How to Add Emotion to Your Memoirs

Spice up your memoirs by adding some emotion!

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A memoir without emotion is nothing more than a list of events in a person's life. The memoirist must make sure they remember to add feelings to their life stories because life is full of feeling! A good memoir, one of publishable quality, is one that makes the reader laugh, cry, get angry and rejoice with the author. Read on for some tips for adding emotions to your life stories.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Feelings
Five senses
Sense of humor
Computer or pen and paper
Willingness to be vulnerable

Step1

Use your senses. This is the number one rule when writing anything, not just memoirs. Place yourself in the scene you are depicting and access all five senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Now put it in the story!

Step2

Use specific and concrete details. Again, this rule is a must in any type of writing--it's especially so for a memoir. Don't just tell your reader that you climbed a tree, tell your reader that you shimmied up the bare oak tree with lightening speed. Make your reader feel, smell and hear that tree!

Step3

Avoid clichés. Clichés are those repeated, tried-but-true statements--like "tried-but-true"--that have been written too many times. If a phrase pops into your head too quickly, it is probably a cliché. Rewrite the phrase and put a unique spin on that old saying!

Step4

Be vulnerable. Open your heart and soul and let the emotions pour through your pen (or your fingers on the keyboard). Let yourself laugh and cry as you write. If you are crying when you are writing, you can bet your reader will be crying when they are reading.

Step5

Use humor to diffuse moments that are embarrassing. Quite often, we have embarrassing encounters throughout our lives that we don't want to talk about. Try to put a humorous spin on the tale. Chances are that your embarrassing tale is very similar to someone else's embarrassing tale!