My father-in-law was a NYPD detective back in the 70's and 80's. Back when NY was gritty and nasty. Anyway, he has written is memoirs about his patrolman days. He's written them in separate short stories. Basically, each encounter is a chapter. So he has roughly 170 stories, all between 3 and 15 pages each.
He has asked me to edit and revise his book which is an enormous undertaking, but one I am happy and excited to be a part of.
Here's the dilemma. He doesn't quite have the writing chops to convey a story appropriately. They seem to read more like police reports. The stories are great and show a part of life people don't see, but they are disjointed. They do not have a good flow to them. He seems to have too much detail where it's not needed and little or no detail where it would go a long way.
Reading the stories, I have great ideas of what I would change to make them better, but I'm not sure if that's appropriate for a memoir. They are his stories and are meant to be as he remembers them, not what I can create to make them sound better.
I feel like I'm rambling a bit here. Basically, I would like advice on:
Should I condense the book? I think with all that he's written, he's got enough for at least two books if not three. Otherwise it would be one giant book.
How should I go about making these stories read like stories and not reports without removing the authenticity?
A lot of the stories have police jargon in them, which is fine, but he will explain some of it within the story which I think brings the action to a halt. Should there be a chapter based on explaining these type of things or perhaps a glossary/appendix dedicated to this?
I feel a little overwhelmed with this project. I have read a lot of the stories and have attempted a revision of some of them, but I am still not happy with the changes I have made. They read better, but still feels choppy. The whole project seems like a 5000 piece puzzle dumped on a table. It's a mess now, but has the potential to make something beautiful with a lot of work.
He has asked me to edit and revise his book which is an enormous undertaking, but one I am happy and excited to be a part of.
Here's the dilemma. He doesn't quite have the writing chops to convey a story appropriately. They seem to read more like police reports. The stories are great and show a part of life people don't see, but they are disjointed. They do not have a good flow to them. He seems to have too much detail where it's not needed and little or no detail where it would go a long way.
Reading the stories, I have great ideas of what I would change to make them better, but I'm not sure if that's appropriate for a memoir. They are his stories and are meant to be as he remembers them, not what I can create to make them sound better.
I feel like I'm rambling a bit here. Basically, I would like advice on:
Should I condense the book? I think with all that he's written, he's got enough for at least two books if not three. Otherwise it would be one giant book.
How should I go about making these stories read like stories and not reports without removing the authenticity?
A lot of the stories have police jargon in them, which is fine, but he will explain some of it within the story which I think brings the action to a halt. Should there be a chapter based on explaining these type of things or perhaps a glossary/appendix dedicated to this?
I feel a little overwhelmed with this project. I have read a lot of the stories and have attempted a revision of some of them, but I am still not happy with the changes I have made. They read better, but still feels choppy. The whole project seems like a 5000 piece puzzle dumped on a table. It's a mess now, but has the potential to make something beautiful with a lot of work.