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Write Your Life Story And Get It Published: Organisation

by Ann Gawthorpe

Unless you are going to write a life story consisting of nothing but anecdotes in no particular order you will need to organise all the material you have collected so that the right information gets put in the right chapter.

Firstly, decide what each chapter will be about. Some life stories will fall into natural divisions, such as different stages of your life, or specific topics such as houses lived in or pets owned. Give each chapter a working title such as ‘First Job’, then collect together all the relevant material – including illustrations – for each one.

You may find it helpful to make a list under each chapter title of all the things you want to include in it. These subheadings can be taken out at the end or left in. Any material left over can be slotted into a suitable chapter or given a chapter of its own.

You now have a skeleton which you can start fleshing out with more detail.

As this is only a first draft it is not set in stone. Information can be moved about and chapters can be divided or amalgamated. If you are undecided what to include and what to leave it out think what you as a reader would like to see in someone else’s life story.


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