Memoirs:
interviews, transcripts, research, writing and editing
Services
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Conducting interviews online (e.g. via Zoom, Teams, Skype) or in person.
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Transcribing interviews from online or audio recordings.
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Proofreading documents (see Proofreading page for more details).
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Basic or full edits on a document/transcribed interview.
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Basic edits = could mean cutting out repetitions and rearranging text slightly to flow more easily.
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Full edits = might be a reorganisation of the document into a format such as memoir, with chapters and text organised by subject/ time/ activity/ character.
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Conducting online research e.g. for academic or writing projects (for a memoir project, for example, it might be necessary to conduct research to fill in the blanks in a person's memories of certain events, or to add detail to a place or time).
Experience
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An MA in Creative Writing with Distinction from Nottingham Trent University (2018) including for a dissertation project on travel memoir. This required conducting interviews and research on the genres of memoir and travel writing, as well as writing a short memoir.
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Conducting interviews, research and typing up transcripts for other academic projects and for poetry commissions. Interviewees have included: Playwright Alan Bennett, Journalist and Writer Shreya Sen Handley, Travel Writer Helen Moat, and more.
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Conducting Interviews to create copy for PR/blogs/web and social media content. Interviewees have included: Author and former Editor of Attitude magazine Matthew Todd, participants at the BBC's Children in Need events, Chief Executive of BTEG Jeremy Crook OBE, staff and service users at Futures Group, the Maggie's cancer care Centre in Nottingham and Rushcliffe Advice Network.
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Creating memoirs as a ghost writer. This involved conducting online interviews with the client and a close member of her family; typing these conversations up as transcripts; and then proofreading and editing (basic and more detailed) the interviews into a short memoir for the family, which avoided repetition and was easy to read - including researched links for particular references. See testimonial below.
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Testimonial
Ellie Dix
The Dark Imp; board game publisher and designer
Interviews and transcripts:
"Jo has a knack for asking insightful questions in a way that gets to the heart of a matter. Her thoughtful research helps to hook the thread of a story and her gentle probing weaves it into glorious technicolour.
Jo is approachable, down-to-earth and immediately puts you at ease. Our conversations were wonderful. You may feel like you're just having a chat, but the transcripts show Jo's skill for structuring interviews and story."
September 2021
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Jess Tickell
Interviews, transcripts and editing - Ghost writing a short memoir for her family.
"We first approached Jo to help us record my grandmother's memories during the national lockdown. This wasn't something we had done before and from the outset Jo helped us to really understand and focus on what we wanted to achieve - gathering the details of a life onto the page is no small task!
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She was sensitive to the changing needs and budgets as the project progressed and was always ready with ideas to support us moving forwards.
Jo kept us updated at every stage and delivered each stage to timescale and within budget.
More importantly though, she did so with the tact, sensitivity and good humour that is vital to carrying out memory-based work.
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I know that my grandmother felt she was in safe hands with Jo, and testament to that is the quality and quantity of material that they produced in their time together, containing so much family history that few of the rest of us were even aware of beforehand.
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Together, they have created a precious resource that will be treasured by us all.
We would certainly recommend Jo to others looking to preserve their family history."
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May 2021
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