Memoir Features

and mentor sentences

Reveal your feelings and thinking

“I was overcome with panic that she’d see me and call out my

name…” (Walls 1).

Tell what you are feeling

Reveal your feelings and thinking

“I slid down in the seat and asked the driver to turn around and take me

home to Park Avenue…” (Walls 1).

Show how you are feeling through actions

Reveal your feelings and thinking

“What could I do? I’d tried to help them countless times…” (Walls 1).

Ask a question

Make the subject come alive

“…the apartment was silent except for the click of my heels on the

polished wood floor…” (Walls 1).

What do you hear?

Make the subject come alive

“There were the Georgian maps I’d framed, the Persian rugs, and the overstuffed leather armchair I liked to sink into at the end of the day”

(Walls 1).

What do you see?

Make the subject come alive

“Her long hair was streaked with gray, tangled and matted, and her

eyes had sunk deep into their sockets…” (Walls 1).

What do you see?

Bring out the relationship

“I was still rattled…the sight of her rooting happily through the

Dumpster. I put some Vivaldi on…” (Walls 1).

Show a contrast

Bring out the relationship

“It had been months since I laid eyes on Mom, and when she looked up, I

was overcome with panic…” (Walls 1).

Time and Feelings

Recall a memory

“Mom’s gestures were all familiar—the way she tilted her head and thrust out her lower lip…the way

her eyes widened in childish glee…” (Walls 1).

Physical attributes

Recall a memory

“…she reminded me of the mom she’d been when I was a kid, swan-

diving off cliffs and paining in the desert and reading Shakespeare

aloud” (Walls 1).

Actions

Focus on author’s experience …not the event itself.

“After ducking down in the taxi so Mom wouldn’t see me, I hated myself—

hated my antiques, my clothes, and my apartment” (Walls 1).

Consider the effect the event has on the author

Focus on author’s experience …not the event itself.

“I felt my shoulders tightening up, the way they invariably did during these

conversations…” (Walls 1).

Show the effect through an action