Writer and musician
So you’ve written your story, you’ve had it edited and proofread and now you’re ready for the next stage: design. At this stage you’ll need to send your word files and digitised files of your images to a designer. Now I’m no designer, so I can’t tell you how to design your book. What I …
Continue reading "Stage three of writing your memoir, family history or life story: Design"
First, you write your story. That’s easy for me to write, but not always so easy to do! You pour out your story into its terribly perfect imperfection (yes, I’m big on allowing your first draft to be messy), and once you’ve got that first draft down, you’re ready to nudge into the editing and …
Continue reading "Stage two of writing your story: editing and proof reading"
Kia ora memoir writer, Do you ever want to bring more personality and life into your story? For some people it’s easier to talk about facts, figures and dates, than to describe people. Here’s a trick you can use - tell your reader one to three things about each person you write about that set …
Continue reading "How to bring the people in your story to life"
Kia ora and welcome to those new folk who have just joined us, possibly as a result of an online talk I gave last weekend to a roomful of amazing humans in East Coast Bays library, in Auckland. I write to you from a busy household of two raucous boys, one 16th birthday, one demanding …
Continue reading "Writing your story – the first stage of creating your book"
Kia ora from Golden Bay! My exciting news is - yesterday, we lost all our internet and mobile reception and were cast back to the 90s, followed last night by a nice little earthquake to finish the day with panache! Some things are unpredictable. But not so much the main stages of the book writing …
Mōrena, good morning! When I was a kid, just wanting to be left alone to enjoy writing my creative stories, grammar really got in my way. It was boring and hard to remember, due to my inability to well … care about it. Plus it led to the river of praise for my writing drying …
Continue reading "A (useful) grammar lesson from my eight year old"
Mōrena, good morning from Tākaka, How is your wild writing journey coming along this week? I say ‘wild’ because humans writing stories, and attempting to wrangle them into something that makes sense to people outside of their own minds, can sometimes feel like a wild journey. How do we take our living, changing life story, …
Continue reading "Your story will start out wobbly. And that’s ok"
Kia ora from a beautiful blue sky day here in Golden Bay, How are you? Today I want to talk about making mistakes when you’re writing. As I write I’m pondering whether you can make mistakes as you write. I mean, you obviously can, according to the rules of grammar, and depending on what discipline …
Continue reading "Why your voice matters and mistakes don’t"
Kia ora people! Charlotte Squire here 👋🏼 I'm sitting at my kitchen table, here in Tākaka, Golden Bay, pondering a trip across the Cook Straight in November to visit New Zealand's capital. I'm keen to help more people around Aotearoa/New Zealand get cracking writing their memoirs, life stories and family histories! So I’m coming to …
Continue reading "I’m coming to Pōneke/Wellington in November to teach memoir writing! For free!"
Kia ora, hey there 👋🏼 I'm Charlotte Squire, Kiwi lass/wāhine, depending on which way you want to go, and I'm on a mission to inspire more people to write their memoirs, life stories and family histories. So lately, I've been hanging out at libraries all over Aotearoa, New Zealand both in person, and online, to …
Kia ora! People often ask me if they have to write their memoir life story or family history from beginning to end. And my answer is: nope! You could start mid-point, like one of my memoir students is, at a moment when, on one snowy day in a Kiwi national park, she and her friends …
Kia ora! How is your story coming along this week? A few days ago I was talking with a memoir student who has really found her flow as she writes. She says she sits down to work on it, and hours later she emerges, reluctantly! Some days it’s hard for her to stop. She’s enjoying …
Kia ora writer! How is your story coming along this week? Today I want to encourage you to follow at least a rough plan as you write. It might be as simple as arranging your story by decades, or by significant life stages such as your childhood, career, adventures and family years. If you start …
Hey there memoir writer, How’s your story coming along this week? Over the weekend I got to write another page or two of my novel, ahhh it was so fun! I’m at that busy stage of life raising children and working full time. Once a month our local writers group meet and I dive back …
Kia ora, How are you today? I’m feeling sloth-like, after walking a lot with my dog yesterday! For me there is nothing more inviting than a warm, sunny winter’s day. To those who are new here, welcome. Perhaps you came in via a talk I gave to some people in Epsom library yesterday. Or perhaps …
Continue reading "Why context matters when you’re writing your memoir, life story or family history"
Time travel with me to my grandmother’s kitchen. We’ll go back 40 years to their solid, two storied, dun coloured house in Richmond. Their house sits on the top of a low hill, at the back of a quiet cul-de-sac where they do, of course, know everyone. We’ll sit at the ‘island’ that divides the …
Charlotte Squire 