I once attended a creative nonfiction workshop and somebody asked, “What’s the difference between an autobiography and a memoir?”

While they are similar in tackling the author’s life as the main theme, their differences are often unclear to most.

Solid, liquid, and gas are properties of matter. In the same sense, the memoir is a property of the autobiography. Simply put, an autobiography chronicles a more detailed life story, while a memoir recounts an episode or slice of an author’s life. Think of Dennis Rodman’s Bad as I Wanna Be where he talks about his basketball career and not necessarily his entire life. A far better example would be Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes that recounts stories and anecdotes of his very early childhood while living in poverty in Limerick, Ireland. So think of the memoir as the city while the autobiography is the entire country.

Still, certain distinctions lend themselves to separating the memoir from the autobiography. Going more in-depth, here are other differences that identify the memoir from the autobiography.

Autobiographies cover a person’s entire life. Often narrated chronologically, it begins with the author’s birth and it can even cover events before the author’s birth. The historical backdrop and societal conditions are integral parts in the narration to give readers a better understanding of how society contributed to shaping the author’s philosophical or values formation. You will often read biographies that begin with the author talking about his parents escaping the war or how his grandparents were making ends meet during the Great Depression. Memoirs, on the other hand, give readers a glimpse of an unforgettable episode in the author’s life. It can be anything from his struggles on trying to fit in during high school, how he beat dyslexia to become an articulate orator, or how he acquired his wealth through hard work. A good memoir doesn’t have to be written chronologically, and it can begin at any crucial or important point that the author wants to highlight.

Since autobiographies are more detailed and cover a person’s whole life, it requires more documentation, fact-checking, and cross-references. Thorough research often goes with the writing of autobiographies. Authors will even go the extra mile of tracing their genealogies and checking civil registries to lend credibility in recounting their roots. While memoirs may also require research, it hinges more on the dramatic aspects of life writing. Memoirs are more intimate in the sense that they invite readers as the author shares a part of his life that he hopes readers can identify with. Many public figures hire ghostwriters to write their autobiographies. Public figures or celebrities with a considerable following are likely to have a mass-market interest, and people have a natural inclination to find out the details about the lives of people they admire. Back before the days of the Internet, memoirs were the preferred nonfiction themes of anyone who had a story to tell. Nowadays, both celebrities and ordinary folks write memoirs. Autobiographies work like a documentary film while memoirs work like a television soap opera. Unless your memoir is humorous, then it’s a comedy. The point here is that memoirs are often emotionally-driven.

Writer’s resources on how to craft an effective memoir are available online. Moreover, you’ll often find people who are happy to give you tips and advice on how to go about it. Type “How to Write a Memoir” on Google Search and see how many results you’ll get. Since the memoir appeals to emotions, you’ll need to make sure that you transport your readers into your actual experience by giving them sensory details. Make them see the high school crush that you swooned over. Make them smell the perfume of your favorite aunt. Make them taste your favorite food you were never allowed to eat because of your allergies. Make them hear the false rumors that your neighbors said about your mother. As a caveat, give them enough details that will not slow down your narrative. Angela’s Ashes has enough sensory details to make us empathize with the author who lived his childhood in poverty.

Before penning your memoir, make sure that you have read other successful books on the genre. See what makes them tick and how convincing their narrative styles are. It’s a no-brainer that writers learn from reading other writers. Searching online for the best memoirs is just a type stroke away.