The Archetype of Transition

Second in a Series based on Deep Memoir by Jennifer Selig

Jan 24, 2025

This post is the second in a series where I discuss concepts from the craft book, Deep Memoir by Jennifer Selig.

Most memoirs pivot around the main character going through some kind of transition. There are many types of memoirs, but they all have transition as their basis. Selig lists a few types of memoirs, including addiction memoirs, coming-of-age memoirs, coming-out memoirs, grief and loss memoirs, and illness or sudden accident memoirs among others. Transition is the process, but the outcome of the transition is a transformation in the main character. This process and outcome are what drive the main dramatic arc of a memoir.

orange and green liquid — Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

My understanding of this arc of change has grown and become more nuanced this week. In addition to reading Selig’s book, I have the privilege of working with a small cohort of women with Allison K . Williams, an editor and coach. Over the next eight weeks, I will be reading, writing, and learning about craft with her. You will likely hear more about this in the coming weeks. Our first craft lesson was about the different potential types of endpoints that a transformation can make. We were assigned to try more than one on our own stories. The transformation might be a story of redemption, triumph, discovery, or acceptance. Or even a story in which the individual events of our lives are used as a reflection on the world at large.

Given the number of excellent memoirs in the world, why do I feel I need to add another one? Selig lists twelve possible motivations for writing a memoir, including worldly ones like money and recognition. Among her list, there are three that resonate with me. The first is meaning-making. Selig argues that finding meaning in life is not so much about discovering it as assigning meaning to events. As I shape chronological events into a coherent narrative, I find that assigning meaning is a natural outcome of figuring out why things happened the way they did.

A second motivation is to explore the pattern, the throughline of my life story. It’s taken me several iterations to figure out that the thread that runs through my career decisions is my love for my patients. This realization led me to put a spiritual lens on the story. And the third motivation is to make a difference in other people’s lives. Both the reading and writing of memoir can be healing. No two lives are the same, but reading someone else’s “human instruction manual,” as Selig quotes a friend as saying, can give us insights, whether our lives are similar or different from the ones in other people’s memoirs. If nothing else, we can marvel at their resilience.

Healers Write, Writers Heal

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