Advance planning on your part is useful in deciding an estimated budget and time frame. When we decide the approximate scope and the style of your memoir, I will give you certain tasks which help greatly in organization, thus saving you time and money. I usually work with clients on a weekly basis. During our interviews I gather new material and review with you what I have previously written.

Some of my clients decide to begin a professional memoir writing project after years of recording memories. Others have no plan, but just know they want to do it. The process of recalling and working together takes over and the work takes on its own form. We may start out chronologically, but may soon be working on several chapters at once. Our focus may shift from one thing to another depending on what's being revealed, but everything comes together in a way that is organized and sequential and more information than we ever anticipated comes forth.

You need not be concerned with the interview part because that is my job and I am competent at getting people to talk about their lives. Interviews may include family members in a group or individually. Your family members may be helpful in recounting tales with you or actually being the ones to tell them. Vignettes (stories) about your life should be entertaining, humorous, poignant, historical or otherwise nostalgic.

My job is to take the information from our interviews and to put it into a cohesive narrative or a collection of stories (vignettes). I will submit my written work for your approval following our first interview session and will continue to do so weekly, so the process moves rapidly. I do considerable editing as a matter of course. After we feel the manuscript is complete, I will keep editing and proofing free of charge until the manuscript is ready for publication. For this editing, I only charge you if you change the content.

After the entire manuscript is approved it becomes your property. I will hand it over to you or to my layout person for transformation into a book with your selected photos. For the vignette style scrapbook memoir, I will create the original for you if so desired. Or I can write and print out the vignettes for you to arrange in your own manner if you would prefer to save that cost.

I may ask your permission to include approved excerpts and photos on the Sonoma LifeStories website and to keep a copy of the work, but you own the copyright and no portion will be reprinted without your permission.