Your Own Family Stories

Okay, this is the year when you are finally going to write down all of those charming family stories you want to capture for posterity. But how do you start? Do you start when you were born, or do you start with something big & dramatic, or do you start with something more recent?

Good questions, but the most important thing is to just get started. You know, like the Nike commercial: Just Do It!

Grab a spiral-bound notebook or stack of paper and Voila! you have your own writing journal. Carry it with you so that when a memory pops into your mind, you can jot it down to develop later. Even if you do most of your memoir writing on a computer, using a writing journal will be useful any time you have a few minutes to kill while waiting for the kids to get out of dance class, or at the dentist, or all the other places you get stuck for any length of time. Use that time to get started on your own story.

Start with one of your own special memories and write down all the details you can remember. Think of the typical "who, what, where, when & why" questions that newspapers answer so well. In addition, think about how you felt about the event you are capturing.

So, remember: the most important thing about writing your life story is to just do it!