Does a Memoir Have to Be in Chronological Order?

One two buckle my shoe, three four shut the door.

Memoir is a historical account of your life, or one story of your life, but memories can be tricky. Much like a novel, the memoir needs to be read in a style that can be followed by the reader. Chronlogy is a simple way to move your reader from the beginning to the end, this happened, and because that happened, this happened.

These stories are easy to follow but maybe not the most interesting. If a story isn’t intersesting readers will stop reading.

When writing your memoir you might quickly notice that memories do not adhear to chronology. You may want to write about your first born taking his first step and this triggers another memory of when you saw your dad staggering home drunk as if he was learning to walk.

How clean should we keep our memoir, how focused on a particular scene do you keep your writing?

I started writing my memoir ten years ago. I have placed much thought deciding what to add and what to take away. I read only memoirs for years to see to how other memoirist handled this issue.

Below is a scene from my memoir. I move from present past scene to another memory that is closer in time. More important than the chronlogy of events is how the memories adhere together to form who I am, my personalities and struggles.

Mother dumped the clean clothes on the couch. The heat rose from the freshly laundered towels and wash cloths. Becky and Tommy were in school. I hadn’t started school, that day would come in the next year.

“Can I help?” I asked.

Mom picked up a towel and with little effort folded the towel in half then again and then in thirds. Our towels were miss matched — not a matching set to complement our bathrooms like my siblings and I have today, but picked up at garage sales, one blue, one floral, one stained with mother’s hair dye.

I took the red towel from the top of the stack. It was twice the size as me. I…

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