I literally only remember like the outlines of events, I don’t remember like the colors of clothing, or exact words of converasations, or like smell of the room. How the f do people remember that stuff? Like, no way they have photographic memory, do they just partly invent detail?
My understanding is that a lot of memoirs are ghost written, so rarely actually authored by the person they are about. They interview people and then most likely invent detail to fill in the rest. That or they find actual photos of events or things and build out the detail that way. If you have a picture of an event and can see the decorations you can probably guess or imagine the smell. Likewise if family members have selfies or things like that you can fill in their outfits from there
This is very much true. Ghost writing is also done to keep the voice of the author, as much as possible. Doug Stanhope, notable comedian, drunk, and drug abuser, has a very entertaining book called Digging Up Mother. There’s no way he remembers all this stuff, and he admits it. But in the audiobook versions, he adds meta-asides that indicate when a name is fake, for example, or add a story that contextualizes something, or he’ll straight up say “I’m tired, so-and-so is taking over” and let someone else read, making it a much more authentic experience of how an “autobiography” comes together.