It's the book whose subject you know best ...
Write Your Life Story! Forget writing a bestseller (though maybe you will). Forget fame and fortune (though you may find it). It's time right now to enjoy writing your autobiography-and a veteran author is here to help you along the way. Steve Zousmer, who has had a highly diversified writing career, began as a newspaper reporter who later wrote and produced for ABC News, served as head writer for Good Morning America, and went on to pen documentary films for National Geographic, the Smithsonian, the Audubon Society, and Discovery. Along the way, he has written for several magazines, the op-ed pages of The New York Times, Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, and, for seventeen years, worked as a speechwriter for heads of more than thirty major corporations before teaching at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
This book doesn't contain magic solutions, step-by-step formulas, quizzes, drills or questions, and no urgings to read what other famous folks have written. 'There are endless ways to write and structure your autobiography,' Zousmer says. 'It's your book, and you should enjoy and embrace your almost unlimited freedom to write it any way you want and for whatever purpose you choose.' Chapters include:
Frequently Asked Questions.
Motivation-Four Good Choices.
You Need an Organizing Principle.
Preparation Issues: Research, Outlining, Self-Discipline.
Who Are You and Who Is the Audience?
Writing Is Hard.
Set Your Imagination Free.
Strategies for a Good Start.
Telling Stories.
Writing Advice for the Long Haul.
Talking About Things We Don't Talk About.
Rewriting.
You're Finished-Now What? Even if you've got a novel, nonfiction, or book of short stories started, why not switch off to writing your autobiography? You'll have the freedom to create the book that is just right for you and whoever you choose to read it. You can decide how deep you want to dig-or not and decide what to include-and exclude. It's 100% your story!
What are you waiting for? You have everything to gain and nothing to lose! Whether you write 20 pages or 200, writing your autobiography for those who mean the most to you is one of the most valuable gifts you can give to them. It is a project that you can pour your heart into, write freely, and you-and others-can keep forever.
