What Is a Spiritual Memoir?
About eight years ago, I published a spiritual memoir titled English Lessons: The Crooked Path of Growing Toward Faith. Did I set out to write a “spiritual memoir”? No, I was simply writing about memories I had from a year in my life when I experienced a significant shift in my faith. It was only after I completed the project that I realized I had written what could be categorized as a spiritual memoir.
Memoir is one of my favorite genres. Bestselling memoirs like The Glass Castle, Educated, and When Breath Becomes Air are stories that haunt me to this day—in the best way. But, you may be wondering, what is a memoir? How is it different from a spiritual memoir? And, how do I know if I’m writing one?
I’ll do my best to answer these questions below. These thoughts and ideas are based on my experience as a writer, editor, reader, and as someone with a background in religious book publishing.
What is a memoir?
Memoir is generally defined as a narrative written in the first person about a particular part of the author’s life. I have an addition to that definition. In memoir, the author often goes through her own version of a “hero’s journey.” She is changed by her story in a way that marks that period of her life as an important chapter.
A memoir can take place over the entire course of an author’s life or in a much shorter time frame. In my case, it was just one year. For others, it’s one summer or one winter. The idea is that whatever happened in this season was profound, profound enough for you to write an entire book about!
In addition to the memoirs I mentioned above, a few other examples of bestselling memoirs include:
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
What is a spiritual memoir?
Spiritual memoir aligns with the definition of memoir–a first-person account of a particular season in the author’s life–but the change the author undergoes is spiritual in nature. For English Lessons, I wrote about an intense season of doubt I experienced while living abroad and how that doubt eventually led to deeper faith.
Spiritual memoirs often center around questions like:
- What do I believe?
- Why do I believe what I believe?
- What is my purpose?
I like Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew’s definition of spiritual memoir, which she writes about in her book Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art & Practice of Spiritual Memoir:
…spiritual memoir places one’s life in relationship to something greater, whether that something be God or oneness or the earth or death. Unlike literary memoir, the purpose of writing spiritual memoir is only secondarily to create a well-crafted work. Spiritual memoirists write because we know that writing brings us nearer to an ineffable essence.
Simply being a spiritual person or person of faith and then writing a memoir does not make your book a spiritual memoir. In a spiritual memoir, we are asking the bigger questions, digging for the answers, and grappling with what we find.
Some examples of spiritual memoirs include:
Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis
Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner
When We Were On Fire by Addie Zierman
Are you writing a spiritual memoir or something else?
I remember years ago when a friend was describing her book to me, a book she had recently started writing.
“Is it fiction or nonfiction?” I asked.
She was stumped. She wasn’t sure. It dawned on me then that not everyone is a professional editor, not everyone has worked in publishing, not everyone–even a good writer–understands what genre their own book belongs in.
If you fall into this camp, don’t worry. You’re not alone. Below are a few other popular categories of spiritual, nonfiction writing. Your book likely falls under one of these. (And here’s a good definition of fiction v. nonfiction if you need one: Here’s the Main Difference Between Fiction and Nonfiction.)
Essays
I’ve seen several books like Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller and Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott—both spiritual “classics”—categorized as memoir, but I disagree. These books read more like a series of standalone essays than they do a coherent, linear (or somewhat linear) story. In fact, years ago, when I interviewed Donald Miller about the Blue Like Jazz movie, he referred to the book as “a series of essays.”
To me, the difference between a series of personal essays and memoir is the presence of a central narrative—the hero’s journey I mentioned above. Traveling Mercies and Blue Like Jazz have overarching spiritual themes, but their focus—as their subtitles suggest—is on thoughts on faith rather than a singular transformation of faith the book is centered around. Whereas in a memoir, there is one cohesive experience the writer is having that leads to a significant spiritual shift.
If your book is reading more like standalone stories that are taken from various time periods and focus on your thoughts about faith, life, and other topics, you may be writing a series of personal essays, rather than a memoir. And that’s OK! I, and many other readers, love essay collections.
(Ironically, Publishers Weekly did refer to English Lessons as a series of essays, but I stand by its categorization as a spiritual memoir.)
Self-help
Self-help books are popular in the spiritual space. These books do exactly as the genre describes—they help you become a better version of yourself. When it comes to Christian or other faith-based self-help books, the source of that journey to a better self is your faith. One of the most popular examples of this is The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren, which was originally published in 2002 and has since sold more than 50 million copies!
While self-help books can include personal stories and anecdotes, they are directed more to the reader, providing advice, guidance, and wisdom, rather than focusing on the author’s personal journey and spiritual transformation.
Spiritual Growth
The line between self-help and spiritual growth can be blurry. Some books fall under both categories, but spiritual growth books provide less of a how-to from the author and more of a general, spiritually enriching experience.
One of my favorite spiritual growth books is The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. In it, Manning provides stories from his life as a recovering alcoholic as well as theological teachings and thoughts drawn from his experience as a priest. His work isn’t prescriptive but encourages the reader to think more deeply about faith and feel God’s love in a new way. This is what spiritual growth books do best—encourage the reader.
While spiritual growth books often include personal stories, they do not center on the author’s transformation like a spiritual memoir would.
The Best Spiritual Memoirs
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the best books on writing are books that are written well.
Books on the craft of writing are helpful, but if you want to know how to write the best spiritual memoir you possibly can, read good spiritual memoirs! You can read about my favorite spiritual memoirs in this post: My Top Five Spiritual Memoirs. These are great resources to turn to when you feel stuck in writing your own story.
Happy writing, friend. If you need some advice or guidance on your spiritual memoir (or self-help book, spiritual growth book, or series of essays), please contact me here. I’d love to set up a call to see how I can help.