![]() “Over the last year or so since I decided to write this book, people have been asking me how I have the time and why I chose to write it.We should really change that.” – Al Franken, Giant of the Senate, by Al Franken. I got that from my official Senate website. “I was born in the house I built myself with my own two hands.“When I was nine, I wrote a vow of celibacy on a piece of paper and ate it.” – Not That Kind of Girl, by Lena Dunham.Here are some examples of memoir openings that make the readers smile: Readers who smile at the opening lines will keep turning the pages, looking for more and more humor. But it’s well worth the effort–if humor is appropriate to your memoir. Working humor into the opening lines is a challenge, for you have little opportunity to set up the joke. It had been fifteen years of transit, change, forgetting and adapting.” – Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China, by Xiaolu Guo. We wonder what it’s like to be a person without a place.īeginning by making the readers wonder hooks them, hard. This was what I had become since leaving China for the West. We wonder who Susannah is, why Andrea didn’t know she was murdered, and what is going on. “Susannah was murdered just before Christmas but I didn’t find out until after New Year’s.” – I’m the One Who Got Away, by Andrea Jarrell.We wonder what all this has to do with the author, and how this list of intriguing city names will play into his life. “Missouri is a state of stolen names, bestowed to bring the world a little closer: Versailles, Rome, Cairo, New London, Athens, Carthage, Alexandria, Lebanon, Cuba, Japan, Sante Fe, Cleveland, Canton, California, Caledonian, New Caledonia, Mexico, Louisiana, Paris, our home.” – Bettyville: A Memoir, by George Hodgman.We wonder why he’s going to the ends of the earth, rather than strapping himself into a rocket ship and blasting off. “You have to go to the ends of the Earth in order to leave the Earth.” – Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, by astronaut Scott Kelly.We wonder why Mom was dumpster diving, and how Jeanette will react. “I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a dumpster.” – The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls.Here are some examples of memoir openings that make the readers wonder: So if you start a memoir with a puzzling statement, there’s a good chance people will keep reading. Let’s look at examples of the first six of these “how to begin a memoir” techniques. ![]() ![]() While there is no single best way to start a memoir, you can always consider beginning by making the readers: In short, you want to engage your readers! This can be done in many ways, whether shocking or understated, humorous or dramatic, literary or plainspoken. The primary goal is to make the readers want more. And the truth is, there’s no single best way to begin a memoir. Writers have long wrestled with the “how to start a memoir” question. Not sure how to begin your memoir? Here are several ways, plus examples from great memoirs.
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