Your Life Story
is within your reach

News flash: Even if you are a skilled writer, you may still have trouble getting started writing your life story.

I know from personal experience.

In spite of decades of teaching English and Reading and writing language arts books, when I retired I could not easily kickstart my life story as I had planned. My oldest daughter had even given me a book with 200+ prompts designed to guide me. But no luck.

Know why?

You see, it’s not your writing skills that hold you back. It’s your belief that you have to start at the beginning, or that you need to have lived a spectacular life before you can write your life story. Those are just a few of your limiting beliefs.

Think about this. You know how to drive your car and probably can find your way to your destinations.

Why?

It’s because you start from where you are right now. You get in your car, pull out from your current location and proceed to your destination.

The best way to start your story is with memories you can easily access. Then think of each one as a short episode in a TV series.

No need to start with where and when you were born, for example. You can tell us about that later if it’s relevant. Start instead with the memories that are easiest to retrieve. They can be recent or from a time long, long ago.

How about starting with something you do everyday like eating, for example. Food has been a part of your life for a long time, whether it was ample or in short supply. It has had varying contexts, meanings and emotions attached to it.

What was your favorite food as a child and is it still? If not, why not? Can you recall a conflict, celebration, or setting that took place connected with this favorite food.

Maybe there was a food you hated as a child, but love now? Or the other way around. Were you forced to finish all the food on your plate? Many of us can recall drama or trauma based on this.

Did you grow up in a family who gathered at the dinner table promptly at a set time? What was that experience like for you? Remember you’re telling us about your feelings, reflections, and a replay of what you saw, heard, smelled, and touched. There was likely a ritual or repeated pattern connected to these meals.

Did you just remember one?

Or maybe meals were a la carte and freestyle. If you were a latch key kid, you may have had a very different experience from that family that gathered around the table.

See if you can remember a particular time connected with food that jumps out in your memory whether it was during childhood or in recent years. Tell us about it, in detail, using all five senses to do so.

Story starters are all around you and no writing skills are required to tell them. Your first draft of your stories will be a rough draft, likely even a mess. That’s the path every writer must take, whether pro or amateur. Get started writing. Edit and polish later.

For sources of story starter ideas, browse through old or recent photos or listen to favorite song. Recall the place and relationships connected with one of these. Then quickly write about what you remember feeling, thinking, hoping, and/or enjoying that day.

Here are a few other story starter ideas from my Instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CgOarlvA4JJ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfI_ai-AEU1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CeiXDULgRmb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

For more great ideas, encouragement, and camaraderie, join my group, Your Life Story Matters at facebook.com/groups/yourlifestorymatters

In celebration of Family Stories Month I created 5 fun and unique tips that will get you moving toward about your life story because they start from where you are now, not from the day you were born. They don’t even require much writing.

If you haven’t watched the video tips I prepared for you this week, view the replays still available for you to view at https://facebook.com/dr.florabrown

From the More pulldown menu click Videos.

Psst...one more thing.

My videos are not perfect. The first draft of your life story won’t be either.

I could have deleted and redone those videos over and over until they were polished, but that would delay getting them to you. I made plenty bloopers, hesitations, and things that didn’t work as planned.

It was much more important for me to be perfectly imperfect.

That will be the same with your life story. You’ll need to get your first draft done. Warts and all.

For now, watch the 5 fun and unique tips I shared this week. The 5th and last one goes live Friday, November 19^th at 4:00 PM PST.

Let me know which one appealed to you most.

Best,

Flora M. Brown, Ph.D.

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