: Re: Mother is writing a book, thinks writing her life stories is same as telling them My mother is a celebrity in a small niche world. Her contribution and experiences are wonderful and should

@LarsenBagley300

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Sounds like she has a following and an audience. Perhaps suggest she let some of her fans (could be some well known fans) have inputs on a few segments. Or see if she wants to talk to a biographer or even offer her a speech to text software so she can dictate her stories.

Ultimately, this is her book, not yours, and it sounds like she has some idea of what direction she wants to take it in. A good number of humorists would tell small stories from their life in their books and they may or may not be based on true events or loosely therein... she's not the first person to do it (think as if a stand up comic wrote his show down into a book, rather than a stage tour). You will have to accept that it's her book and not yours and she's going to do it the way she wants to do it (As someone who writes for fun, I've let my family read some of my stuff and I appreciate their feedback, but I'll be damned if I let them tell me how to tell my own story.).

All that said, every writer has the same weakness: Vanity. Ask if you can read some of her stories... and then say you enjoyed it but you wanted to here more about [insert details you find lacking here] and get her to open up about it... and then if you like what she's saying, tell her other people would love to hear that. Writers collapse like a House of Cards for any positive remarks about their works (and will be Fort Knox to any hostility to it).

I got to say I think you misdiagnosed your mother. Writing about myself is hard... and most writers I talk to agree. Anything but that! Your mom sounds like she's got an ego to her, not a low self-esteem.

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