Write Your Life Story: How to Organise and Record Your Memories for Family and Friends to Enjoy

by Michael Oke

This volume is full of tips and contacts to guide readers through the whole process of writing their life stories. It is suitable for the writing novice.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

Reviews

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like many, I was encouraged by my family to write my life story (I grew up in Berlin when the Berlin wall fell).
But … I'm not a writer. I never had any formal training nor attend any courses and felt quite unsure about the whole process. So I sat down on my PC… and than? Started to put a few paragraph headings , thinking it can't be all that difficult. I won't need to create characters nor come up with a fantastic plot. It's all there. Well, I got stuck almost straight away and it wasn't so straight forward and I was overwhelmed.

This is where Write Your Life Story came in. The book is written for people like me, and it is presumed that you have no experience of writing and no idea where to start. It starts you off right at the beginning and provides a full structure and takes you all the way to the end.
Yes, you will still need to write the story yourself and time investment is needed, but if you want a structured approach, work through the paragraphs one by one and you will end up with the story written.

This book was an excellent purchase and I can only recommend it for anyone thinking of writing their own life story who does not really know where to start and how to proceed to the final product. It may not be so useful if you have writing / researching / publication experience - as you will know most of the information I guess. One other point to mention is that my copy is quite old (from 2003) and of course, the publishing world has moved on enormously (eBooks), in fact, eBooks have probably revolutionised publishing, so some aspects of the book are slightly outdated now. Still, this was the most useful books I bought on that subject.
http://thepegsterreads.blogspot.co.uk...

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Oke's WRITE YOUR LIFE STORY is very much geared towards the everyday person who, often in later life, gets an urge to write down their life story for the benefit of their family members. I was doing the same for a close friend of mine, so I purchased it out of interest. Be warned, this is a very simple book, with nothing too complex or theoretical covered, so it wasn't entirely useful for somebody already well aware of the basics. Yet, as a practical guide, it does work. Oke's book is broken down into short chapters which cover various elements of life-writing such as first ideas, organisation, structure, research, and revision. As it came out in 2010, relatively early in the digital age, a couple of the last chapters regarding word-processing and publication, are somewhat dated. Nevertheless this is a well-presented and attractive little book which is a worthwhile read for those looking for a beginner's guide to the subject.