1. Time needed to read: 7 minutes. How To Start a Memoir – 6 Bestselling Ways. Make them wonder. Humans are by nature curious, so if you start a memoir with a puzzling statement, there’s a good chance people will keep reading—they’ll want to unravel the mystery.
2. Basketball Memoir. October 28, 2014. On a hot, sunny day of June I went to the park and played in a 5 on 5 basketball tournament with a few friends I have been playing basketball.
3. One thought on “ 100 Word “Flash Memoirs” ” Kathy Lynch June 11, 2013 at 7:25 am. Flash Memoirs is a great concept on so many levels. The potential to create with it is entertaining, current, therapeutic, achievable (for someone like me to begin) interesting, cutting edge. Thank you for sharing this.

I can use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, figurative language, imagery to capture the action and convey experiences and events. I can produce clear and coherent writing in which the development organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience.

It’s just 100 words (or fewer) so why is it so freaking difficult? You know what I’m talking about…the short bio or brief description that you need for social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and all the others. I always find it so much easier to have bio examples to follow, so here are some fill-in-the-blank templates for you to customize for your own short social media profiles. Pick and choose the parts that work for you.

How many words exactly?

Twitter: 160 characters, which means only 20 – 25 words. Make each word count!

Pinterest: 200 characters, which translates into approximately 30 words.

Instagram: 150 characters, or about 20 words.

First-Person or Third-Person Format?

Before you get started though, you’re probably wondering if you should write in first-person (I am a …) or third-person (your name, such as “Barbra is a …”).

In the past, experts would tell you that bios should always be written in third person. These days, particularly with informal social networks such as Pinterest and Instagram, first person is common. On the other hand, on professional networks such as LinkedIn you’ll normally see bios written in the more formal third-person voice. It all depends on whether you want to project a formal, business-like feeling (third-person), or an informal social feeling (first-person).

Choose whatever works best for you

In the example templates below, I used both first-person and third-person formats. Choose whichever works best for your needs, but keep it consistent throughout your bio. In other words, don’t switch back and forth from first-person to third-person.

100 Word Memoir Examples

Fill-in-the-blank templates

_______ (your name) is a _________, __________, and _________. He/She helps _______ (who you help, i.e. your clients or customers) to _________ (what you help them with, usually a problem you solve). __________

(your name) has always enjoyed starting and running businesses. In fact, by the time she/he was ________ (age), she/he had already ____________ . Soon afterwards, ___________ (your name) began a _________ and a ___________. Now she/he is the ________ (your title) of _________ (your business name), which __________ (short description of your business).

I’m the owner/operator of ________________ (your business name, linked to your website). ___________ (your business name) provides ___________ (your service or product) to ____________ (your customers) so they can ____________ (what your customers do with your service or product).

I got into this line of business in ______ (year) when _________ (tell how you got started).

My favorite part of having a ___________ (type of business) business is ____________, because it allows me to ____________ (why you enjoy it). Also, _________________ (a part of your job) can be a lot of fun!

When I’m not working on ___________ (your business name, linked to your website), I like to _________ (your hobbies).

I’m a _________, ________ and _________ (list three things that describe you, e.g. small business owner, writer, cat lover, devoted father) from __________ (list the general area you live in, e.g. country, state or city, but obviously: don’t ever give your address).

I think of myself as a _______ (your temperament e.g. quiet, bubbly, shy, outgoing) person, although I’ve also been known to __________ when __________ .

The things I love most in life are ______, _________ and ________ (list your favorite things, e.g. hanging with friends, my relationship with God, photography, cycling, family, my kids).

I’ve been ___________ (your profession or hobby) for ____ years, and I really love it.

My idea of the perfect day would start with _________. And then I’d _______ and finish off by ________. The kinds of people I’d like to meet are ones who are ________ and ________. That’s important to me because __________.

Writers learn to write by reading, studying authors’ subjects, structures, speech. They imitate and model. Writers also learn to write by practicing, creating their own characters, forms and rhythms of language.

6 Word Memoir Worksheet

As soon as I read Bruce Holland Rogers’ “Dinosaur,” one of several pieces in an advertisement for the literary magazine, The Sun, I wanted to copy it. Although it’s a fictional story, I use it in my classes as an example of a 300-word memoir. What about you: would you like to write a short-short memoir? Go ahead; have some fun.

Next week: the Short-Short Contest’s 3^rd place winner.

“Dinosaur” by Bruce Holland Rogers

When he was very young, he waved his arms, snapped his massive jaws, and tromped around the house so that the dishes trembled in the china cabinet. “Oh, for goodness sake,” his mother said. “You are not a dinosaur! You are a human being!” Since he was not a dinosaur, he thought for a time that he might be a pirate. ”Seriously,” his father said to him after school one day, “what do you want to be?” A fireman, maybe. Or a policeman. Or a soldier. Some kind of hero.

But in high school they gave him tests and told him he was good with numbers. Perhaps he’d like to be a math teacher? That was respectable. Or a tax accountant? He could make a lot of money doing that. It seemed a good idea to make money, what with falling in love and thinking about raising a family. So he became a tax accountant, even though he sometimes regretted it, because it made him feel, well, small. And he felt even smaller when he was no longer a tax accountant, but a retired tax accountant. Still worse: a retired tax accountant who forgot things. He forgot to take the garbage to the curb, to take his pill, to turn his hearing aid on. Every day it seemed he forgot more things, important things, like where his children lived and which of them were married or divorced.

Then one day, when he was out for a walk by the lake, he forgot what his mother had told him. He forgot that he was not a dinosaur. He stood blinking his dinosaur eyes in the bright sunlight, feeling its familiar warmth on his dinosaur skin, watching dragonflies flitting among the horsetails at the water’s edge.

“Frog” by Marge Barrett

Six Word Memoir Examples

When she was very young, she’d hop around the house, hands on the floor, eyes bugging out, tongue darting, ribbit. “Heavens, Margaret, get up, you are not a frog,” her mother said. “You are a little girl.” Since she was not a frog—free to jump 100 feet or catch bugs with her long and sticky tongue or sing so she could be heard for miles—she thought for a while she was a princess. “Honey,” her father said, one day after piano lessons, “what do you want to be? A teacher? A nurse? Do you want to work with me in insurance?” She wasn’t sure. Maybe a secretary or a stewardess.

In school they encouraged her to become a teacher. For a long time, she reigned in classrooms. From a towering condo near the Mississippi River, she also wrote about her life and all its riches. Then she began having trouble with the computer, hearing her students, and remembering what she’d just told them.

One day in early spring, exhausted, on a walk along the river, she forgot what her mother had told her. She plopped down on a park bench and planted her feet, splayed like webbed claws in her boots. She bent over, tucked up one knee (the other needed to be replaced), opened her eyes wide, (lifting heavy folds of skin), unlocked her mouth, breathed deep. She extended her liver spotted hands over all she saw: the city with its buildings and bridges; shores of tall grasses and trees; islands of sedge and shrub; swimming ducks, flying geese. A dancing damselfly. She leaped up, bounded over the bank, to rocks, logs, and the water beyond. Ribbit.

Marge Barrett has published prose and poetry in numerous magazines. A former editor of River Images for the St. Croix ArtBarn and faculty advisor of Ivory Tower for the University of Minnesota, she has taught in various high schools and colleges. Currently she teaches at The Loft Literary Center, where she’ll offer another ‘We Like Short-Shorts’ class this winter/spring session.

100 Word Memoir Examples Pdf

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