Assignment: Memoir

What makes a memoir? More often than not, memoir is autobiography, narrowed to present

a particular aspect of a person’s life. Jacques Pepin wrote a memoir of his kitchen apprenticeship, for example. Ruth Reichl wrote about her years as a restaurant reviewer.

For our purposes, a memoir is a memory that prompts reflection or that sparks a story. “The Measure of My Powers” by M. F. K. Fisher is mainly reflective: she begins with a memory and then follows it. “Killing Dinner” by Gabrielle Hamilton is largely narrative: she sets a scene and tells a story.

Now: Please search your food memory for something that stands out. Is it a school lunch? The first meal you cooked to share with someone else? An accident? Why do you think you remember this scene or story? What metaphorical weight might this memory carry? Would you like to reflect on this memory or simply tell it? (You may do both, of course. Look up George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” on Google to see an essay that weaves reflection and narration.) Either way, please write a short chapter for your future book-length memoir.

Pointers? Prompts? Consider these suggestions:

- Explore your subject by listing all the relevant events in sequence. Who was involved?

What happened? When did it happen? Where did it happen? How did it happen? Why did it happen? These standard journalist’s questions will help you examine your subject from all angles, and help you determine which material is most important (everything that you retain should serve the overall impression that you want to make).

- Choose a scene for which you have a strong sense memory. Write this scene as accurately as you can. Tell what people say; show what you see (and smell, and hear, and touch, and taste). Describe how you feel. Then ask yourself: Why do you recall this scene and these details? As you answer this question, you’ll likely see the deeper subject emerge. Then go back and write your memoir afresh, choosing key details so that your reader will discover the deeper subject as he or she reads your piece.

- For a narrative essay, a straight chronological sequence is easiest to manage, but you have options. One is to begin with a final event (such as a discovery or a death) and then describe the events leading up to it—or the aftermath. Another approach is to summarize your story up front, and then examine the important events in detail. You might also try brief flashbacks or flash-forwards that sharpen the significance of the story at hand.

-Evan Elliot