Writing Your Life Story Part 1: Introduction to Writing

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Driving Home © 2009 Bo Mackison

Have you thought about writing your life story?

https://annmorrislighting.com/mm4cxhxn “Nope, way too hard,” you think.

Buy Upjohn Xanax Online That is exactly what I thought, too, until my 88-year-old mother unintentionally gave me the nudge I needed.

My mother has always been quite secretive about her life, never one to share stories.

source url On a recent visit, she mentioned running into an old friend. I didn’t recognize the man’s name. Finally, my mother divulged that he had been an old beau whom she had known for years before she met and married my father. I remarked that I knew little from that time of her life and she announced that she could list all of the boyfriends she had ever dated. As she started reciting names and memories, I grabbed a nearby notebook and jotted down her list. In ten minutes I learned more about her late adolescence and early adulthood than I had learned in the previous five decades. And it was effortless.

watch Later I prompted her on other topics. “What trips did you take before you married?” “Who are the five most famous people you’ve met in your life?” Each time I asked a question, she responded with a list full of quirky details. By the end of the weekend, I had several pages of stories featuring my mother.

I also had the opportunity to try the listing method for retrieving my own memories.

https://thegreathighway.com/q95w2wjiezg My younger daughter worked at a movie theater for many years, and she had unlimited access to movies. One evening, as she was going to another show, her third that week, I remarked I’d seen perhaps a half-dozen movies before high school graduation.

follow link “Really? You only went to six movies as a kid?” She was shocked by the thought. “What did you see?”

https://someawesomeminecraft.com/2024/05/13/ozcaw7ldub It only took me a minute to recall the movie titles. They were highlights of a childhood when movies were a huge treat. Amanda sat down in amazement and asked me about my movie experiences. As she listened, her eyes widened in surprise at the differences between the movie experiences in the 1960s versus today.

After I recalled my memories about movies seen in my youth, I wrote a list and added details.

Here is an example from the list “Movies I Saw in A Theater as a Kid”

Movie Memories © 2010 Bo Mackison

. . . when my friends and I were just sixteen, and beginning to accrue driving privileges, the movie Romeo and Juliet was released with much hype. To our dismay, it was not playing at the local movie theater. No, it was at the off-limits drive-in theater on the edge of town! I had never been to a drive-in movie and doubted I’d get permission to go.

But my girlfriends and I were determined to see this movie. Perhaps it helped that Romeo and Juliet was a Shakespearean classic. Perhaps it helped that I planned to go with five other girls crammed into one father’s trusted Oldsmobile. And I’m sure it helped that my friend’s parents agreed to also attend the show and park their car next to ours.  They kept a watchful eye on us the entire evening. Jan’s dad brought his pipe, her mother brought her knitting, and I don’t think they looked towards the big screen even once . . .

I was surprised at the memories I thought I’d long forgotten. Not only was list making an effective aid for recalling details, it was easy and fun, too.

You can use the same technique to jump-start your writing. List making leads to memory making.

Here is how to start:

  • Think of a topic. Use the movie prompt or one of your own. It is easier to write if you initially give yourself guidelines. For example, instead of listing all of your favorite books, list five books you read as high school requirements. Instead of writing about a summer vacation, list the highlights of your first weekend trip to the big city. Remember, it is easy to expand a narrow topic if you are so inclined, but not nearly as easy to pick a huge topic and find the thread of the beginning.
  • Once you have a list of a few items, fill in the details. The list acts as a prompt for retrieving memories you didn’t know you remembered.
  • Be alert for ideas for new lists. Record them in a notebook as they come to you. Topics may come from family conversations, newspaper or magazine articles, radio or television programs, or your daily activities.
  • Don’t over-think this project. Keep several small notebooks or index cards in your home, car, and purse. As you recall details, jot down key words.

Are you thinking of reasons why you can’t write your life story?

Here are three things that may help you get started:

  • You are creative. Though you may fear you are not creative enough to write your memoir, you are the only person who can write about your life from your point of view.
  • You are writing for yourself. Maybe you will share it with family members or friends, maybe you won’t, but the person you are ultimately writing your memoir for is yourself.
  • Writing is a way to explore and connect with your past, perhaps even resolve issues. Your writing is what you make it. The simple act of putting down the words of your story, or doing the coming memoir projects, provides you with an opportunity to make meaning in your life.
  • This can be a big project, or as small as you wish. You do not have to write chronologically. You do not have to record every experience, every detail. Write bits and pieces, collect them in one place, and you will have a start to writing memoir. Write your life story in whatever way works for you. It is your memoir project.

In this series, I offer a dozen writing techniques and creative projects to encourage you on your memoir journey.

Order Valium 10 Mg Uk Writing Your Life Story is a multimedia project that will inspire you to create/write/photograph your memoir in fun, easy, and interesting bits. I hope you’ll be inspired to try the various projects. We will be writing unique exercises to flesh out your memories, shoot a few photography projects (with any camera – cell phone camera, point and shoot, digital SLR is fine) and explore other multimedia ideas in the quest to “collect your memoir”.

There are writing prompts, simple photography projects, ideas for inventive interviews, creative research techniques, suggestions on how to physically contain your memoir stash, and much more. Twice a week I will post a new memoir project. Imagine how quickly your memoir will grow, a bit at a time.

I invite you to join me in this multimedia memoir project. After all . . . if you don’t write your life story, who will?

Next: Part 2, Search Engine as Muse

Writing Your Life Story, Part 12: Capturing Holiday Memories

Angels for Amanda

Angels for Amanda © 2012 Bo Mackison

When holidays approach, it can be a hectic time of year, crammed with to do lists, people to see, places to visit. And for all but the most stalwart of writers, composing anything beyond the grocery list gets lost in a haze of “I should write this down, but there’s no time.”

No worries.

Writing about the holidays is not a writing project that needs to be done in the midst of celebration. It’s a small project, best done after the holidays. And it’s a quick project, best done when the celebrations are winding down or over, but family and friends are still near. It’s a project that will reap big rewards when you are trying to recall a Holiday memory from the near or distant past.

This project can be done with any holiday. Although I discuss Christmas holidays, the writing prompts can easily be adapted to birthdays, summer holidays, Thanksgiving — any time there is a celebration.

I’ve been doing a holiday writing project since my mother gave me a small book 38 years ago. It was the first Christmas I was married and the title of the book was Holiday Memories. Filled with blank pages — four pages per year for 20 years — there were writing prompts to record each year’s memories.

Though my first book of Christmas memories was a commercially made product, I created a second one when I completed the first twenty years. It is simple to duplicate this idea in a blank book or journal. (You can pick up a holiday themed book – any holiday – when they are available.)

This Holiday Memoir Project is for the Christmas season. Each year, I adapt the questions to fit the situation of my family. You can adapt the questions to fit any holiday celebrations.

Write a few sentences to complete each prompt:

  • see Decking the Halls. What favorites decorate your home – greenery? candles? stockings? indoor and outdoor lights?
  • https://aaerj.org.br/2024/05/13/64iqmh3 Trimming the Tree. What does the tree look like? If it is fresh, what kind was it, how tall, how did you get the tree home? Who trimmed the tree? Are there new ornaments, hand crafted ornaments, heirloom ornaments?
  • source url Celebrating the Season. What special events are a part of the holiday season? Children’s activities? A play or concert? A dinner or caroling party? Get-togethers with friends and family? Traveling?
  • Buy Cheap Roche Valium The Big Day. Where do you celebrate? Who are there? Meaningful gifts? Special menu? Religious or cultural traditions? Favorite moments to treasure?
  • https://www.vertaglia.com/q9ewzhns Memory Tuck-ins. Is there memorabilia to be gathered? A photo holiday card? Special cards or letters you received? Programs from concerts or shows?
  • click A List of Gratitudes. What are you most thankful for? Take a moment to add this to your holiday writing. It helps keep the whole reason for celebration in focus.

One of our family’s holiday traditions includes reading the holiday memory book. Every Christmas night, when the celebrating is winding down, we read entries from past years. Then we fill in the events from the current season. This is one of our beloved family traditions.

We remember the Christmas Eve, thirty years ago, when Uncle Conrad came bearing gifts in a Santa Claus suit? We read about his Santa outfit, so filled with newspapers that he crunched as he walked, and that midway through his “Ho Ho Ho” greetings his Santa pants took a downward slide. A long downward slide! We laugh like Santa each time we re-read that story.

Our family looks at the drawings and re-reads stories our children wrote when they first put pencil to paper. Here’s an example from my son when he was five:

A little green ball is on the Christmas tree. The angel on the top has heart wings. And a cone that holds her up that high. The lights are blue and red and yellow and hot. There are boats and bears and angels hiding in the tree. I see them. I think the tree is pretty fine.

I encourage you to enjoy your holidays, celebrate in your special way, and when the holidays have passed, take time to capture the memories — in drawings, photos, and especially in your words and the words of your family and friends.

It will be worthwhile, years from now, when you read and remember these special times.