A Heroine’s Journey: When Your Story Doesn’t Fit the Standard Memoir Structure

By Jessica Gigot

I am currently working on a memoir about my experience of early motherhood. My oldest daughter just turned ten and in the midst of unpacking this transformational decade, where I learned to share my life and my body with three other human beings, I am again reminded that the hero’s journey limits revelation specific to female-oriented narratives. I first had this discovery while writing my first memoir, A Little Bit of Land, and found it helpful to revisit the restructurin...