Forms of Creative Writing – The Memoir

The United Kingdom has seen a surge of individuals having an interest in their heritage, their ancestry and stories of their family members over the past few years. This has been aided of course by television programmes that have seen celebrities map the lives of their deceased ancestors, by computer programmes and internet sites that enable individuals to trace their own family tree and by workshops, seminars and magazines that are focused on the very subject of ancestry. It is no surprise then that there has also been a similar increase in the number of budding writers who have found themselves wanting to write a book based on their own lives. Now more than ever we see individuals from all walks of life working hard to produce their own written autobiography or writing their own book of memoirs.There are lots of reasons why an individual might decide to write an autobiography or memoir. Let’s look at a few of the most common reasons for inspiring this form of creative writing:- A desire to pass on information about their own personal life to their family and friends, so that this personal history can be read, understood and handed down through the generations in a tangible way.- For therapeutic reasons. Often memoirs are written by people who have suffered some form of tragedy or turmoil in their lives. One good and often positive way to move on from this turmoil is to write about it. This written account can then be turned into a fuller autobiography if desired.- For celebratory reasons. It could be that an individual has invented something in their lifetime, has achieved real success in some way or has conqueored a challenge. These are all great reasons for sharing information about life and life experiences.- To fulfil a personal goal. Lots of people want to write a book – they see this as a lifetime ambition. Often, memoir writing is used as a way to fulfil this goal.Whatever the motivation, memoir writing can bring personal and at time professional satisfaction and success. It is a form of creative writing that is becoming more and more popular; not just in terms of the number of people writing autobiographies and creating memoirs, but also in the number of individuals choosing to read this genre of writing. So if creating a memoir has always been something you’ve considered, now may be the time to put pen to paper, so to speak.