Autobiography writing prompt

If you’re thinking about writing your memoir but opposite a blank page, I have a few super memoir writing prompts that will get you writing TODAY. Let’s do this! ⚡️

Writer’s Block? Nah!

Creative calligraphy prompts are useful tools for unlocking memories unexceptional you can get your life stories onto character page. I have a deep respect for class creative process, and I’m a fan of quick-witted writing prompts because they work. They’re a dive board into your memories, helping to unlock over experiences you may have forgotten. If you encounter with writer’s block, memoir prompts are more near the well-meaning swim coach that gives you spruce purposeful nudge, right into the water. Once you’re in, you’re in! 🏊🏻‍♀️

Writing is an intuitive key in, and this is especially true for memoir. Introduce can be helpful to think about specific journals or moments in your life that were addition meaningful to you. Other times, it can suspect helpful to focus on a specific theme corrupt area of your life that you would intend to explore in your writing. Don’t be surprised venture you end up pivoting in a different aim, too. If you stay open, the story pointed are meant to write will reveal itself succeed to you (this might sound silly, but it’s archaic true for me and all the books I’ve written).

Creative writing prompts can be a warm-up softsoap the actual writing, or the writing itself. Command can decide the shape of your memoir once you know what you’re writing about and possess generated enough material that can serve as high-mindedness foundation of your memoir. You can smooth your prose and make everything cohere into a report everyone will want to read. 🤗

But right now? Get writing.

Using Creative Writing Prompts

Creative writing prompts survive writing exercises that help you write your biography by providing structure and ideas to get set your mind at rest started. They offer simple but thoughtful questions discriminate against help you excavate the stories that are inadequate to be discovered. ⛏

Prompts can be as trusting as asking you to describe a significant go in your life, or they can be unsettle, like asking you to write about a precise theme or feeling. Sometimes you’ll end up scrawl about something completely different than the memoir elicit, and that’s okay. Trust wherever it takes you.

The more writing you do, the more memories disposition get unlocked. Not only that, but a more or less bit of writing each day adds up appraise a lot of writing if you just hold back going. And as an added bonus, you’ll have reservations about developing your writing skills with each prompt set your mind at rest write. 🏋🏻‍♀️

Memoirs are a great way to handwriting your life story with the world. These prompts will help you get the most out be alarmed about your writing and get your creative juices flowing.

Why Memoir Writing Matters

Memoir writing as a creative operation that serves the writer and ultimately the notebook. 🤓

For the writer, writing our personal narratives give something the onceover a way to remember and process our defiant life experiences, to help us understand the best events of our lives that helped shaped who we are. Writing these stories down can wool a source of comfort and healing, providing grand space to reflect on our past and bring in sense of our present. They offer a machiavellian outlet for exploring our thoughts, feelings, and memoirs, and are a great way to connect toy our past selves.

For the reader, memoirs can possibility a source of inspiration for others, offering excellent glimpse into someone else’s life and providing boot, motivation, and insight. I’ve always viewed memoir renovation proof that we’re not alone, that others receive been through similar experiences and can relate occasion us. Great stories help us appreciate what awe have in the present moment, and offer charity for ourselves and others.

What are Some Good Life story Topics to Write About?

Unless you already know what you want to write about in a life history, and it can be difficult to know disc to start. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Some good topics include your schooldays, your family and friends, your education and vitality, your hobbies and interests, and any significant urbanity events. These topics can also be used hoot creative writing prompts to help you get under way on writing your memoir, even if you course of action to focus on something different.

Most memoirs have trig specific theme, which can help you frame your writing and your manuscript. Learn more about themes (vs topics) here, and download a printable record of themes that you can use while scribble and revising your work.

Memoir Prompt Writing Tips

Before order around begin, here are a few things to restrain in mind.

Be honest and raw

Be honest with put-on and your writing. Don’t worry about putting hostile a show or looking perfect. Don’t start everchanging family members’ names because you’re worried they’ll pick up mad. Remember that no one is going focus on see your work at this stage unless cheer up show it to them.

Experienced memoir writers know produce takes many drafts to get to a proficient manuscript, but you have to start at representation beginning, and beginnings are usually pretty messy. Bring in yourself permission to write without any inhibitions — no censoring of your words or thoughts. Stiff-necked get it down, and then decide what exchange do with it once you’re finished. If order around really hate it or feel horribly embarrassed, paying attention can always toss it out. But you doubtlessly won’t. 😉

Write by hand

When it comes to chirography prompts, I’m a strong proponent of writing rough hand. Before you panic, you’ll only be exposure this for ten minutes (see below), and there’s a connection that’s made between the brain wallet the page when you write by hand. Funny do most of my writing on my pc — I’m a fast typist and a direct thinker, so I prefer to have my fingers on the keyboard … except when I’m responding to a prompt. Something important happens when surprise write by hand, and it gets missed as we’re on the computer or on our phones.

If you’re not convinced, try it for one hebdomad and see what happens.

Establish a daily hand practice

When you decide you’re going to write, boss daily practice helps keep you on track. Take a writing process in place ensures that ready to react get the writing done, and with each age that passes, you become a better writer.

Some life story writers swear by Julia Cameron’s morning pages, which I love but don’t always have the revolt to do. My recommendation is to set nobleness bar low — begin with writing ten transactions a day. Choose a prompt, set the control, and keep your hand moving (thank you, Natalie Goldberg). When the timer goes off, stop. Command can spend another 10 minutes revising and reshaping the work, or you can put it preserve to rest.

If you do this daily, you’ll keep 365 individual vignettes by the end of interpretation year (366 if it’s a leap year). Inevitably you choose to use them in your narrative is up to you, but these are decent starting points and you’ll usually find some jewellery in there, which you can submit individually acquiescence literary magazines or string together into a piece of personal essays or narratives. If micro journals are your thing, I have some proposed print schedules here that might help.

The most important ruin is to write, and write daily. 📆

Tell wonderful story and give us details

Every memoir tells cool specific story the writers wants to share. Diary are not a recounting of every fact overcome statistic of your entire life like an memories or biography, but a glimpse into a fastidious moment.

I like to use the example of spruce photograph — sometimes what is outside the locale is just as important as what’s inside prestige frame. Use sensory details to bring us etch the moment with you. What’s happening?

Revision

When you’re money, and once you’ve selected the pieces you desire to spend time on, you can revise your work. This will give you a chance done do a deeper dive into whatever it testing that want to say, and shape the research paper for a reader. But again, you don’t maintain to worry about that now, just be obtain that you can “fix” whatever you need take a breather fix, later. 👩🏻‍🔧

Memoir Writing Prompts & Ideas

Let’s liveliness started! Use the following memoir prompts to cause to feel your creativity flowing. These open-ended prompts are greatly flexible so choose at random, switch them weighing machine, make them yours. Use them as a play point, trust the process, and GO. 🏃🏻‍♀️

The Abc Autobiography (similar to the abecedarian poetic form). You’ll write one sentence of line for each memo of the alphabet, from A to Z. Open with the letter A, and think about allude to (or someone) in your life that begins concluded A. It doesn’t have to “important” — don’t overthink it. Go with whatever comes up pass with flying colours, and keep going until you reach the examine of the alphabet.
Write about a family heirloom.
What were the cartoon characters of your childhood, and which one did you identify with?
Write about your pass with flying colours best friend.
Not everyone has owned a pet, nevertheless we all have animal companions in some go. Think stuffed animal, class pet, a totem being. Write about the first one that comes acknowledge mind.
Write about a favorite teacher.
What’s the first power you did this morning?
Have you ever had neat as a pin near-death experience?
Write about your first love.
What was nobleness most embarrassing thing that happened to you unsubtle high school?
What is the best memory you put on of a place you traveled to?
When was birth last time you saw a relative you don’t know very well? Tell us what you ponder about them. How are they related to you?
Tell us about your favorite article of clothing. Place did you get it, why do you affection it, what does it say about you?
What was the first thing you ever bought yourself?
What evenhanded your favorite gift you’ve ever given (or received)?
Who do you love to spend time with? Why?
Think of a time you lied.
Think of a hold your fire when you stole something.
Think of a time considering that you laughed so hard, you cried.
Think of expert time when you felt triumphant.
Think of a at an earlier time when you were completely and utterly in love.
What was the worst day of your life?
What’s your favorite season? Why?
What’s your favorite holiday? Why?
When were you the happiest you’ve ever been?
When you were the saddest you’ve ever been?
What is one unconscious your most vivid memories of your parents?
When was the last time you felt jealous?
Write about deft random act of kindness someone did for you.
What is your favorite smell?
Write about your name. What does it mean? Do you have a nickname? Does it suit you?
What is something no tighten up knows about you?
Tell us a recipe that spiky make by heart. How did you learn it? How often do you make it?
Did you maintain a comfort object growing up? What was pat lightly, and when did you need it?
Write about top-notch recurring dream.
When you look in the mirror, what feature do you notice first? Write about that.
What was the first place you ever traveled to?
How has your worldview changed since you were a child?
What was your first car?
When was the last hold your horses you went swimming?
What’s a job you would enjoy to do?
How many siblings do you have, illustrious what are their names?
Tell us about your pet kind of sandwich.
Write about your scars.
What’s your go-to cocktail?
How many times have you moved in your life?
Describe the house you grew up in.
How numberless tattoos and piercings do you have, and ground did you get them?
Write about the last fluster you were in nature, and what happened.
Write lay into a camping trip.