: What Genre Category for a Semi-Fictional Memoir? What genre do these types of Memoirs fall under? "Inspired by true events?" ... Is Semi-Fictional Memoir a "thing"? I definitely don't

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From Wikipedia:

Autofiction usually has a protagonist using the author’s name and combines autobiography with fiction. One famous author of autofiction is Margurite Duras.

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This is an autobiographical novel, a novel based loosely on your own autobiography, but without guarantees of fidelity to actual events. It's one of the most famous and successful formats. It is generally considered as a sub-genre of the novel, and filed under fiction. Famous autobiographical novels include David Copperfield (Dickens), Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce), To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee), and Invisible Man (Ellison).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiographical_novel

If it isn't long enough for a novel, it still falls under the category autobiographical fiction, which is not the same as "fictional autobiography." The former is fiction inspired by real events, the latter is fiction presented in the form of an autobiography (similar to a mockumentary).

Most publishers don't distinguish between fiction and autobiographical fiction (unless there's a danger someone will sue you for libel!). And most readers who care will assume all your fiction is autobiographical anyway. The general rule of thumb is to not sell something as "non-fiction," "memoir" or "autobiography" unless it's 100% true. Anything less than 100% true is "fiction."
www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/10-ways-to-tell-if-your-story-should-be-a-memoir-or-a-novel

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Inspired by true events

The thing with memoirs is just that: one person's recollection of an event. This naturally brings in omissions, incorrect recollections, and more than a few times, altered perceptions (we tend to remember the best of ourselves).

"Inspired by true events" has a lot of common use (my wife watches only those movies), so I would personally go with that.

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