Kia ora, hello you.
Just a short blog tonight, which is fitting for a question that someone on my memoir course asked our guest speaker Gerard Hindmarsh earlier this week:
‘How do I know if my story is too long and rambly?’ Actually I may have made the word ‘rambly’ up. But moving on, here are nine things you can do to make sure it’s not.
Read over your story and:
- Ask yourself if you’re repeating the same message in different parts of your story.
- Consider whether you can say the same thing, in fewer words.
- Think about whether you’ve stuck to the key point you intended to make in each section of your story.
- Ask yourself if you need to move text around, so it has a more logical flow.
- Consider whether your story would make sense to someone who doesn’t know you – eg your great, great, grandchild.
- Review your story for unnecessary tangents.
- Break your text up with subheadings, new chapters and images.
- Ask someone to give you honest feedback about whether it’s too long and rambly.
- Read it out loud to yourself occasionally, to give yourself a different perspective of it.
As Gerard said, read over your story, again and again and whittle it down so that it’s the best it can be.
I hope this helps because trust me, your story matters. One day it will be someone else’s history.
Charlotte x
PS – to gain access to Gerard’s inspiring hour-long talk in our friendly Facebook support group, as well as my seven module online course Write Your Memoir, join my course Write Your Memoir for 30% off before this Friday the 23rd of August at 5pm.
Use the coupon: 30%-OF-WRITE-YOUR-MEMOIR-COURSE-AUGUST24
.Charlotte x
Charlotte Squire 