There are scads of books written about how to structure your novel, and even more on structuring a screenplay. But what about my speciality—life stories and family histories?
Right, right. Life stories and family histories, I know they’re two different beasts. But they each share several traits not found in typical novels: a meandering, episodic story; the need to include bits of detail, exposition, and even anecdotes that do not necessarily add to a narrative arc; a narrative drive defined less by conflict than by the often warm, comfortable memories of a lifetime. Not that there’s any life devoid of conflict, it’s just that most people don’t want a book representing their life as a continual struggle, especially if when they’re looking back on it they are filled with happy memories. The audience for a life storybook or a family history is different than the audience for a traditionally published book, and so are the reasons for writing one. It’s less about entertaining an unknown public than it is about sharing your history with family and close friends and generations of family to come.  Family, both present and future, will want to know things that the general public would have no interest in: the layout of a grandmother’s old farmhouse, the color of your mother’s prom dress, the nature of the argument that left two great aunts estranged for over 60 years. All elements that must be woven into the life story or family history that in a traditional book would be nothing more than odds and ends needing to be cut.
But I’ve got to believe that there is a structure that exists that best serves these types of books. Not a template, but a guiding set of principles.  It’s my intention with this website to document my search for this structure, to present what I find that works, and what doesn’t work. I work on an hourly basis for my clients, and they deserve the most efficient and effective process that I can bring to their project. Like all personal historians, I want to gather up the memories and reflections of my clients and present them as artfully as possible in the medium in which I work, long-form narrative. This is my search on how to do that best.
If you have any insight into this, I’d love to hear it.