writing my story

opsite · Dec 3, 2005

hello,
i'm a 45 yr old man wanting to write my story on addiction,incarcerations and such. been told many times i should write my story. my question is, would anyone be interested in such a book? determing my purpose and message for the book? how do i get started? thx

Breca Halley · Dec 3, 2005

It sounds like you've definitely got a good story to tell and there is definitely a market out there for the kind of book you'd be writing. Your purpose and message for the book should be what you want them to be. What do you want your readers to get out of the book? What kind of audience are you aiming to attract? And most importantly, what would you enjoy writing the most? You definitely have to tell the story in a way that you enjoy, and this is more important than marketing because if you worry too much about aiming at an audience instead of writing something you enjoy, it will be harder to finish, since nobody wants to spend lots of time on something they dislike. So strike a good balance between personal enjoyment and writing your book for a particular market. What this balance is can only be determined by you. As for getting started, I would suggest deciding how exactly you want to tell the story and then figuring out a format. When I write my fiction, I work best with a rough outline as opposed to a detailed outline, but this is a matter of personal preference. If you think you'd be better off with a detailed outline, then you probably are. In your case, you will probably want to make some sort of compilation or list of exactly what and how much you want to cover in your story. Also, keep in mind that it is impossible to recall the exact details of many situations, which is where your creativity will come in. Don't worry about not being exact in your recollections, because nobody is, and you will get hung up on it. Chances are, when you're trying to figure out how to tell a scene, you'll remember more about it as you go along. There are lots of articles out there as well that you can look into for more ideas and tips.

Avalon · Dec 3, 2005

Didn't I just read somewhere that a recently featured Oprah book was about the author's struggles with addiction and his recovery?

Ah. It's a book called A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey.

Not sure if this story is similar to the one you have to tell (his seems to focus on rehab), but it might be a place to start.

opsite · Dec 3, 2005

writting my story

thank you so much Avalo and Breca for the excellent suggestions. deciding where to start the bio in life and what to include are the main concerns on my mind. i suffered unbelievable abuse while incarcerated. prior i was an A student and addict. released at 18 and went to college and ontinued my addictions. arrested again for drugs and lost a professional license and life. so much in between to weed out. very overwhelming. deciding what makes my story so unusual it needs to be written about or if it's just a story about the average addict. of course, to me it was unique.
have a good day all!!

aruna · Dec 3, 2005

opsite said:
deciding what makes my story so unusual it needs to be written about or if it's just a story about the average addict. of course, to me it was unique.
have a good day all!!

This is well worth considering. There are many people in similar situations, and many do write about it. Writing about it is good; but you need to decide whether the writing is for therapy - just for you alone, and perhaps some of your family members - or whether your story is "different" enough to be commercial.
I know for a fact that publishers are flooded with first person stories about addiction/abuse/prison/down-and-out experiences, so yours must really be special in order to stand out.
Not trying to dampen your enthusiasm, just cautioning you to be quite realistic and honest about your story's prospects.
It seems you have not yet started; and the commercial prospects can really only be known once you have something down.
Why not get started, and then post your first few pages in the "Share Your Work" forum?

sandoz · Dec 4, 2005

I'm reading A Million Little Pieces right now. As I'm turning the pages I keep thinking, "what's the hook? what's the draw? what makes me want to keep reading?"

The narrator is angry and assertive. Not afraid to fight. The descriptions of using are vivid and engaging. Then there's the doctor's report that if he leaves the clinic and feeds his addictions he'll most likely be dead within a few days. I'm reading to find out if he sticks to the program (which of course he will).

Pick it up before you start writing and find answers to these questions. I think accounts of addiction will always have an eager audience. People want to read about misfortunes of others, just like they slow down to see accidents on the highway. Most people deal with addictions of their own, even if they're not as debilitating as alcohol and narcotics.

Just wanted to add -- I'd recommend everyone flip through the first few pages in the bookstore, just to see how the author handles dialogue. Very direct, no adverbs or tags, not even quotation marks. It's clever, best of all it works.

banjo · Dec 4, 2005

If you are writing a novel on those subjects, perhaps you could make it more interesting if you personalized a story. What I mean is write the story from the perspective of worthy lives destroyed, or how the characters were drawn into the mire.

Everyone begins as an innocent babe and become who they become by the choices they make. Perhaps you could discuss any limitations in your characters options, that made their slide easier, or perhaps discuss parallel lives with similar options, and how the choices made at similar crossroads caused their paths to diverge.

writing my story

opsite

Breca Halley

Avalon

Linda J. Daly

opsite

aruna

On a wing and a prayer

sandoz

banjo