Autobiography vs. memoir

At the Synergy Conference in Orlando last weekend, I got to sit among the thirty-or-so people who had the pleasure of hearing Lauren Winner's workshop on writing the memoir.

Dr. Winner explained first how memoir differs from autobiography. In general famous and infamous people write autobiographies, and in these books the plot is "my life." Unfamous people write memoirs. And in memoir writing the author goes on a journey and takes the reader along. The reader as a co-learner discovers as the author does. If a writer's voice shifts from learner to instructor, the reader takes a step back. The author meets wise people and learns from them and then processes what they say rather than posing as the wise person herself.

Winner wrote her memoir, Girl Meets God, when she was 24. And it hit the best seller list. Sitting next to me on the way home, my friend Kelley read it and kept showing me paragraphs I needed to read for a good laugh or to appreciate an artful turn of phrase. Apparently Winner is from a Reformed Jewish background and then converted to Orthodox Judaism. Through interesting circumstances that we authors and our English teachers might label "foreshadowing" (including a trek through the Mitford series), Winner trusted Christ. Now a prof at Duke Divinity School, Winner seems a little embarrassed by the great role the Mitford series played in her conversion. She notes gratefully that at least it was not the Left Behind series.

I would love to read her book. I already read her work, Real Sex, which was excellent (we quoted it in the third edition of Sexual Intimacy in Marriage). But after meeting with my PhD advisor yesterday, I know I have no time to do so in the near future. Apparently I have to read about 200 novels by October. Fortunately I've read most of Dickens already, so that takes me down to 194. If I decide to craft a memoir taking you on a journey through "the greats" of American and British lit, I'll let you know.