Memoir Writing 101: Types of Memoirs

There are so many types of memoirs out there.  You can literally take your pick, but at the same time, you need to think "how will this style fit with the story I am trying to tell?"  

You can choose from ideas such as: 

1. Essays (like PZ Meyer's "The Happy Atheist" or Mindy Kaling's "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?", several stories about several events, though with the same overarching theme)
2. Poetry and Prose (you can tell your story(ies) through poems of all kinds)
3. Graphic Memoir (graphic novel memoirs are so cool and one of the best, and only, I've ever read is "And Now I Spill the Family Secrets" by Margaret Kimball)
4. A story about a single event (slice of life)
5. Several stories about one event (like how you got from point A to point B)
6. Several stories about several events (kind of like essays, but more personal)
7. Stories about your family (how your family came to be, or the dysfunctional dynamics within it)
8. Travel (this is a more general style of memoir, though it depends on your experiences, it could be deeply personal, too)
9. Winning Against All Odds (a story about where you fought the man and you won! or something like that)
10. Fiction-Style (where you write your story like a fiction story, yet it's all true!)
11. Escape (did you escape a cult?  a bad relationship? a kidnapping?  a spaceship? people love a good escape story!)
12. Recovery (did you recover from a disease? addiction? abuse? writing this kind will help others who are still going through what you did see there is a light at the end of the tunnel)
13. Spiritual (how did you find peace in a world full of chaos?)
14. Mental Health (do you or someone you love have anxiety? agoraphobia? depression? schizophrenia? and how do you manage it?)
15. Creative: Yes, you could chronicle your creative journey, but more so what I'm talking about here is a way to create your memoir that's unusual or alternative in some way.  Check out my blog post on this here.