anthology, they are asked to compile it themselves. The assignment can limit the acceptable content to scholarly articles written within the last ten years, or it can be broadened to include chapters or excerpts from monographs and significant older materials. Students should be asked to write an introduction to the anthology that would display an overall understanding of the subject. In addition, each item should be described, and an explanation given as to why it is included. The assignment could also require a bibliography of items considered for inclusion as well as copies of the items selected. In any subject course in which students would benefit from finding and reading a variety of scholarly, such an assignment would guarantee that they use their library skills to locate the articles, their critical reading skills to make the selections, and a variety of writing skills to produce the introduction, the summaries, and the explanations.

Literature Review Variations

• Each student in the class is given responsibility for dealing with a part of the subject of the course. He or she is then asked to 1) find out what the major reference sources on the subject are; 2) find out "who's doing what where" in the field; 3) list three major unresolved questions about the subject; 4) prepare a 15 minute oral presentation to introduce this aspect of the subject to the class.
• Conduct the research for a paper except for writing the final draft. At various times students are required to turn in 1) their choice of topic; 2) an annotated bibliography; 3) an outline; 4) a thesis statement; 5) an introduction and a conclusion.
• Write a grant proposal addressed to a specific funding agency; include supporting literature review, budget, etc. Have class peer groups review. (Best proposal could be submitted for funding of summer research).

Collins Memorial Library.  “Ideas for Library-Related Assignments.”  Pugetsound.edu, University of Puget Sound. Accessed 1 Jan. 2021.

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