Micro memoir—short standalone pieces, often exploring a moment in time, drawn from personal experience—is the hottest new category in publishing. The best ones combine truth-telling with narrative tension in 200 words or less, and unlike personal essays, which can be about anything, micro memoir focuses mainly on past events—or explores a current life-changing situation through the lens of the past—so you need to quickly get to the highlights—and the insight. I teach a class on micro memoir at NYU and cover it in my new book Writing That Gets Noticed: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, Get Published. Follow these nine tips when writing micro memoir:
1. OPEN A WINDOW INTO THE PAST
Writing a micro memoir is about remembering something or some-one or some
