Memoir is one of the most intimate forms of storytelling. It invites readers not only to witness what happened, but to feel what it meant. In The 5 Important Parts of a Successful Memoir, writing coach Carolyn V. Hamilton offers a blueprint that resonates deeply with the work many of us strive to do: turning lived experience into compelling narrative.

In this post—the first of two—I explore the first three craft elements Hamilton identifies: Story, Description, and Scenes. These foundational tools can strengthen not just memoir, but any narrative rooted in personal truth.

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1. Story: Begin With an Inciting Incident

Every memoir needs a narrative heartbeat. Hamilton calls this the inciting incident: the moment that sets everything else into motion. It’s the spark that promises transformation—sometimes quiet, sometimes cataclysmic.

The inciting incident creates the central question your memoir will answer.

This moment doesn’t need spectacle. What matters is that it matters to you and eventually to the reader. Perhaps it’s the phone call that shattered your equilibrium, the goodbye that redefined family, or the choice that changed your trajectory.

When crafting your memoir, revisit the moment when the ground shifted—emotionally, psychologically, or literally. That is often where your story begins.

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2. Description: Writing Through the Senses

If story gives your memoir structure, sensory detail gives it life. Hamilton urges writers to engage all five senses, and with good reason: description is what allows readers to step into your world.

Specific sensory images invite immersion:

• The metallic taste of fear
• The bitter, familiar smell of café cubano simmering on a stove
• The squeak of old hospital floors
• The weight of humidity pressing against your skin

General description reports.
Sensory description transports.

As memoirists, we aren’t just telling readers what happened. We are reconstructing the world of the past so they can live it with us.

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3. Scenes: The Engine of Memoir

Scenes are the core building blocks of memoir. According to Hamilton, a scene must have:

• A beginning – establish time, place, and stakes
• A middle – where action or tension unfolds
• An end – where something changes

If nothing changes—not even internally—it isn’t a scene. It’s a summary.

A memoir moves forward through scenes, not explanations.

Think of your life’s pivotal moments like small stage plays. Who was there? What were they doing? What shifted by the time the moment closed?

Scenes are where readers feel your story rather than simply learning about it.

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Bringing It All Together

The inciting incident pulls readers in.
Description grounds them.
Scenes move them forward.

These three elements form the architecture of a memoir that reads like a lived experience, not a list of events. In the next post, we’ll explore the remaining two tools that bring a memoir fully alive: dialogue and emotion—the heartbeat and the breath of narrative truth.

If you’re following my ongoing Writing Craft series, stay tuned. These posts connect directly to the storytelling techniques I’ve used in both my memoir, Cuba, Adiós, and my YA mystery, The Pianist and the Snake. They are also my guideposts for a new work-in-progress, a second memoir, which I’m hoping to publish in 2026.