What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Should you find a universal theme and write the scenes to support it, or should you write your scenes and try to find a universal theme that ties them all together?

In Marion’s approach she recommends finding the universal theme, and then choosing the scenes that illustrate the story. It’s a good way of figuring out what to include in your memoir and what to leave out.

But how many of us think in universal themes?

If like me you’re a wanna-be memoirist, you have lots of stories floating around in your head that you feel need to be told, and you may have even written a few of them down already, and you’ve fallen in love with specific chapters.

But that’s where I’ve run into problems. I’ve been looking at the individual scenes and hit a wall because there’s nothing tying them together. And, I don’t want to write a chronological diary. I want to write a memoir that inspires other people to shrug off a life they don’t want, and to throw caution to the wind and seek a life that fulfills them. But I’ve been stuck, and I’ve been stuck for years.

I’ve realized that one doesn’t become before the other. I have to look at the story I want to tell and the scenes that are pivotal from an emotional and physical standpoint. And from there the theme will evolve, and as the theme evolves the plot will ebb and flow around it.

They are united and connected, but they expand and contract based on the internal journey I’m taking to write my memoir.

Next Steps

• So what are the next steps for my memoir? This concept of Universal Theme is the missing piece of the puzzle and one that will help me move my memoir project forward.

If you’re on the same path, and want to write your memoir and are looking for some inspiration (or can provide some inspiration), please join in the conversation in the comments section below and lets get our memoirs written.

Theme	Characters	Plot