Life Writing

About the Book

Why Life Writing?

How many times have you looked through the family album and wished there were more pictures of “the good old days”?

William Hofmann’s message in Life Writing is that there are more pictures, thousands of them just waiting to be pulled from your memory and written down.

Hofmann’s clear advice on how to get fresh ideas, how to write a rough draft, or how to use the basic principles of rewriting would be useful to any writer. But his book is specifically for those people who would like to use writing as a tool for preserving their past, for recording their own memories and the memories of their parents and grandparents.

From the first sentence to the last page, Life Writing is at once supportive and practical, a comprehensive step-by-step guide to gathering your family’s folklore and keeping it alive.

About the Author

William Hofmann’s publication credits include books, articles, short stories, and scripts for short films and the stage. As a technical writer and freelance editor he has worked for the Boeing Company, Weyerhaeuser Corporation, and the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. He recently completed writing and co-editing a two volume Chinese/English FAQ series on American life and culture for Foreign Language Press in Beijing, China. He has taught writing courses for the University of Washington, several community colleges, and the King County (Washington) Arts Commission. Life Writing grew out of several years experience teaching the writing of family history and memoirs in the senior centers and retirement homes in King County, Washington. It has been used as a textbook at several colleges.