​Why should I be concerned with plot in my memoir? I’m just writing my experiences as they happened and when I’m done I’ll just type the end after the last period and then send off my query letters to agents.
 
Not so fast, dear writer.
 
Plot may be the most difficult aspect for a novice working on memoir. Part of this is because most people experience a tempting urge to throw the kitchen sink (and perhaps the entire kitchen) into their story. It can be difficult to tease out the plot, the important stuff, from the junk in the cabinet under the sink.
 
Other novice writers will hold back important stuff from the story. Often, it’s a case of what I call “vivid memory syndrome.” This is when a writer remembers a scene or time so vividly that he or she fails to let the reader in on the experience. The reader is not a mind reader. The more vividly you remember a scene, the more vividly it should appear on the page.
 
What do I mean by important stuff? Your memoir should contain scenes/stories and exposition that will serve to further your character’s desire, conflict, and resolution. In memoir, you are the main character. Today’s memoirs are often praised as “reading like fiction.” So, learning some of the tenets of fiction can’t hurt. Click READ MORE below for more on plot . . . 

Pacing is defined as the flow of your story. I want to use a river metaphor here, but I won't. You get the drift (insert rim shot and cymbal here).

Unless you're writing in the style of a Russian novel where you feel compelled to show the reader every footfall on every mossy stair leading to the palace (and I recommend that you don't), then you need to pick and choose what parts of the action to show and what to leave to the reader's imagination. Choose what's most important and leave out the rest. 

Don't write what you an infer. But don't rush, either. Discovering this balance in your writing takes practice.

Write what's important to furthering the plot or character development. Ask yourself: How does what I'm writing now matter to the discovery of new information about my story and characters? 

Here's a selection from Hemingway's brilliant memoir, A Moveable Feast. Hemingway proves here that you don't have to show each character's mundane actions or flesh out scenes that may be salacious. Rather, with a little craft, you can skip to the aim of the scene and/or leave out a scene altogether for a different kind of impact. Read it first without my notes, and then see my notes below. 
​(Click on Read More below)