Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Start Writing Your Family Stories

• Why write down your family stories
Sometimes we hear a story from someone like a grandparent. We think we will always remember it. Too bad it doesn’t work out that way. If we can’t hear or read the story once in a while, we will most likely forget the details of it. When you write down a story from your life, you capture it for people to read later. Just imagine how great it will feel for you years from now when one of your own kids reads a story you wrote! You can give future generations a piece of yourself by sharing what you learned about your family member.

• Getting started
Okay, so how do you start writing stories about your Friends and Family (FAF)? The neat thing is that you can look at all the FAF people in your life. Then start with one special person. When you ask someone a bunch of questions and write down their answers, that is called an interview. The person who answers your questions is called the subject of the interview.

You can interview anyone - a friend, family member, neighbor or teacher. If you select someone who is important in your life, there is a double benefit. You’ll learn who they really are and they’ll appreciate your interest. Just look at all the people around you and pick one person to start with. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn about somebody by asking a few questions.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

This is my first visit here and I like what you had suggested at how about going at it to write about our own family...My better half is always bugging me to to write about my life and I really do not have any ideal where to begin, sure I can write silly stories about imaginary beings, or write about how the day went...however for some reason or another my mind goes blank at what I should write about my life, like where do I begin at, how far back do I go in my life and so on and so fourth.

I like your blog by the way and me and my sister has a story blog.

Info Steps said...

Hi Beth.
I too am new to your site and I really enjoyed your thoughts about writing your family story. Not long ago, I was asked to create a family genogram (similar to family tree but add emotional and mental/medical info). This was a big eye opener as my mom was the yongest of 16 kids. Her perspective was really different from her older sister. I've kept journals for over 15 years and didn't know what to do with them. I think this would be a great place for me to start. Thanks
Claudette

Beth (Elizabeth) LaMie said...

Rosy,
Good for you - thinking about writing your family stories (or your own life stories) is the first step.
Please look at my blog for today. I have a free guide that will help you.
Thanks for your comments.

Beth (Elizabeth) LaMie said...

Claudette,
It is really interesting when any two people recall things from their early life. Often, they will have very diferent perceptions of events, especially if their age spread is wide.
My own sibs thought my stories were inaccurate, but really they are just based on my own recollections.