Memoirists: Make the People You Write About into Characters

Step 3

Character is everything. Writing characters using traditional (often writing-workshop-cliché) methods often produces flat, uninteresting characters. The process below will create for you a “real” protagonist and “real” characters.

Remember that in a memoir, the people you’re writing about must become characters, and you must become the protagonist. This creates the distance needed to let the reader in. Essentially, you’re giving your story over to them.

The way to establish full, rich characters is to