Writing Family Histories and Memoirs

by Kirk Polking

From conducting solid research to producing a compelling book, readers are led step-by-step through the process of re-creating their past. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558703942
• ISBN13: 9781558703940
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good Book

I'm in the process of creating a short story book for my family and this book will be very helpful in preparing my work! I've read other similar books but didn't seem to get as much from them. It makes for easy reading and offers good examples for the reader.

Family History And Memoirs

I am working on my family history and this book will really help me. When you get into something new you need some kind of help and I really think this book is going to help alot.

I Wish

I wish I had written this book. It is balanced and complete. I discovered it only after I had self-published a much smaller and simpler guide to writing family stories. Where my brief encouragement to older family members is intended to give them the confidence to write, Kirk Polking's 250-page summary will help even a seasoned writer in putting the family histories and memoirs on paper. My only reservation in recommending the book is that it definitely is not for the beginning writer. The writing examples are excellent and demonstrate her points well. However, one must assume that the would-be writer is well-versed in the rules of English usage and familiar with the finer concepts such as voice and tone.I had intended to write a second guide to help my new storywriters in fine-tuning their actual writing content and individual writing stye. That is already covered quite well in Chapter 15, Self Editing Your FInal Manusctript. I especially appreciate the Twenty Rules for Good Writing, which Polking attributes to the Writer's Digest School, which she once directed. My third book would have been intended for the more sophisticated taste and style of a good writer; exactly what Kirk Polking's manual has done for us. That is why I envy her accomplishment. I recommend the book as a fine reference at a fair price.