Give shape to your life story, without losing your personal voice

Have you written about your life or the life of a loved one? Sometimes the memories are already on the page, but it's still difficult to decide what to leave out, where to expand, and how to connect the periods. I offer editing of life stories and autobiographies, which will help turn the materials into a personal, clear, and interesting book. Together we will find the sequence that connects the events, while maintaining the personal voice and loyalty to the story.

What does editing involve?

We will find out what is important to you to convey and preserve, and we will build the book around it. We will work on the order of the chapters, the transitions between periods, and the balance between the events and the thoughts and feelings they evoke. It is not always right to start with childhood or to include every event. We will examine what contributes to the story and where it is worth dwelling.

We will identify places that require background and explanation, reduce repetition, and deepen significant moments with details from memory, documents, and photographs. We will check for consistency in names and dates based on existing material, and mark questions for clarification. We will distinguish between personal memory and documented information, without inventing details to fill in gaps.

Along with working on the structure and content, we will polish the language and preserve the expressions and story form that give the text its personal character.

The experience I bring to your book

I am a writer, literary editor, and ghostwriter, with experience writing and editing prose and non-fiction books and accompanying life stories, even in my third year. My background in communications and experience in literary writing help me ask questions, organize a wealth of material, and identify which moments need more space in the book.

In editing an autobiography and life story, I also make room for complexity: family relationships, painful memories, and the choice of what to share and what to keep private. The work is done with sensitivity and discretion, out of respect for the personal experience and the way you want to tell it.

How will we work together?

The guidance is personal, and the work is done directly with me. We will begin by reading a passage from the text and talking about the purpose of the book and its audience. A book intended to preserve the family heritage and pass it on to future generations may require different choices than a book intended for publication to a wide audience.

We will define the scope of the edit and gradually work on the structure, content, and language. Along the way, I will suggest changes and raise questions that will help fill in gaps and deepen the story. The decisions about what to reveal and how to present it will remain in your hands.

If you don't have a manuscript yet, you can also use shadow writing for a life story. Using interviews, transcripts, and personal materials, we will build the story and write it in your voice.

Depending on the needs of the book, I can also provide linguistic editing and proofreading services, in collaboration with professional editors who work with me. These services will be priced separately, and their scope will be coordinated in advance.

Want to turn your life story into a book?

You can send me a snippet of what has already been written and a few words about the book you want to create. Even if the materials are scattered among documents, notebooks, and recordings, we will explore together how to move from them to a book.