The Memoir Seminar: Research and Enrichment

Memoir writers wish to tell a story about their lives-one they consider significant. But often they don't know or remember the details that make the story significant to them. The details can include everything from the weather to the type of bicycle they rode as children. It can involve actions and conflicts-both personal and historic-which occurred at the time of the memoir. It can also include other characters who played a part in their lives at the time, for example siblings, friends, or parents. Further, the characters could also involve grandparents, great grandparents, and those whose lives the writer knows little about. All of these circumstances create the need for research, whether it be reading or traveling. Research, meanwhile, enriches the content of the memoir. It triggers the writer's memories while it also brings the writing alive. We will read and study the way writers use research and apply their techniques to our own.