Writer and musician
Kia ora, hello, how's your story coming along this week? So - your writing routine. Let’s talk about that. Do you have one? Comment here and let me know? I’m curious. After a few years of teaching folk to write their stories, I’ve moved into the ‘yes, you do need a writing routine’ camp. Before …
I write to you from my other living room - The Dangerous Kitchen cafe, in downtown Tākaka. How’s your memoir feeling today? Honestly, email me back with three words to describe how it’s feeling, I’d love to know! I’m in the design stage of two books right now. This is where we take the text …
Continue reading "Preparing for the design stage of your book 📙"
Kia ora, how is your story coming along? You may know by now that I’m big on letting your first draft be gloriously imperfect, so that you can get on with writing it, without questioning whether it’s good enough. Because usually, it’s more than good enough and it’s a wondrous thing to have written it. …
Kia Ora, How’s your memoir coming along this week? Whatever stage you’re at with it, just keep going. Last week my 16 year old son Kāhu headed off on an adventure to the West Coast of the South Island with his dad to sit his restricted licence test. The nerves were high. For my boy, …
Continue reading "Writing about that time you did that hard thing."
Kia ora, how are you? Today I’m writing to you from my cosy kitchen to encourage you to keep going, keep writing your memoir, life story or family history. Think of the satisfaction of seeing your family reading it in the future, and of knowing you’re leaving them with the facts, and your perspective of …
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 …
Continue reading "9 tips to avoid writing a long and rambling memoir"
Kia ora, hello there 👋🏼 How are you? And how is your precious story? Last night award winning author Gerard Hindmarsh spoke to members of our Write Your Memoir course and I wanted to pass on something he said that inspired me. He said: ‘get your blood moving’ before you write. He likes to cut …
I was talking to an avid reader of my newsletters earlier today and she told me about her impressively long (90,000 words, after being edited down) story. She said it was quite dense with text. That got me thinking about something I often use to break up text, in memoirs, and anywhere I want to …
Kia ora 👋🏼 If you’re new here, welcome! And if you’ve been with me for a while, it’s good to be with you again this week. Last week I invited people to share a small snippet of their story, a mere 100 words, so I could share it with others. And they did! Here’s (slightly …
Kia Ora, hello there lovely, I’m loving the cosines of winter. We’ve had a few days of rain and it’s been a great time to write, sitting as close as I can get to our impressively real looking fake fire, ha ha! I’m most productive as a writer in the mornings. How about you? If …
Continue reading "When you write, and 100 words of your story"
Kia ora, If you’re new here, welcome! I’m Charlotte, I live in Tākaka, Golden Bay, top of the South Island of New Zealand, with my family, and I’ve been a writer for decades - journalism, blogging, social media, reports, marketing, books - you name it, I’ve written it! And you’re here to learn how to …
Continue reading "Let’s get back to the basics memoir writer"
If you’d love a lot more support and guidance to write your memoir, life story or family history, join my online course Write Your Memoir (learn about it here) before August 1st to get: Access to my online course Write Your Memoir, which will teach you to write your story One on one support with …
Kia Ora, if you’ve just joined me, warm welcome from a Tākaka writer. This week I want to invite you to take stock of how far you’ve come with your memoir. Sometimes celebration is called for. I know some of you are making great headway, you’re persevering, despite some hard days, and you’re writing amazing …
Continue reading "Celebrate how far you’ve come memoir writer"
Did you ever think about writing your history as a fictional story? Meet Gerard Hindmarsh. He calls this ‘faction’ - fiction based upon fact. I first met Gerad 20 years ago after I read his book Angelina - From Stromboli to D'Urville Island: a family's story.’ He wrote this story about his grandparents Angelina and …
Continue reading "Gerard’s book ‘Angelina’ – where fiction meets fact "
Kia ora from my cosy kitchen, I’ve got curry and rice on the stove and the fake fire ablaze. How’s that story of yours coming along? I’m just about to finish a book for a client and we’re working on the cover. We’ve gone back and forth about it quite a few times, and I …
Well hello there dear memoir writer 👋 How are you and how is that story of yours? Yesterday I met with a student on my memoir course, for an online chat to make sure she had everything she needed. She shared a few pages of her story with me and once again I was transported …
Continue reading "Your ‘normal’ could be someone else’s ‘fascinating.’"
Charlotte Squire 