Writing a Legacy Book

I recently gave a presentation titled Senior Memoir at my local library and thought it would be a good fit for here as well. You are all readers, but maybe you have a memoir in you to write, or you simply want to create a legacy book to hand down to your children. This post will give you some guidance.

Let’s start with definitions.

Memoir: a record of a single event or lesson from your life.

Autobiography: a record of your life from birth to where you are right now (if someone else writes the story of your life, it’s called a biography).

Legacy book: to record your achievements, values, and life story so others can learn about your journey and everything you discovered. While you can certainly publish and sell your legacy book, it’s more about preserving information to pass to future generations.

Where to Start

Decide the purpose for your book. Knowing this will also help you decide what to include in your legacy book.

Do you want to:

• Preserve family history
• Impart wisdom
• Tell your life narrative
• Preserve your values
• Pass on lessons and knowledge (things today’s generation has no clue how to do)

Next, you’ll want to decide on format. Do you want a print book, digital, audio, or video. This will guide how you create your manuscript. Thanks to technology, you can dictate to MS Word or Google docs. You can record audio or video on your phone and have the file transcribed if you want a print version or simply upload the audio/video files to the cloud to share with family and friends.

Set a Scope for Your Book

A memoir demands a specific period of time as does an autobiography, but a legacy book can cover several generations of ancestors. Know how much “time” you want to cover so you don’t get overwhelmed in researching all those ancestors.

Then set a completion date. Do you want to be done with your book in six months or a year or much sooner? This allows you to reverse engineer when you must complete each step of the project to meet that deadline.

Start Writing (or Recording)

Start with an outline. I’m not talking about the dreaded outlines of school days past (I never liked doing those). Jot down what you plan to include in your book. Again, depending on the specific type of book you plan, you might include:

• Life events
• Turning points
• Life lessons
• Milestones
• Personal beliefs
• Cherished family traditions

Involve your family and friends for their insight and experiences that can add to your book.

Your outline will keep you on track. But be flexible. You might realize you need to include something that isn’t in your outline or take something out. The outline is there to guide you not put you in a straitjacket.

You’ll also want to gather photos, letters, documents, mementos you want to include.

Self-edit and Professional Edit

Once you have self-edited your book the best you can, have someone else edit it as well. Even if the book is only for your family, you want to give them a quality book. Reach out to someone with strong grammar skills who can correct grammar and punctuation.

(If you plan to sell your book, hire a professional editor!)

Once you have edited your book, you’re ready to create the final version. Preparing a book for print to sell requires specific formatting and design. Hire someone or use the free tool available at https://reedsy.com/studio. Otherwise you can print your legacy book at places like Office Depot or Staples.

Or you can send the digital file to family and friends, by far the least expensive and easiest option.

A legacy book would make a perfect winter project. I know it’s only July, but that means you’ve got time to gather materials and start your outline, so when cold weather does hit, you’re ready to do the actual writing.

I’d love to hear if some on you decide to do this. Send me pics!