In an overcrowded market, who cares about me?

Memoirs. Confessions. Autobiographies.

They are like the Hyundai Getz of the writing world. They're everywhere and depreciate in value the minute you look at it.

Another memoir about addiction and depression, really?

I'm writing a memoir for someone else and I 'confess' I've often thought about writing one for myself.

But really, who would care? It seems country singer Shawn Colvin, who released her autobiography 'Diamond in the Rough' had similar thoughts.

I do love the way she put it to the New York Times recently:

'...chronicling her alcohol and depression came easy. The hard part was convincing herself that she should add another memoir to an already crowded market of confessional autobiographies.

“Who’s going to care?” Ms. Colvin said. “I’m not Obama. And my drinking career is a joke compared to Keith Richards’s. I had to get over that a little bit and just believe there were parts in there that are universal. When I encountered people in my life that were honest about the tough stuff — alcoholism or depression — it helped me enormously. I started to look at the book as something that might help people, instead of just what’s been interesting about my life.”

I've always maintained that everyone has a story. But whether it's worth publishing is another story in itself.

I am currently writing the 'life story' of a man called Bill. He is the grandfather of a friend of mine and has been living in my home town of Perth since 1937. Unforutnately he has been diagnosed with lung cancer and that prompted him and his family to record his life, the changes he's seen and the memories his family and friends have of him.

My own confession must come first: I did think 'Wow, he must have done something pretty amazing to warrant a life story.'

That was the objective writer and journalist in me. Always thinking about what will sell. Then I met him. Talked to him and saw pictures, read what his family had to say and all the memories and things that went into making his life.

And that was a story in itself. Maybe not to the whole world but at least to those who really matter: his loved ones.


Yours in word-nerdiness,

Lauren