Autobiographies and memoirs…
While I’ve been candid in interviews on other websites and in my writings on this blog, I’ll never write an autobiography or memoir. There are logical reasons for this decision.
Let me clear up some definitions before I start listing the reasons. Amazon conflates autobiography and memoir. Maybe they don’t know the difference—or their bots don’t. A memoir is a literary work about one aspect of a person’s life. An autobiography is about a person’s entire life, at least up to the time of writing. Word length is irrelevant; time is of the essence.
Now for the reasons. First, as an introvert and author, and in spite of my “internet presence,” I’m a private person. Many details of my life aren’t even known by my own family and friends!
Second, I’m a fiction writer. My life, or parts of it, won’t make a good story that could possibly entertain readers. I suppose my life is unusual in some sense because I’ve had some interesting experiences, some good, some bad, and I’ve made some unusual choices, but I think my life is boring compared to what I read and write about. I live vicariously in books and their characters, either mine or other writers’.
Third, I’m not egotistical. Just the opposite. I’d rather be forgotten. OK, maybe remembered a bit for my fiction writing and my academic papers, but I don’t want an autobiography or memoir floating around that pretends to summarize my entire life or parts of it in one book.
Celebs write memoirs (or their ghostwriters do); because they’re still celebs and not on Death’s door step, they’re not ready for the autobiography, I guess. I’m not a celeb. People who have suffered through trying experiences and prevailed also write memoirs. Mine aren’t inconsequential, but others have suffered through similar ones—and I can offer no special advice for future sufferers. People who have done interesting things also write autobiographies and memoirs. Modesty aside, I’ve done interesting things, like living in South America for quite a while, but again there’s nothing earthshaking about that.
I might write an autobiography, though, and just make it accessible to my wife. That’s a personal thing and akin to leaving photos, diaries, and journals so family historians can peruse them if they feel so inclined. I’d try to leave more info than those ancestry DNA sites. But I won’t publish a memoir or autobiography. No way!
All that said, biographies are generally more interesting than autobiographies, if only because they’re usually written with historical perspective after the person’s death. I might write one of those about someone else someday…just for the hell of it. I’ve read a lot of them….and writing them has to be a challenge!
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Comments are always welcome.
Goin’ the Extra Mile. I put Mary Jo through many challenging situations in #3 in the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries.” The U.S. made the MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”), Russia stole them, and now China wants them bad enough to kidnap Mary Jo and her family. This new ebook is available on Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc).
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
