In workshops that I conduct I have been asked why do I call the people in one's life "characters?"

In a recent workshop someone asked that question saying it seemed like characters only should apply to fiction writing. My answer is always the same: if you see the people in your life as major and minor characters two things happen: 1) it takes some of the emotion out of how you want to include these people in your memoir; and 2) it allows you to see who were the most important people in your life, and who were minor characters that came into your life at a particular time to help or hinder you but then left your life.

Major characters might be parents, partners, mentors, supervisors, teachers, military superiors, or...
If you are writing about your personal life, major characters might be family members, even extended family members.  In an event memoir (a memoir about a particular event in your life - moving, a new job (that worked out or did not work out), a marriage, fertility issues that took a long time to resolve (or not), etc.

Minor characters come into our lives to sometimes point us in the right direction (they might be mentors, or counselors or someone who gives you information you did not know...or...), they might want to stop us from doing something (and in stopping us, without knowing it right away, point us in the right direction), they might come through with a grant, loan, scholarship...(or not), etc.

The minor characters may be significant but they do not stay in our lives. Major characters do - even if they are not there physically, they are in our memory as we remember their advice, things they lived by that you adopted in your own life, and were/are a continuing influence.

You want to write a personal or an event memoir? What is the difference? A personal memoir is about your life, an event memoir is about a particular time in your life i.e. moving, getting married, loss, a new job, trying to have a child, taking care of a disabled person etc.

Memoirs have a theme -- when you look back upon your life what is one word that describes your life? This is not written in stone. It is a way, at the moment in time you are thinking of one word, that you might think about your life.  The word might change in a minute or a day or a week...or...
Write down that word. Did you do it? Great!  Next time you get stuck in your writing use that word as your writing prompt.

Your memoir will have people in it - they are major and minor characters.  You will describe scenes in your memoir, make a list of your scenes as you go along.  Why? It helps you keep track of what you are writing about.

Use short sentences. It provides energy to your work, Pretend you are telling your story to your new best friend - it will help you shorten the length of your descriptions and clarify who you are speaking and writing about.  DO NOT USE ADVERBS! In dialogue use "she said," "he said," allow the dialogue to carry the emotion of what is said.  USE ACTIVE VERBS. No lazy verbs. Every verb counts and infuses your work with energy.

Put everything in your first draft you want to write.  In succeeding drafts lay out your chapters in succession on a table, or on the floor and you will see redundancies in your writing. Maybe you will rearrange your chapters, maybe some characters will be removed or changed.

It does not matter if you succeeded or not in things you tried to do in life - readers will be fascinated by your wins and losses knowing you survived when things were not going well and a reader in a faraway place might be heartened to know you survived to write about your life.  The reader may be going through their own trials and you will have given them that precious four letter word: hope.