But the best memoirs avail themselves of fictional techniques, including the dramatization of character.

This is known as 'Okadu' a fictional technique that begins at level ten and gets harder each level down from nine to one.

As a 1970's "new journalism" proponent espousing journalistic use of fictional techniques, he was both scorned and imitated.

Saying that "Empathy" combines fictional and documentary techniques is a bit misleading, since it deliberately confuses them.

The book cries out for the fictional techniques Lowry used in "Crossing Over" to take us into Sarah's mind and heart.

The first lay somewhere between non-fictional essays and short stories, using fictional techniques to tell essentially true stories.

"They were both nonfiction written with fictional techniques," she explained.

It's a brilliantly effective fictional technique.

Some historians said they considered it a problem if the final version of the book did not explain Mr. Morris's fictional techniques.

In addition, the best memoirs use fictional techniques - and could easily pass for novels if the writers wanted to call them that.