Part 2: How to write a grandma book in simple steps
An amazing thing happened last week.
My grandmother turned 99.
Happy birthday Bonnie!
Anyone reaching this grand old age is remarkable.
That is a whole lot of living and a whole lot of life stories!
A year on from her last birthday, however, and my grandma can be satisfied she has these stories down on paper.
Over the past couple of years we have been working away on her book.
It has been a long but infinitely rewarding process.
Now we are getting ready to print final copies for family and friends.
This week I am going to recap the final stages of how the book came together, what challenges we faced and where we are at now.
Grandma book: a year in review
In May last year I wrote an article about my grandmother’s book.
At that time I was flat out using my mountain of transcribed interview notes to weave and polish stories together into chapters.
For most of the past year I continued to chip away at this task.
Compiling nearly 100 years of life stories takes a long time!
It took many months to edit my way into the 1940s.
Then another month to hit the 1950s.
My husband and I plus our two children moved interstate, our family got sick and other commitments pulled at my time.
But I kept turning up at my desk a couple of times a week.
Soon I was onto the 1960s and 1970s.
Now it felt like I was making ground but I still had nearly 50 more years to cover!
Another few months and I was into the 1980s.
This re-energized my writing as I remembered this time and some events in the book from my childhood.
Finally in the new year I edited the epilogue.
What a marathon of a writing project!
I had always feared it might have gotten the better of me.
But it was so satisfying to edit those final words, re-read the last paragraph and let out a big loud: “Yes, it’s done!”
Related article –Case study: Helping my grandmother, 98, write her autobiography
A grandmother quick off the mark
During this time my grandmother had been reviewing and editing sections of the book as I finished them.
Every few months I’d print off the latest section on my home printer and send it to her in the mail.
In the margins of some pages I put extra questions or comments, which she would reply to if she could.
She was astoundingly quick!
The day a section of 50-odd pages arrived in the post she would start reading and editing.
And almost within the week the corrected version would be back in my letterbox.
Once I had made updates to the final section we had an A5 document of about 45,000 words or 250 pages with 10 chapters in chronological order plus an introduction and epilogue.
Related article –Life story challenge: The quick and easy way to record a loved one’s biography
What now for the story of grandmother Bonnie?
Next was the time to bash the basic Word document into book shape.
I admit this was a bit of a technical learning curve for me.
As a print editor I had lots of knowledge about preparing newspapers for print on a daily basis.
But laying out and designing a book was different.
A friend referred me to professionally designed book templates.
I bought one easily enough online, downloaded it, watched the video training and got to work.
The main steps were: copying and pasting each chapter into the template, applying design tags, filling in the ‘front matter’ and writing my introduction.
However, perhaps the fiddliest bit was laying out the centre picture pages and adding detailed captions.
This took me a couple of weeks – much more time than I thought.
Finally the book came together.
It is a relief for me to see this project get this far.
I admit I was overwhelmed more than once by the enormity of the task.
The process has taken a lot of energy, determination and learning.
But each time I lost track I remembered how enthusiastic Bonnie was about the project and sharing her stories.
Now I’m eager to finalise the cover design and have the book printed.
And of course I can’t wait until Bonnie gets to share it with friends and family.
Related article –Case study: Surprise find inspires biography of a late mother
Final say
My husband and I took our kids to see my grandmother for Mother’s Day on the weekend.
I was so excited to bring a final version of the manuscript for her to read.
Bonnie was amazed by how many words and stories we had put together.
“I can’t thank you enough,” she said with tears in her eyes while giving me a big squeeze.
Making her this happy was satisfaction enough this project had been worthwhile.
But as I watched my young children play with my grandmother I knew this book meant so much more to all of us.
To have her stories recorded for her children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren means her legacy, amazing life and love will live on.
I can’t wait for her next birthday – 100!
Happy writing.
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This article first appeared on the website Forever Young Autobiographies.com.