Writing the Personal Story: We buy toys, games, clothes, and sports gear -- and present these as gifts to one another. But how much more treasured are the gifts of written down impressions, word pictures, smells, sounds, conversations, and details; in other words, saved memories.
Innovations in personal story "writing"
If you're not a writer, try these mediums for collecting and saving memories:
- quilts
- travel albums
- Christmas letters
- history of cars you've owned
- timeline of major life experiences
- scrapbooking
- digitized photos with dates and captions
- website
- video or powerpoint presentation or DVD
Memory-primers for writing snap shots
- My favorite school teacher/pet/grandparent. . .
- My parents expected me to (behavior, chores, work, school, church). .
- The roughest/best time for me growing up was . . .
- Our family was alike/different from other families in that . . .
- My favorite holiday was. . .because. . . .
- I lived in a town that was . . .in a house that was
- As a teenager, I was . . .
- An event that rewrote my life was (relocation/adventure/illness/disaster)
- My first job was . . .and a typical day at work was . . .
- Something I'll never forget is. . ..
Where do I begin?
- Read personal stories: what holds your interest? What bores you?
- Go through saved letters, news clippings, and photos.
- Interview family members for facts and feelings.
- Search websites for history, setting, maps related to your past.
- Re-visit the setting of your personal story.
- Talk into a recorder while looking at photos and transcribe later.
Nuts and Bolts of Personal Story-writing
- 5 Senses
- Specific over General
- Facts AND Feelings
- Visual
- Humor
- Leads and suspense
- Setting
The Three Boys provides and portrays a prototype for your personal story-writing.
- Introduces the main characters with photos, nick-names, and descriptions
- Introduces the setting with photos and descriptions
- Uses themes to collect anecdotes into mini-stories, i.e. Thanksgiving, cars, music, sports.
- Adds clip-art and items of interest: family recipes
