So if I am writing about events/my actual life...is the book a memoir, autobiography, or a novel?

[Heather]

The events I write about and am putting the story together about, are all from my actual life.

I was inspired by my favorite series and franchise of all time. This would be the After series by Anna Todd. Of course in the books, the main character Hardin Scott is actually the writer of After. He wrote all about his journey once he met the love of his life, Tessa. His version of the book is not a novel to the best of my knowledge. In fact I do not believe there is a lit of dialogue, if any, in his version. This is just for the movie and the book itself of course (brilliant idea). Hardin wanted Tessa to see how much Tessa had changed his life. I guess I am wondering what kind of book you would vonsider hos version of After to be. Im fully aware that Anna Todd's actual book series are full on novels.

Quite frankly these books changed my life forever. They touched my heart and soul on such a deeper level than I could have ever known. They gave me answers to all the questions I had about my life and even my marriage. Two fictipnal characters have been my guide and have helped me through so many years of battling all the things I couldnt understand or didnt know how to fight. I dont know where I would be today without this series.


So now if my book would be a memoir or an autobiography...would I write this in first person?

[Vikas]

My understanding is that memoir would be about a specific event or part of a person's life while an autobiography would be about the entire life's story if you modify the details and put in some things then that makes it a novel or story. If you are simply writing down your story as it happened it should be an autobiography if it covers your entire life or a memoir if you talk about a specific event or period. And that's where my understanding ends about this.

[Helen]

There is also fictionalised memoir, a popular way of writing about a person's life now. And I would imagine that if you're writing about your own life, you'd do so in the first person. Hope this helps. :)

[Rick]

First off, a novel is fiction. Period. A novel can be based on actual events, but if what you're writing is true (events and names and places) then it's not novel. If it's your real life experiences, it's a memoir or autobiography.

There is also what we call creative nonfiction. This is a slightly fictionalized story, usually just a memoir, where the author doesn't know or recall everything precisely or where the author has to guess at or assume some things. In other words, it's been enhanced more than a little, but the events are still true. Sometimes authors use this approach to make it less boring or more exciting. Where this crosses over from pure memoir is a fuzzy line.

Otherwise, it's essentially what Vikas said: memoir is part of a life story; autobiography is most or all of your life's story.

But a memoir/autobiography would never be called a novel.

As for writing it in first person, normally you would write a memoir or autobiography in first person (probably 95% of the time), but sometimes third person is used to give it a different flavor or more of an outside perspective so it doesn't sound like the author talking to the reader. So, normally it's written in first person, but that's not an absolute rule. You write it how you feel it would have the most impact.

[Gail]

Rick wrote: "First off, a novel is fiction. Period. ..."

I'm not sure that's completely true, Rick:

"Can a novel be nonfiction? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. There exists a genre of literature that depicts real-life events but is told using storytelling techniques. What this means is that the bones of the novel are based on real-life events, but the author may have used some creativity in telling the story."