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The Memoir Everyone Was Talking About ...
Charlotte Booth • 9 February 2023
Getting the research right
However, as evidence of amazing marketing it can't be beaten. I have no idea who his ideal audience is, as people were buying it who love him, who hate him and all those in between. The marketing and PR department did a grand job!
When looking at the reviews of the book, however, there was one which stood out and highlighted everything that is difficult when writing a memoir.
"Harry can't come up with any dates, says he can't remember the dates of anything. Said he was at college on a hot summer's day when the phone call came about his Great Great Grandmother passing. He was not at school, he was skiing in Switzerland with his brother (I remember this) and the papers have come back with the proof. Harry says that his mother bought him an Xbox for his 13th birthday in advance of her death, that her sister brought to the school for him, again not true the Xbox didn't come out till 4 years later."
When writing a memoir, in fact when writing anything of which you are claiming to be an authority on, you need to make sure your facts are 100% correct. With our own lives we like to rely on memory but how often have you thought something was a couple of years ago and it turns out to be 20 !? I still can't believe Red Dwarf is 35 years old. I remember watching the first episode like it was yesterday ... but I digress.
In the wake of ChatGPT fact-checking has never been so important, especially if you are putting something out under the umbrella of your business as a means of demonstrating your expertise. Relying on 'it looks about right' isn't going to help your business when someone (like the reviewer above) will know 100% that something is incorrect. It then casts doubt over everything you've written.
Ensuring facts are correct can come from expertise, using the right resources (not Wikipedia) and trying to go to primary sources wherever possible. As a researcher this has been something I have enjoyed doing for years - following a trail to the primary source and finding out that it has been changed in the retelling.
If you would like to talk about outsourcing your business content, or you are thinking about writing a memoir and don't want to get a review like the one above drop me an email or check out my writing mentoring programme.
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