I think I'll write a memoir.
It doesn't look that hard. I went to the Comic section of my local Barnes and Nobles, and it was full to bursting of memoirs written by names I'd never heard before, who's only claim to fame is that they'd written the very memoir they were not qualified to write until they wrote it.
This is not a blog. A blog is a diary of current happenings, stuff that's going on in your life that's dying to be written but not necessarily published. A blog might have a theme, like what you wore today, or a compilation of all the meals you eat including quinoa (most of them). Entries are short or long, format is variable, and there are pictures. Blogs are free to read, and written for the joy of exposition and sharing your experiences, thoughts, and opinions with others.
A memoir tends to require more introspection, with more thought about the past, possibly with deeper meanings and life lessons sprinkled in for flavor, and fewer lists of people you have crushes on, past present and future. Entries, nay, chapters tend to be longer, format is formal, and pictures are for the illiterate. Memoirs are the journal equivalent of pay-per-view, and are written for fun but also profit.
Anyone can write a blog, and so can anyone write a memoir, too, but there seem to be certain trends that make one memoir more successful over another. Broken homes and strange, slightly abusive upbringings tend to be popular subjects, as do current neuroses, and any kind of factor that separates one from the general masses. This could be anything from religion to sexual preference and proclivity. My childhood was unusual, and my home is breaking, and I'm sure other factors to intrigue and delight readers will surface in good time.
There are a few things that will set my memoir apart. For one, I am not a writer, I am a student and I will shortly have a day job, which I will try to keep. I've always wondered how authors find things to talk about, when all they do is write. Do you write about how you write? Where do you gather new experiences? Do you just wander around hunting for topics? I guess that's where the memoir bit comes in, where you write about what you remember having happened to you. Only in my case, maybe there's not so much to remember, and perhaps more currently happening. So my magnum opus will be a memoir with strains of blog, a nowmoir, where I discuss formally things that happened today, hopefully not involving quinoa.
Someday I'll download all that I've written here, spruce it up, and sell it to a publisher, where it will be beloved by all, become a New York Times Bestseller, and be made into a major motion picture. If we print it on thick paper, I could be a respected literary voice as early as next year.
Let's begin.
