Memoir
How to start a memoir
Finding your way in — the first scene, the entry point, and how to get past the blank page.
6 min read · Updated 14 July 2026
Knowing you want to write a memoir and knowing where to start are two different things. The blank first page is where most memoirs stall — not for lack of material, but from the impossible pressure of choosing where a life begins. This guide gives you practical ways to start a memoir, so you can get words on the page and find the shape later.
The memoir prompt generator below is the fastest cure for a blank page — pick a theme and start from a single, specific memory. Here is how to find your way in.
Memoir Prompt Generator
Note ⊕Memoir prompts to break a blank page — each is a door, not an essay title. Star the ones that tug at something and they stay in your shortlist.
Want the full tool? Open the Memoir Prompt Generator.
Start with a scene, not your birth
The instinct is to begin at the beginning — born on a Tuesday, in such-and-such a town. Resist it. Strong memoirs open in the middle of a moment: a specific, sensory scene that drops the reader straight into the story. You can supply the background later, once they are hooked.
So do not open with a summary of your life. Open with the morning everything changed, the argument you never forgot, the object in your hand. Begin close, and begin concrete.
Find the entry point that matters
Every memoir has a moment where the real story starts — where the thread you are pulling first tightens. That, not your literal birth, is usually the best place to begin. Ask yourself: when did the change I am writing about actually begin? Start there, or just before.
This is why theme matters even at the start: knowing roughly what your memoir is about tells you which moment is the true opening, and which are just things that happened.
Write badly first
You cannot edit a blank page. Give yourself explicit permission to write a terrible first version — clumsy, out of order, over-explained — because a messy draft can be shaped and a blank one cannot. The pressure to write it well is a large part of what keeps memoirs unwritten.
Set a small target: one scene, five hundred words, no judgement. Momentum, not quality, is the goal of the opening sessions.
Don't hunt for the theme yet
Many memoirists discover what their book is about by writing scenes and noticing what connects them, not by deciding in advance. So resist the urge to nail the theme before you have any material. Gather memories first — the memoir prompt generator is built for exactly this — and let the pattern emerge.
Once you have a handful of scenes, our guide on how to write a memoir covers finding the theme and shaping the raw material into a book.
Common questions
- Where should a memoir begin?
- Rarely at your birth. The strongest memoirs open with a specific, vivid scene that drops the reader straight into the story — often the moment things started to change. You can fill in earlier context later; the opening's job is simply to make someone want to keep reading.
- How do I get past the blank page?
- Stop trying to start at the start. Pick one concrete memory — a room, a conversation, a decision — and write it in full sensory detail, ignoring where it fits. A memoir prompt is a quick way to find that first memory; once one scene exists, the next is far easier.
- Do I need to know my whole story before I start?
- No, and waiting until you do is how memoirs never get written. Most memoirists discover their theme by writing scenes first and noticing what connects them. Give yourself permission to write out of order and to not know the ending yet.
- How much should I write before I worry about structure?
- Enough scenes to see a pattern — often several thousand words. Structure is a later-draft problem; imposing it too early stops the raw material coming. Gather the moments first, then shape them.
Plan your book with the free tools
Run the numbers, prepare your files and compare your options — then print with real UK book printers.