Ground Rules for writing your story
Autobiography might be the formal description, but most of the autobiographies I read seem to be severely edited and keep all the raw emotion of a life away from the pages that are supposed to be describing that same life.
When you want to get your story down on the page take the time to establish what your own ground rulles will be for what you write about and what you leave out. This will save you so much angst later in the writing process when you have to face up to some topics you might want to deal with but are not sure quite how they should be covered.
Will you talk about your innermost thoughts, the adolescent probelems that you went through, the things you ought really not to have done on that year off when you travelled to Greece, or the relationship with the college tutor when you were nineteen and they were thirty!
In committing your story to the page you are instantly also committing yourself to a version of events that is far less in volume and in detail than what actuallt took place. You are seeking to capture the essence of the most important events while also wantign to ensure your reader gets a sense of what some of the day to day and normal or mundance activities were.
In writing for your family audience you might not want to dwell for too long on the first marriage that simply did not work out, and focus instead on the deep and satisfying love you found the next time. You might be trying to record the work you did throughout the various stages of your career so that your children and grandchildren earn more about how you felt you coped with work-life balance or even imbalance. The point here is that you are doing this now from your perspective, no-one elses.
By establishing some rules about what you will cover, and what you will leave out, when you come to draft the bookplan for this autobiography.
Nick Sturgeon facilitates a Non-Fiction Writers’ Retreat each year. In November 2008 it is on the Yorkshire coast close to historic Whitby. nick@smallbusinessbigprofit.co.uk
For more information visit www.smallbusinessbigprofit.co.uk and see Events
