How many memoirs do people have in them?

I know some memoirist write more than one book, but how many is too many? Maybe there is no limit. I don't know. I have started three memoirs. One I had to abandon for reason's outside of my control. Things happen. I could perhaps go back to it someday, but I would have to take a different approach. It's not something I will go back to anytime soon.

A few months back, I started a different memoir. It's going okay. I think it will be a good story... if I can actually finish it. It makes me a little nervous when things are good. I've got around 100 pages or so. I knew where I wanted to start this memoir, but now I'm not sure where to end it. Being around the halfway mark. I've started to think about this.

So, I started another memoir about my childhood. This is more like a practice memoir. That might sound silly, but I want to write it through just to see how I might be able to handle things with the memoir I am more serious about. That being said, the memoir about my childhood is really fun to write and is coming out better than expected. I think I will finish it pretty quickly like in a few months. But I am not sure I will try to publish this one. I rather publish the one I am more serious about but a little stuck on.

How many memoirs do you think you have in you? How many have you written or tried to write? Do you ever feel stuck writing memoir? I mean we all know how how memoir turns out, but do any of you struggle with where things should end? And has anyone done a memoir just for practice so you might be able to write a better memoir after it?

Jamesaritchie said:

Someone once said you should write one memoir every ten years. This always made sense to me.

But, honestly, I think very few people have even one memoir in them that many would want to read, and I know very darned few can write well enough to make a memoir interesting, even if they've lead a fascinating life.

Let me ask you this. How many memoirs have you read that weren't about famous people, or people who somehow lead a far, far out of the ordinary life?

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That ten year point is interesting. I can see how that makes some sense. I have read too many memoirs to count. I really enjoy them. And only a handful have been by famous people if that. I read the Patti Smith memoir and Carla Del Ponte's memoir, but I can't really think of other famous people memoirs I have read even though I'm sure there are a few more. But I'm not really looking to read only famous people memoirs. This is an area where I read widely.