Nikki Moustaki
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MEMOIR CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE

10/1/2015

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Here’s a questionnaire to fill out for each of the central characters in your memoir. Remember, if you write about a real person, the moment you begin to put that person onto the page, he or she becomes a “character” that you must treat in the same that you’d treat a character in a short story or novel. 
 
The more you know about your character, the more he or she will come alive on the page. If your memoir features yourself, then fill this out for your own “character” as well. 
 
What’s your relationship to the character? Why is this character important to your memoir? 
 
What is your character’s name? What’s the story behind your character’s name? If your character has a nickname, how did he or she get it? What’s the story behind it? 

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CREATING A CHARACTER IN MEMOIR

9/29/2015

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The characters have their own lives and their own logic, and you have to act accordingly." ~Isaac Bashevis Singer
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Character is the heart of your memoir. Without compelling characters, you have no story. Readers like interesting plotlines, but if you don’t have a great, well-rounded character to place inside of your plot, the reader will put down the book. The reader has to care about someone in your memoir enough to follow him or her through the story. Make the reader root for your character.  
 
A character should never be predictable, but you should know your character well enough to know what he or she would do in any given situation. In many memoirs, the main character is the writer, so you’re already ahead! 
 
The most profound thing you can write about is not worth it if your characters aren’t interesting. Make your characters interesting through detail and desire. If the reader can see, hear, and feel the character, then you’ve made him/her real. If the reader can relate to your character’s wants and desires, then you have created a character worth following until the end of the story. A character that wants nothing is worthless to your story. Since you are writing memoir, you have to choose the part of your story where the character’s desire is overwhelming.

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    Nikki Moustaki

    Here are some posts on beginning and crafting your memoir. These are based on  lessons from a memoir class I teach at Miami Dade College. 

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