Memoir Or Autobiography?

One day I happened to mention to a relative that I would someday like to write my autobiography.

I must really not have been thinking too clearly at that particular moment because my relative came back at me with, you can't write an autobiography. In order to do that you would first have to be famous. I had forgotten about that little detail.

And according to Mirriam-Webster online dictionary, an autobiography is a biography of a person usually narrated by him or herself.' It did not mention that a person necessarily had to be famous. But it did lead me to wonder if that's the reason most unknowns or not famous people stick to writing their memoirs, instead.

A Memoir is about a noteworthy part of a person's life. Something that has been happening a lot lately. For example, someone finds him/herself in a difficult or dangerous situation that lasts maybe two or three weeks.

When he/she gets out of his/her dilemna alive and well, and feel they want the world to know about what they endured, they pen a memoir of the event.

Now do not get me wrong, there are some famous persons who have been known to pen their memoirs. Mainly because they want the public to know what occurred to them at one time in their lives.
Or the incident that did occur to them was so vivid that that is all they want the public to know about that portion of their lives.

Memoirs, Biographies, Autobiographies. There seems to be a fine line somewhere along that route, doesn't there?

Learn more about this author, Judy Ramsook.
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