Breathe Life into Your Life Story: How to Write a Story People Will Want to Read - Softcover

Dawn Thurston; Morris Thurston

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560850949 ISBN 13: 9781560850946

Publisher: Signature Books, 2007

Synopsis

Breathe Life into Your Life Story is an essential read for anyone who aspires to write a life story—but not just any story, one your family and others will actually WANT to read.

Written for both novices and experienced writers, this book presents techniques used by novelists to immerse readers into their fictional world—techniques like “showing” rather than just “telling”; creating interesting, believable characters and settings; writing at the gut level; alternating scene and narrative; beginning with a bang; generating tension, and more.

Excerpts from memoirs written by such pros as Maya Angelou, Frank McCourt, Russell Baker, and many others illustrate how best-selling authors have used these methods to hook their readers. Dozens of “Learn by Doing” exercises help readers practice and acquire the skills necessary to breathe life into their own stories.

About this title

About the Author

Dawn Thurston, a graduate of UCLA, teaches writing at Santiago Canyon College in Orange, California, and has helped hundreds of students write their personal histories. She has published a history of her own Scottish grandparents, and her articles have appeared in various publications. With her husband, Morris, she has developed a popular workshop on writing family histories. Morris Thurston, a graduate of BYU and Harvard Law School, is a retired senior partner in the law firm of Latham & Watkins. His biography of a great-great-grandfather, Tora Thurston: The History of a Norwegian Pioneer, won the Dallas Genealogical Society's biography award.

From the Back Cover

"This is a powerful book--and a kindly one. The authors know the pain of learning to write well and are right beside you through the struggle. The may shake you up a little with their concrete, practical recommendations, but if you stick with them they will make you a better writer. You will learn if only by paying attention to their own fluid style. They show as well as tell."
--Richard Bushman, Gouverneur Morris Professor of History Emeritus, Columbia University; recipient of the Bancroft Prize for From Puritan to Yankee: Character and Social Order in Connecticut, 1690-1795

"From a distance, writing looks easy. I know from personal experience it is not. The Thurstons' fun and useful guide to writing a personal history is full of sensible help and upbeat advice. The quotes alone make entertaining reading; but even more, each chapter is loaded with essential guidelines and good ideas, supported by apt examples. The book helps you bring your life into focus to write an engaging story."
--Barbara Renick, professional genealogist and nationally known lecturer; author of Genealogy 101: How to Trace Your Family's History and Heritage

Edition details

• Publisher: Signature Books
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1560850949
• ISBN 13: 9781560850946
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 228