A good memoir:
- Has a razor-sharp focus on one element of life.
- Does not have filler. Every detail has to connect to the focus/theme.
- Is not a record, a report, or a list. It is a combination of active scenes.
- Has a vivid concrete setting. A Where. Every scene must have a setting. We must know where we are.
- Has a container, a time frame. Without a container there is no is focus.
- Has a protagonist with an external conflict (plot). I need to do something in the external world.
- Has a protagonist with an internal conflict. They’ve got something they are struggling with inside.
- Is never vengeful. Just show, don’t rant.
- Has a So What? Readers need to be able to relate, to understand something important in the context of their own lives.
