Barbara J. Hamby

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Employment History

Today I finished the draft of my employment history. Nearly sixty years crammed into 28 pages, 8,400 words. I think condensing it into that space must be why it took me so long to produce so few words. Some writers can grind out that many words in a few hours.

There will be editing required and I may add another anecdote here and there to spice it up a little, but the hardest part is done.

Now I need to decide what other area of my life to record next. Also, I am contemplating how to weave the narratives together, if I choose to do that. Or, in the alternative, shall I give each separate part of my life its own section of the book? I’ve read novels written in that style that force the reader to do the work of integrating the sections or chapters into a cohesive unit.

Modern readers who deal in sound bytes may not be up for such a task. I need to read more memoirs myself and see how others have dealt with my dilemma. No ordinary person expects his/her memoirs to be best sellers, but it would be fun to sell some to the market of general readers.

And now, back to the task at hand.