What is the difference between a memoir and an autobiography?
An autobiography tells the story of your whole life, usually in order, with you as the authority on it. A memoir tells one part of a life, such as a period, a theme or a relationship, chosen because it contains a story worth reading. There is also a third form most people actually need: the legacy book, written for family or a small known audience, which can be as complete as you like.
Recommended resource: for the full step-by-step method, How to Write Your Own Autobiography by Manthan Bhendkar (founder of Asendify) covers this in depth: The Framework. PDF, £304.50, instant download.
Autobiography: the whole life
An autobiography aims for completeness: childhood, education, work, relationships, achievements, the later years. It is the traditional form for public figures such as politicians, sportspeople and, increasingly, company founders, because readers already want to know about the whole life.
- Scope: birth (or close to it) to the present.
- Structure: usually chronological.
- Strength: completeness and record.
- Risk: completeness can be dull. Even an unusual life has long stretches that do not move a reader, so the hardest skill is selection.
Memoir: one story from a life
A memoir does not try to cover everything. It picks a slice, a year of illness, a career change, growing up in a particular place, a relationship with a parent, and shapes it like a story with a beginning, a turning point and an ending.
- Scope: a period, theme or relationship.
- Structure: flexible: chronological, thematic, braided (two timelines woven together) or framed (a present-day frame around the past).
- Strength: it has a shape, which is why most life-writing books bought by strangers are memoirs.
- Risk: honesty. Because a memoir goes deep into a few events, it asks more of you about what really happened and how you felt.
A useful rule of thumb: if you want readers beyond the people who already love you, you are probably writing a memoir, whatever you call it.
The Framework. £304.50 one-time, instant download.
The legacy book: for the people who will read it
A legacy book is written for a known, small audience: children, grandchildren, a family or an organisation. Those readers usually want the detail an outside reader would skip: what the house looked like, what your grandmother used to say, what you earned in your first job.
- Scope: the whole life or chosen parts.
- Structure: often chronological, often with photographs.
- Strength: it is the form most people actually need.
- Risk: finishing. People compare it to published memoirs, decide it is not good enough, and stop.
Typical lengths
These are rough working ranges rather than rules:
- Autobiography: around 70,000 to 120,000 words.
- Memoir: around 50,000 to 90,000 words.
- Legacy book: around 20,000 to 60,000 words, often with photographs.
A legacy book for your family can be much shorter and still be treasured. Our guide on how long an autobiography or memoir should be goes into more detail.
How to choose which one you are writing
Answer three questions before you write anything:
- Who is the reader? Write one sentence about one real or imagined person: "my granddaughter at twenty-five", "a founder two years behind me", "a stranger in a bookshop". Strangers usually mean memoir; family usually means legacy book.
- What is the reason? To be understood, to set the record straight, to make sure someone is remembered, to work out what happened. The reason points you towards the thread of the book.
- Is the whole life the story, or is one part of it? If one stretch of years contains the drama, change or lesson, that is a memoir.
If you find yourself wanting two forms at once, start with the legacy book. It is the one that gets finished, and it can be mined for a memoir later.
A worked example
Meera, 62, wants to write about her life. She grew up in Nagpur, moved to Leeds at 24, trained as a nurse, raised two children and spent her fifties caring for her mother.
- As an autobiography: every decade, in order, from childhood to retirement. Complete, but long, and the middle years risk feeling like a list.
- As a memoir: the eight years caring for her mother, framed by the day she found her mother's old letters. A clear thread ("what I learned about my mother by becoming her carer") that a stranger might pick up.
- As a legacy book: for her grandchildren, the whole life with photographs, the recipes, the move to England and what Leeds was like in the 1980s.
She decides to write the legacy book first, because her family is asking for it, and to keep notes on the caring years as material for a possible memoir.
The same truth rules apply to all three
Whatever you call it, readers expect it to be true. Memory is reconstructed each time we recall it, so dialogue and details will not be perfect. That is accepted. Reconstructed dialogue that is faithful to what was said, compressed time and changed names to protect people are common practice. Invented events or people presented as real are not. If you write about living people, take care: in the UK, for example, the Defamation Act 2013 applies to statements that seriously harm someone's reputation. This is general information, not legal advice.
Key takeaways
- Autobiography: the whole life, usually in order, typically for a public readership.
- Memoir: one part of a life, shaped as a story with a clear thread.
- Legacy book: for family or a small audience; the form most people need and most often abandon.
- Choose by deciding the reader and your reason first.
- All three must be honest; reconstruct carefully and never invent.
Our book How to Write Your Own Autobiography starts with exactly this choice and then takes you through gathering memories, structure, scenes, editing and publishing, with a 30-day plan: see the book. The free Life Story Outline Builder helps you sketch the shape of whichever form you choose.
FAQ
Can a memoir cover my whole life?
It can touch on your whole life, but it should be organised around one thread or story. If every period gets equal weight, it is closer to an autobiography.
Is a memoir less truthful than an autobiography?
No. Both are expected to be true. A memoir often feels more personal because it goes deeper into fewer events.
What is a legacy book?
A life story written for family, friends or an organisation rather than the public. It can include everyday detail, photographs and recipes that a general reader would not need.
Does it matter what I call my book?
For publishers and bookshops, yes, because memoir is the usual category for life stories by people who are not already famous. For a family book, the name matters far less than finishing it.
More playbooks on other topics: https://www.asendify.co/books/
The Framework. £304.50 one-time, instant download.