Discover the key distinctions between memoirs and autobiographies, including their scope and focus. Learn which option is right for telling your life story, whether it’s a comprehensive narrative or a specific period of time.

Memoirs and autobiographies share a lot of common features — they are both nonfiction forms that are based on the author’s life and narrated from the first-person perspective. However, the main difference lies in the period of life that each genre covers.

In basic terms, an autobiography encapsulates the full narrative of the writer’s life, whereas a memoir recounts selected individual stories from the writer’s life. A memoir can be specific to a meaningful era or segment of life or collectively relate an interconnected series of events. An autobiography typically expounds on all elements of the writer’s life up to the point of being written, despite that fact that some experiences may be highlighted or downplayed to express the intended theme or central message.

When choosing whether to write a memoir or an autobiography, consider whether you would like to write your life story, from the beginning to the present day, or whether you would like to focus in on a particular period of time.