Autobiographies emphasize facts and figures that a memoir may not deem important. In general, autobiographical texts read more like history books. Memoirs, on the other hand, resemble fictional novels. They differ from the autobiography because they have a looser form. Authors of memoirs usually emphasize particular memories with no adherence to the chronological order of a timeline.
Memoirs have a fragmented design that mimics the fragmentation of memory.
They give unique insights into the author's world, specifically how their mind constructs their past, and how subconscious desires and selective remembrances affect the world in which they live. The memoir as a writing style makes new leaps towards analyzing our subconscious. It addresses issues about the construction of memory that autobiographies do not deal with. An author may enter into their memoir with the intention of writing one story, and upon exiting they have constructed an entirely different text. Whether they realize the difference between what they wanted to say and what they said depends upon many factors.