Micro-Memoirs

Micro-Memoirs: For Shorter Stories

Travel stories. Relationship stories. How-I-did-it stories. Stories of challenge, grief or trauma. Maybe your narrative isn't meant to be a full-length book.....but it's still something you'd like to commit to paper, either to share with others or simply to capture it for yourself. I can help.

What is a micro-memoir?

How should I prepare for the interview?

Micro-memoirs are simply smaller versions of memoirs. Any story that you can recount in the space of an hour is a micro-memoir. Maybe it's a remarkable trip you took, or how you invented something. Maybe it's the story of treatment for and recovery from an illness. Maybe it's that year you lived in Paris or Burkina Faso....or how you completed your first marathon.

How does it work?

The goal of a micro-memoir is to get your story on paper quickly and easily. We'll do an interview -- by phone, video call or in person -- of up to an hour or so. I'll write up your narrative, told in your voice with your words but burnished with some editorial refinement, and send you a draft for review. You'll make small edits or revisions as you see fit. If there's more content you want to add, we can schedule a second interview. After up to two sets of revisions, I'll finalize your draft and present it to you as a set of spiral-bound typeset pages or as an electronic file. (Micro-memoirs typically run about 8-12 manuscript pages.) And then it's all yours -- to reprint, copy and distribute however you choose.

Most likely, the topic of your micro-memoir is something you've thought about often or a story you've retold many times. You probably don't need much prompting to get the words out. But as a professional journalist and interviewer, I'm well-trained in how to elicit the details if you feel stuck or reticent. We'll work together to figure out the narrative thread and let it unspool from there.

What if I need more than an hour?

The call won't cut off at the sixty-minute mark. If you need a few more minutes to wrap up, that's fine. If you see your first draft and realize there are some details or anecdotes you omitted, we can schedule a second call. If the story you want to tell is far too involved to fit into the one-hour framework, further hours of interviewing can be scheduled for an additional fee.

What's the cost?
The entire project fee, which covers the interview, drafting, revisions, an electronic file, and one spiral-bound printed copy, all copyrighted under your name, is $350. If additional interview time is needed beyond the first interview and a follow-up, it will be billed at $75 per hour. The project fee is due at the time of the first interview and can be made by check or electronic payment.

Want to know more? Email me or click here.