Everyone's life is important and deserves to be remembered, and what better way than through a book - a tangible, tactile way to ensure your memories never die.
My daughter told me a little while ago that the thing she would like most from me is a book telling my life story and that of my family - because she was scared she would forget the family stories I had told her.
It got me thinking that so many other people would cherish a similar gift.
Basically it means one can live on forever through one's memories. What a wonderful way to communicate with future generations to come!
But writing a book - especially about oneself - is hugely daunting as well as a massively time consuming task. How to gather one's memories? What to write? How to write? Where to start? The list of questions goes on and on.
What did I do? First I signed up for a book writing course. Though I have spent my life writing and editing on a daily basis as a journalist, I decided I needed some specialist help. I read everything I could get my hands on about writing memoires, writing life stories and writing non-fiction.
Then I decided on what I wanted to write about, sorted it out into logical chapters, linking my life with other family members and their stories, and then I began to write.
But it wasn't easy even for a writer like myself, so it made me think that perhaps I could offer this service to others, who were less experienced with writing and editing.
There were not many people out there offering this service and those that were, were charging a huge amount of money.
But though I have a feeling that it's only older people who would cherish their life story being recorded, there are also all those interested in geneology. Thanks to the internet and ease of research, this is now the number 1 hobby in Northern America and Australia is tipped to follow suit. Ancestry.com, Australia's most popular online resource for family and social history recently commissioned a survey which found that 83% of Australians are interested in their family's history and 72% have actually done some research.
But what are they doing with all the information they have found? Stored it on their computer - put cuttings in a shoebox? So, I thought perhaps I could help these people too, weave their research into a highly readable and professional story...
And because I think everyone's story deserves to be told, I decided to ensure I could produce packages to suit everyone's budget.
So, hence the new business, a new chapter in my life. And that's certainly cause for celebration!
My daughter told me a little while ago that the thing she would like most from me is a book telling my life story and that of my family - because she was scared she would forget the family stories I had told her.
It got me thinking that so many other people would cherish a similar gift.
Basically it means one can live on forever through one's memories. What a wonderful way to communicate with future generations to come!
But writing a book - especially about oneself - is hugely daunting as well as a massively time consuming task. How to gather one's memories? What to write? How to write? Where to start? The list of questions goes on and on.
What did I do? First I signed up for a book writing course. Though I have spent my life writing and editing on a daily basis as a journalist, I decided I needed some specialist help. I read everything I could get my hands on about writing memoires, writing life stories and writing non-fiction.
Then I decided on what I wanted to write about, sorted it out into logical chapters, linking my life with other family members and their stories, and then I began to write.
But it wasn't easy even for a writer like myself, so it made me think that perhaps I could offer this service to others, who were less experienced with writing and editing.
There were not many people out there offering this service and those that were, were charging a huge amount of money.
But though I have a feeling that it's only older people who would cherish their life story being recorded, there are also all those interested in geneology. Thanks to the internet and ease of research, this is now the number 1 hobby in Northern America and Australia is tipped to follow suit. Ancestry.com, Australia's most popular online resource for family and social history recently commissioned a survey which found that 83% of Australians are interested in their family's history and 72% have actually done some research.
But what are they doing with all the information they have found? Stored it on their computer - put cuttings in a shoebox? So, I thought perhaps I could help these people too, weave their research into a highly readable and professional story...
And because I think everyone's story deserves to be told, I decided to ensure I could produce packages to suit everyone's budget.
So, hence the new business, a new chapter in my life. And that's certainly cause for celebration!
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