Writer and musician
Kia ora, Warm welcome to you if you’re new here, and good to see you if you’ve been on this journey with me for a while. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, it’s ok for the first draft of your story to be messy and imperfect. In fact, it’s kind of hard …
Kia ora, hello from a beautiful mild winter’s day here in Tākaka, New Zealand 👋🏼 My mother and I have just walked a five year old, a nine year old and one prancy dog home from school. And speaking of steps, this week I was reminded of the value of them. I’m starting an exciting …
Hello lovely 👋 This is Charlotte tuning in from Tākaka, Nee Zealand. How are you on this fine day? How’s that story of yours? Today I want to share one thing with you that I talk about in module four of my online course Write Your Memoir - it’s about photo captions. Most people I …
Continue reading "Four things to include in your photo captions"
Hello lovely 👋🏼 This is a very short post for those of you in who live in or near Nelson, New Zealand, to say that my course ‘Write Your Memoir in One Year - Nelson’ is due to start this Saturday, in Nelson City. If you’ve been thinking of joining, now’s the time. The important …
Continue reading "Nelson ‘Write Your Memoir in One Year’ course starts this Saturday"
Hello lovely human 👋🏼 This week I had the delightful experience of welcoming a new student to my memoir course, who turned out to be the daughter of one of the first people I ever wrote a memoir for. I remember writing about her childhood. She said her mother’s book had been a “Godsend”, mentioning …
Continue reading "Deirdre’s wood chopping & two generations of memoirs"
Kia ora, I write this a week on from ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) Day here in Aotearoa New Zealand. I spent that morning on the brink of tears. First there were the ‘Tākaka Mounted Rifles’, a group of people on horseback, in military uniform. They also brought a riderless horse, in honour of …
That's me - Charlotte Squire - on a mission to get more Kiwi elders writing their life stories, memoirs and family histories. Kia ora! I'm really excited to tell those of you who live in the top of the South Island that I'm running two in-person year long courses, one in Nelson (starting end of …
Continue reading "Write Your Memoir in One Year courses – Nelson and Golden Bay, New Zealand"
Kia Ora! Warm welcome to those who have just joined this blog! Perhaps you came via Tākaka or Motueka library talks I recently enjoyed giving, or you found me here online via Aunty Google. It’s good to beam into your world, from mine, here in Golden Bay on a blue skied morning. This week I’m …
Continue reading "Mike the ’10 pound pom’s bonfire story – from his memoir"
Charlotte Squire Kia ora, How’s life today? In my world, the peaches have mostly fallen off our trees, the cabbages have been harvested and I’m wearing merino wool in the mornings. This week I want to remind you: if you like to write, you’re a writer. And I have this new idea - would you …
It’s interesting the way each of us experience significant life events differently We put them through our filters, defined by our personalities, upbringings, attitudes and attach different meanings to them. The way I respond to my (fictional) Aunt Joan dying might be totally different to the way my brother responds. To me she was a …
Kia ora 👋🏼 Back in my journalism days I often found that the first paragraph of a news article was the hardest to write, because I knew it was the most important. In those first few sentences I needed to clarify the key angle of my story, in a way that inspired people to keep …
Continue reading "How to lure them to read a chapter of your memoir"
Kia ora dear writer, I spoke to a younger student of my memoir course this week who reminded me that we can live a lot of life before we even reach 20. This person doesn’t want to write a family history, but wants to share significant experiences and moments, from birth onwards. And of course …
Continue reading "What happened before you were 20 memoir writer?"
Today I would like to honour a lady named Jill. I met her when I was giving a free online memoir talk at an Auckland library. She shared honestly with the group that she had lost her beloved husband Phil to Alzheimers. She wanted to write a book about it. She felt he had been …
Continue reading "1st book emerges from my online memoir – Jill’s story"
Kia ora, Do me a favour today and look back over your work on your memoir or story so far, and take a moment to appreciate the work you’ve put into it. If you’ve managed to get more organised - well done 👏🏼 If you’ve managed to do some research - good work 👍🏼 If …
Continue reading "Celebrate how far you’ve come dear writer! 👏🏼"
Every single book I’ve worked on, or supported someone to write, has been different. No one writes their life story or family history in the same way, because each of our lives are so different. And I like it this way. Some people start at the end of their life stories and work back. Some …
Continue reading "If there was just one thing you were careful of as you write your memoir"
Well hello to you dear writer, A warm January welcome to those of you who are new to my weekly email. This is Charlotte, writer/writing teacher/musician/mum/wife, reaching out to you from beautiful Golden Bay, New Zealand. The first thing I want to say to you this year is: keep going. No matter where you’re at …
Charlotte Squire 