Writing about your memories is such a blessing for your family and future generations. Whether you’re writing a memoir, life story, annotated photo essays, or a blog, your stories will be meaningful. But where do you start? How do you capture highlights of a life in 100 or so book pages or blog posts?
One of the best ways to start is through asking and answering questions. Start with your immediate family: what questions have they asked about your life? If you can’t recall, go to them. Ask them to ask you questions. Keep a list of those questions. When you start to answer them, you’ll be unlocking memories and stories they want to hear.
You can also make a list of questions you would want to ask your ancestors if you could. If you are interested in hearing those particular stories, guess what? Others down the line will want to hear your stories on the same topics. So, write down those questions you wish you could ask your seventh-great grandmother, and answer those questions about your own life.
You can answer each question, one at a time, and that answer can be a blog post or a life story essay for a book. Or you can start collecting your answers and look for themes to organize your book. Answering questions may lead you to other memories you’d forgotten. You’ll likely end up with more stories than the list of questions you started with. Not sure how to answer a question, or not feeling inspired by it? Skip it, or see if you can reword it for a different kind of response.
While answering questions is one of the best ways to get started, it’s not the only way. Photographs can also inspire stories. Find a favorite photo from your life, or an old family photo, and write what it’s about. Tell the story. That’s a great way to share a memory. As long as you have permission, you can include the photo in your life story book or blog for future generations to appreciate. Physical photos might not last, but stories will be retold.
You can also unlock memories and stories through songs, places, scents, textures, colors, household items, jewelry, knickknacks, family heirlooms. Each one may hold the key to a memory or a story to share.
I can’t look at a pie plate without remembering the time my great aunt and I made pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving, except we forgot to double the spices when we doubled the recipe. It sure tasted bland, but we enjoyed a good laugh that popped up again every year.
From questions to other kinds of key items, you’ll start unlocking the memories for your life story book or blog. You’ll be able to share these stories with future generations. And they will be very glad you took the time to write down those stories and pass them along.
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If you need help getting started, Storyworth has a list of questions for life story writing that might open memories and prompt other questions: 60 Storyworth Memoirs Question Prompts.
Janet Eriksson 