20 years ago I sat down with my father and asked him why he had never spoken about his life and how he grew up. I knew the basics about where and when he was born, went to school and studied but that was about it. His response surprised me.

"Because no-one ever asked so I didn't think anyone was interested.

As a business historian and storyteller I asked him if he'd like to share his life story with me. Several sessions over the course of a year later my father shared the stories and memories of his life, the ups and downs, challenges, heartaches and highlights. 

In the process I learned a lot about why he was the way he was and the aspects of his charatcer and passions that I'd inherited.

I was fortunate because just two years later he died suddenly. I delivered the eulogy at his funeral. My three brothers came up to me afterward and asked me how I knew all those things about our father. My response was, 'Becuase I asked.'

Writing a memoir takes time and there's no right time to start. My main piece of advice would be to start, don't wait to be asked.

If you don't tell your story, who will?

In terms of how to start writing, the easiest way is to get the chronology down first using major events (good and bad) as markers, think of it like the writing version of painting by numbers. Then fill in the time periods inbetween.

It's really important to share how you felt at the time, explore why you made the choices you did and, if you want to, reflect on those.

Most importantly, write first and edit second. Don't worry about how much (or little) you are writing just write. Once you've written your story you can and should review and revise it, and you'll probably undertake several revisions.

The next challenge is locating photographs and images to include in the story. Given you're probably like me, a person of a certain age, you'll have original photos that need to be scanned, images on various devices and in various places. It's quite a task to locate then select and caption those you want to put in your story.

Once you've done this you then need to choose how you're going to share your story and to who? Do you want a printed book, eBook, PDF or all three. Do you want to intergrate links to online sources or not.

I've recently worked on several memoirs that were undertaken for circulation for family and friends. 

If you'd like to disucss your memoir contact me jaqui@thebookadviser.com.au