When Memoir Does NOT Work:

• It’s all plot:  just plain facts about what happened.
• The pace is too fast.  It seems like it’s over before it starts.
• There’s no internal thoughts or feelings
• There’s no description of people, places, objects, or actions:  a reader can’t SEE the experience happening.  
• The setting, time, and place isn’t clear:  when and where did this happen?
• There’s too much dialogue.
• There’s no sense of SO WHAT?: no sense of why the writer wanted to write about the event in the first place.

When Memoir DOES Work:

• The voice is first-person.
• The writer showed some skin:  dared to share the emotion by revealing truthful thoughts and feelings, reactions and reflections.
• There’s background story (a story behind the story) to help the reader understand the events of the story.
• The writer attacks the senses so the reader can SEE the action happening.
• The writer provides the GPS to situate the audience:  time (when) and place (where) – AND what exactly they were doing when they understood what was happening.
• The pace is slowed down so a reader can experience the story moment to moment.
• The lead is interesting and brings the reader into the world of the memory.
• The reader learns something about LIFE and the way the world is sometimes by reading about a life.