Kia ora from humid, mid-summer Tākaka,
I’ve just come in from watching my 17 year old trying to teach my 10 year old how to front flip on the tramp. Ahh sweet motherhood.
Let’s flip to writing your memoir now – do you ever wonder how to keep people engaged with your story?
I have five suggestions for you.
- Try to make your point in as few words as possible. What I mean by this is: when you’re going back over your draft story, ask yourself if you can say the same thing, in less words. This can prevent unnecessary tangents, and help you keep your writing clear and easy to understand.
- Avoid repetition. It’s very easy to do, especially for those writing longer stories. But it’s important to avoid retelling the same story in different parts of your story. It’s ok if it helps with context, but be careful not to repeat yourself too much. Readers will pick up on it and be more likely to lose patience. Sometimes it’s good to ask someone else to read over your story, check for repetition.
- Break your text up with subheadings. I like a good subheading. In my world they’re written in bold, they highlight a really interesting chunk of text, and they lure the reader into the story. They can be useful for breaking up long chunks of text, and make your writing skimmable, meaning readers could skip some parts they’re not so interested in and easily find the parts they’re keen to read about.
- Break your story into chapters. This might be an obvious one, but not everyone does this. Tell us what we can read in each chapter via your chapter headings.
- Include images. Images break up text and are a wonderful way to introduce your family to your ancestors. Be sure to include captions!
I hope these ideas inspire you to keep writing. I have come across many people who worry about this, and each of them had a fascinating story to share. Of course, no one life story is the same, which is what makes them so interesting.
Keep writing, dear one.
Charlotte x
PS if you’d like my personal guidance to write your memoir, life story or family history, think about joining my online course and community Write Your Memoir. You get access to 40 lessons that walk you through the writing process, to our group, and to my one on one guidance. I’m offering a 20% New Year discount until the end of February and today’s a great day to join as tomorrow afternoon we’re meeting online to celebrate how far we’ve come, and plan our writing routine this year.
Charlotte Squire 