My name is Chris Lightfoot and I set up Beginners Guide to Writing to help new and inexperienced writers start writing in a range of genres from life story, memoir, family and local history to scrapbook and photo journaling, food writing, travel writing and company histories.
I started my working life as a teacher but I subsequently moved into the corporate world as a writer and editor where I had the opportunity to write and edit a wide range of documents including user and training guides, marketing and publicity material and content for websites. This, together with my experience as a teacher, led me into a variety of community-based projects including working as an IT training officer for a local council and managing and promoting three local council community websites.
In all of these projects I ran workshops and designed and wrote my own publicity and training materials but one of the most successful and popular was a series of workshops I ran on how to use the internet to do family history research which was featured on local TV and radio.
This was when I discovered how many people were doing family history research but not actually writing down the stories they uncovered. I later got involved as a writer and editor with a premier life biography writing company which helped people write their life stories. As a result of these experiences I subsequently decided to set up my own website to provide aspiring nonfiction writers with the help and support they need to get started writing.
In addition to our regular blog posts and writing guides and courses, we also provide a variety of writing and editing services to help you succeed as a writer. And, if you feel a bit isolated as a writer and need some encouragement, you can get together with other writers by joining in with the conversations on our writers’ forums.
In its first incarnation I launched my website (then known as iScribbles) at the Who Do You Think You Are show at Olympia, London but since then I have completely re-designed and re-named my website to create a fresh clean site which is quick and easy to navigate.
So take a look around the site to see what we can do to help you get started on your writing journey. If there is something not covered which you would really like some help with then do let us know. This is an evolving and growing site and so your ideas can help us to make this happen. You can also contribute to the site as a guest blogger.
Happy scribbling.