Kia ora dear writer,
How are you on this fine Thursday? Did you manage to work on your memoir this week? I hope so.
I’m neck deep in editing Mike’s book, researching the history (or should I say ‘her-story’) of a hydro power station, and helping Jodie produce the second edition of her dad’s book (which he asked her to take care of on his death bed, so it’s pretty special).
At the last monthly online gathering for students on my memoir course, several people asked, ‘How do I know what to include, and what to leave out?’
I thought I’d share my thoughts with you.
1. Consider whether the information you’re including will be relevant to your readers. Does it stay true to the reason you’re writing the book?
2. Ask yourself if you want people to know it. If you most definitely do, then keep it in. This is your story.
3. Clarify how long your story will be – will it be a slender wee memoir that you could easily miss on the book shelf, a slightly more substantial medium sized read, or a huge door stopper of a book! The longer the book, the more details you can include.
4. As you go through and tidy your story up (also known as editing), evaluate each line and see if you can write it using fewer words.
5. Avoid repetition – it’s easy to repeat yourself in different parts of your book by saying the same thing in a different way. Watch out for that. If you don’t, your future editors/proof readers will hopefully pick it up.
6. Which leads me to my final suggestion – ask someone (or even better, a few people) to read all or part of your story and give you feedback, including on whether you’re including too much information, or not enough.
I hope this helps, and I also hope that you hang in there and keep writing!
Because your story matters.
Charlotte x
PS, in the lead up to my Motueka year long Write Your Memoir course, I’m producing this series of videos about what some local elders were up to aged 29, starting with this video about Tasha:
Charlotte Squire 