In a reprint from her book The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing, Sharon Lippincott (who blogs at The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing) ponders whether there’s any difference among the terms autobiography, memoir, and lifestory. (She later uncovers a number of other terms for similar genres of writing - “faction” [fact-based fiction], docudrama, nonfiction novels, personal journalism, dramatic nonfiction, literature of fact, creative nonfiction, autobiographical novels, nonfiction narrative, personal essay, literary memoir). Her initial thoughts were these:

… autobiography was primarily linear in nature, covering the full space of a life up to the time of writing, and was largely documentary. Memoir was a more artistically developed literary form that could address limited periods of time and specific experiences. It left more room for creativity, interpretation and emotion. Lifestory writing seemed to me to be the most spontaneous, natural, cozy form, informally written from the heart, like a letter to a friend.

After taking the reader through some very interesting research on the subject, including the history of autobiography in Tristine Rainer’s Your Life as Story and the Web site and audio/podcast files of Creative Nonfiction, Lippincott concludes:

I realize that the attempt to define terms is meaningless. I’ve come to understand that writing stories from our experience, from our lives, is far too personal a matter and too complex a challenge to be bound by form. Our form will be as personal as the stories we write, and our reasons for writing them. The forms we evolve will be perfect for our unique stories. … No beginner should let ignorance of form or style delay the writing of a single word. Go beyond the confusion and simply write the story that is in your heart. Call it what you like and let it grow as it will. Learn as you go, and it will become your own perfect story.

[ A tip of the hat to Stephanie West Allen for alerting me to this essay. ]