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Write Your Life Story And Get It Published: Make it interesting

by Ann Gawthorpe

Most life stories will be interesting to family and friends, but if you want to attract a wider readership you will need to add readability.

One way is to alter the structure of your story. Instead of using chronological order, start at the end and then tell your story in a series of flashbacks. Or start at a dramatic point and alternate chapters which take your story forward with chapters about your earlier life.

The other way is to add curiosity to your writing – the opening paragraphs of each chapter should hook the reader. This can be done by the flash forward technique where you describe the most dramatic incident in the chapter first and then explain how you came to be in that situation.

In the middle of chapters use foreshadowing where you give the readers a small piece of information to whet their appetite and then switch to writing about something else for a while

At the end of the chapter use foretaste where your last paragraph indicates that life is never going to be the same again and that this will be revealed in the next chapter.

Finally, add some humour. Look at your anecdotes and see if you can retell them in a more humorous way. Be prepared to tell stories against yourself and in such a way that your readers are invited to laugh.


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