Milliron: The Beginning 6 4 18

Last June at this time, I was going through the final edits of Dr. Abbott “Pete” Smith’s biography. Dr. Smith’s widow, Jody, and I worked long hours hammering out the holes and figuring out the final scenarios. Writing Dr. Smith’s biography took many years of interviews, emails, phone calls, reading, sorting through old photographs, and creating an outline. If you are writing a biography (or any large script), my advice to you is to begin with an outline. It was into the second year of collecting information that I finally began an outline. 

Biographies must be heartfelt, nurtured, and concise. After all, it’s the story of an entire life – writing a lifetime into 100,000 words is complex and, at times, difficult. It's not like writing fiction. It's a completely different mindset. You must know what to leave in; what to leave out. Facts must be accurate and anecdotes must be exactly as told by the contributor. I always say that writing is like riding a bike downhill; editing is riding a bike uphill. At the end of the day, it’s all worth the journey.

Dr. Smith was the proprietor of Milliron Clinic. He was a famous veterinarian in Athens, County, Ohio. His client list was long – and loyal. Traveling with Jody throughout the tri-state area, I met so many incredible people, most I now call ‘Friend.’ I often told Jody that I was going to write a book about writing the book, and so I will. Here. Every Monday.  

Next week I'll write about collecting the story for the introduction. An amazing event that had many viewpoints. I found the source, the man who was with Pete when Pete's horse decided to dump Pete and drag him through the woods like a rag doll. Stay tuned...

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