September 2019 - Forever Young Autobiographies

Case study: Students interview seniors for Our Priceless Past lift-out and expo

Celebrating 21 years of life history and community history

In a recent post I highlighted the enormous power of life-story feature articles.

But Central Queensland’s Gladstone Region has been taking this power to the next level with its popular Our Priceless Past lift-out and gallery exhibition, on show until next month.

The annual community event is celebrating 21 years of students interviewing, writing and publishing the life stories of special seniors.

The stories are printed in a collectors’ section of the daily newspaper The Gladstone Observer – this year with the support of sponsor LiveBetter Community Services – and displayed with storytelling memorabilia at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum.

Gladstone Regional Council cultural projects specialist Di Paddick describes the whole experiences as “a big warm hug” that brings together two very different generations.

She has helped organise the project since 2006 and said community enthusiasm and feedback kept growing year on year.

Forever Young Autobiographies caught up with Di to find out more about Our Priceless Past and hear her tips about starting a similar project with your community or family …

Proofreading tips for revising and editing your writing

5 simple tricks you need to know about proofreading your own work

First published October 5 2017: This article has been updated and improved.

I’ll be the first to admit I was a woeful speller at school.

In fact I almost repeated because I was so bad!

But over the years as a print editor I’ve read a lot of copy and seen the same mistakes crop up time and again.

The good thing is these common writing pitfalls are not hard to fix when you are polishing your autobiography, memoir, biography or life-story manuscript.

Here are five proofreading tips to clean up your writing today…

Ask Nicola Q&A: What are positive traits and qualities of a good writer?

How to improve your writing with 5 positive characteristics and habits

Hi and welcome to Forever Young Autobiographies – Ask Nicola.

I get many questions about writing life stories for family and friends.

And in this series I aim to highlight some of the queries I receive and give you a glimpse into how I help writers like yourself.

Today’s Ask Nicola answers the following question:

Help, I’m not a natural-born writer! What are some positive traits and qualities of a good writer that I can learn from?

How to write a book title: Catchy headlines and good book titles

7 amazing secrets to writing book titles (PLUS catchy titles examples)

What are the first words your reader sees when they pick up your book?

The cover titles.

These headlines are short but powerful.

They entice and intrigue your reader to turn the page.

I have written thousands of headlines as a daily print newspaper print editor.

I know what sings and what falls flat.

Want to write no-stress, catchy headlines for an autobiography cover and chapters?

Keep reading for my favourite tips and tricks.