“You are both the narrator—the storyteller—and a character in the story. You get to curate your voice and experience as you wish.

Though memoirs and essays are constructed from true experience, the writer still has a significant amount of leeway in how they tell their story.  

Memoir and essay writers are often relieved to learn that developing a curated persona—a crafted version of you on the page—puts control back in your hands. It allow you to choose the manner and degree of truth you wish to tell.”

Excerpted from “Curating a Persona in Memoir to Control Your Narrative,” by Jordan Rosenfeld, Sept/Oct 2026 Writer’s Digest