Maybe this will help you get started. A memoir essay is centered on a significant memory from the past. The essay details that memory and explains how and why it is meaningful, as well as the influence the memory had on your life. When writing a memoir essay, it is important to illustrate the significance of the memory through specific and engaging details. As the Purdue University Online Writing Lab states, the personal memoir essay “mines the past to shed light on the present. The memoir seeks to make sense of an individual life.”