Lois Daniel - How to Write Your Own Life Story: The Classic Guide for the Nonprofessional Writer

How To Write Your Own Life Story

The Classic Guide for the Nonprofessional Writer

FOURTH EDITION

Lois Daniel

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Daniel, Lois.

How to write your own life story: the classic guide for the non-professional writer / Lois Daniel. 4th ed., rev. and expanded.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-55652-318-1 (paper)

1. Autobiography I. Title.

CT25.D36 1997

808.06692dc21

96-52438

CIP

Breakfast on the Beach is reprinted here with permission from

Unity School of Christianity, Unity Village, MO 64065.

The Willa Cather quote (page 155, in ) is taken from Phyllis C. Robinson,

Willa, The Life of Willa Cather (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1983), p. 20.

1980, 1985, 1991, 1997 Lois Daniel

All rights reserved

Fourth edition

Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-1-55652-318-2

ISBN-10: 1-55652-318-1

10 9

To Carol Dechant, whose encouragement has been so much a part of this book that she almost deserves a byline.

Your family will love you for giving them a priceless giftthe story of your life

ONE
Setting Up Your Memory Bank

Foolproof ways to jog your memory about things that happened long ago

TWO
Ground Rules

Ten special tips to make writing the story of your life easy and effective

THREE
Working On Your Assignments

How to actually get it all down on paper

FOUR
Birth

Discover the world into which you were born and share it with your readers

FIVE
Toys

Special tips for digging up early memories

SIX
Some Dos and Donts

How to stay inspired and keep from getting bogged down

SEVEN
Parents and Grandparents

Finding out about the lives of your parents and grandparents

EIGHT
It Wasnt Always Easy for Our Ancestors to Write Their Stories

In fact, it was often hard!

NINE
The Accomplishment of Which You Are the Most Proud

Time for a little soul searching that may produce some happy surprises

TEN
Create Your Own Assignments

Your experiences, opportunities, problems, or solutions to problems that are truly unique

ELEVEN
Where Were You on Important Days in History

Your stories about where you were on important days in history are different from those of anyone else in the world

TWELVE
Religion

Has religion changed your life? Inspirational stories, funny stories, and more

THIRTEEN
Relatives

Aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers, sistersmaking them come alive for your readers

FOURTEEN
Courtship

As she sees it; as he sees it

FIFTEEN
Turning Points

Changes in yourself and in your world that affected you and/or your family

SIXTEEN
Children and the Things They Say

Save the bright, funny, touching things kids say

SEVENTEEN
Inventions

Sharing with your readers your excitement about inventions you remember seeing or using for the first time

EIGHTEEN
Holidays

Memories, both happy and sad

NINETEEN
Politics

Party politics, the civil rights movement, the womens movement, and more

TWENTY
Animals

Theyre everywherein your home, at the zoo, on the farm, in the pet store, straying in the streets

TWENTY-ONE
Family Traditions

Your familys special joys

TWENTY-TWO
Immigrants

Americans all!

TWENTY-THREE
Your Stories Dont Actually Have To Be Stories

In autobiographical writing almost any memory qualifies as a story

TWENTY-FOUR
Brief Encounters

Even if they lasted only a moment they may enrich your memories forever

TWENTY-FIVE
More Living, More Stories

More ideas for stories about your life, more memory helps

TWENTY-SIX
Where Do You Live? Where Did You Live?

Places you have lived are part of your heritage

TWENTY-SEVEN
They Read the Book and Got Busy!

How two men used this book, each in his own way

TWENTY-EIGHT
Research

Fun and easy ways to find the facts you need

TWENTY-NINE
Revising and Pulling It All Together

Weaving your stories into a book that will thrill your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren

THIRTY
Publishing Your Stories

This book is primarily about writing for your family, but here are some tips if you want to break into print

THIRTY-ONE
Your Special Privilege

How to be your familys special link to history

The idea for this book came out of a failure. Several years ago I was teaching a creative writing class at Longview College in Lees Summit, Missouri. In many ways the class was a complete success. The students were enthusiastic, seldom missed a session, and two even sold articles to magazines before the semester ended. However, I felt that I completely failed one studenta seventy-five-year-old woman.

When I asked each student to state his or her reason for joining the class, this ladys reason was that her children had been begging her to write the story of her life. I dont know how to do it, she said, and I thought you might be able to help me.

Frankly, I had no idea how to help her. The course was designed to help students who wished to become professional writers turn their article and story ideas into salable manuscripts. I hadnt the faintest idea how to help an inexperienced writer write the story of her life. My suggestions, which were being received enthusiastically by the other students, were of no value whatsoever to this woman, and she finally dropped out of the class. I counted her leaving as a definite failure on my part, but at that time I didnt know what to do about it.

I felt especially bad since I knew how much my family and I valued a story that my mother (with much urging from us) had written about an incident in her life. It was the story of a trip she made in a covered wagon from Minnesota to Missouri when she was five years old. We love the story as a family history and also as an interesting, detailed account of an actual covered wagon trip. However, the story was of special value to me for a very personal reason.

My parents were well along in years when I was born. This made me a second generation in my own family and my mother was distant from me in both years and personality. I viewed her as a very old, very strong, very domineering woman. When I read her story, which is filled with funny and sometimes heartbreaking incidents from her childhood, she, for the first time, seemed to me to be a vulnerable human being. I was grateful to have this new view of her even though it came late in our relationship.

As I thought about how I valued my mothers story I wanted very much to develop a course to help adult students write about their lives. I wanted to help them produce material that would be precious to their familieson whatever level was appropriate for each family. Perhaps in addition to serving as an historic link for past, present, and future generations, some of the stories might even help resolve old conflicts and promote understanding among family members.

Something else that gave me a sense of urgency about helping adults write their memoirs is the fact that although my father had been dead for nearly thirty years I had recently had a great longing to know something about him as a young man. I know that soon after he graduated from high school he roamed over the western states for two or three years before marrying my mother and settling down to become the most dependable and affectionate of family men.