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So basically I think my dad’s family has a really good story to write a book about but I don’t know how to go about it. I feel like one book is hard to fit all the crazy stories into. He has 11 siblings and each of them literally have lived a crazy life. So I don’t know... should I separate each character to their own book, or do they have their own chapters. Also I don’t know if it would be better from my point of view or theirs. I’m not exactly sure how I can go about this. I’m thinking of putting some stories up on here and getting some feedback, too. Maybe that would help.

It's hard to really give you a good recommendation based just on this, but have you considered doing a short story collection? You could do a story from each sibling's POV as they all grow up through the years. I think it'd end up being similar to giving one chapter to each of them. Difference being of course that if you think of each event as it's own story, then you'll have to come up with a beginning, middle, and end for all of them, whereas in a normal book you don't have to stress so much about a climax in each chapter.

I recommend the short story approach as well. If you tried including all those characters and each one's point of view in a story, it's going to get really complicated.

Also if these are going to be pretty true to life, you are going to want to get permission to write about these people.

Why not write short stories of each sibling? Then you can decide about a book. The short stories could be an impetus to help you settle this in your mind too.

authorswrite wrote: ↑15 Mar 2018, 19:23 Why not write short stories of each sibling? Then you can decide about a book. The short stories could be an impetus to help you settle this in your mind too.

I agree in writing it as a short story first.

When there are many characters I always use third person perspective. It helps to delve from one point of view to another without annoying the reader much. As for the 11 siblings, it depends on their story. Do you find their stories worthy of a whole novel? Interesting enough? If so, go for it. But, if you think some parts of their story interesting, you could add them all in one book like you said to prevent the reader from getting bored.

Just start writing how you encountered with each of them and then go on elaborating each character a bit further

Start by reading other memoirs, not necessarily of famous people who have had ghostwriters do all the work for them, but the regular my-crazy-family kind of books. They are all over Amazon. You can get a feel for what is already out there and see what method works and what doesn't.

I agree that the short story approach is a great idea.

It might be good to start making notes of which stories from their lives you would like to pick, and then you can look out for themes etc. Its also worth doing some mind maps and such just to plan out the main details of each story, and to see how much crossover there would be between them (e.g. does each story involve other siblings within it, or are they just about the protagonist and not other family members).

It might be useful to draw up a family tree, as this could help with your planning but also help the reader to understand the family dynamic better.

Good luck!

authorswrite wrote: ↑15 Mar 2018, 19:23 Why not write short stories of each sibling? Then you can decide about a book. The short stories could be an impetus to help you settle this in your mind too.

I think this is a great idea! You should give it a try, IMHO!

Honestly, there are a lot of times when I get an idea for something that I really want to write, but it's not fully fleshed-out. I don't always necessarily know where I'm going with it, and I've found that just starting to write it helps me to figure that out. Worry about the narrative first. Then in your next draft, you can make it fit into whatever it wants to be - whether that's a novel, a short story series, or a series of novels.