Everybody has a story

I’m working on a new project – teaching adults (through continuing education program) how to write their own life stories. I’m not talking about autobiographies or stories meant for commercial publishing. These are the stories they want to give their children or grandchildren.

There is a need for them. I asked my mother for such stories a decade or so ago. She didn’t give them to me at Christmas. So I decided to get the information by asking her a question – on email – every night. She answered and I wrote her life story for my family. Unfortunately, my mother had died years before I started that.

To keep it from happening, I’m going to try to teach the class – maybe six weeks – at technical college and other places that provide adult education. Here’s the start of how I plan to sell it:

Your Life Story

Everyone has a story to tell – the story of their life. Of course, it’s a story without end.  But it’s still a story your family wants to hear.

Just as you have a story, you can tell it. You don’t have to be a professional “writer.” You just need to tell your stories in your own words. Don’t worry about punctuation – that comes later. An autobiography – the story of your entire life – sounds important and difficult and long. But you don’t have to do that. You can write little stories of certain events or times in your life. You don’t have to write them in order. They can be rearranged later, but many people don’t want to tell their tale chronologically.

You can write about the big events – a marriage, a parent’s death, a child’s leaving home, your time in a war. Or you can write about the smaller events – when you and your sister used to play school, when your brother preached to the animals, when you rushed the dog off so your mother wouldn’t punish him.

Other possibilities include your reaction to local, national or world events – 9/11 and its aftermath, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John Lennon, how you felt when your favorite cousin married.

If you want to talk about your birth, you can rely on the stories told by others – since there’s little likelihood you will remember it. If you want to include others – parents and grandparents – you have plenty of stories and you will remember much of what they have told you.

One of the easiest ways to start is to build a timeline of your life, perhaps including major national and international events.

Once you start writing, some of you may want to read your work aloud. That way you get feedback from other class members and what they say may spark your imagination. Or your story may bring up one for them. However, reading aloud is voluntary.