Recording your Life Story

Recording your Life Story

Never underestimate the value that your history will have to you, your family, and your posterity!!!!!!!

Where To Begin?

Writing a personal history of your entire life can seem like a daunting task. Perhaps the hardest part is knowing where to start. Don’t try to do it all at once. Here are ideas.

Gather together thoughts photos, documents, and other memorabilia.
Going through old picture books and memorabilia can help you remember
important events more clearly, and will provide documentation and interest to
your memories.

Early Childhood (0-6)
Childhood (6-11)
Adolescence (11-18)
Early Adulthood (18-25)


Involve Family and Friends

Involve your family and friends in the process of creating your personal history. (It will help ensure that you have an audience of interested readers who are connected to the completed work.)
Ask family members to contribute their favorite stories concerning the subject. (i.e.: ask your mother about what you were like as a baby)
Ask family members to collect photos, stories, and memorabilia that might be appropriate for use in your history.
Request names, birth dates, significant events, and a recent family photograph including all names of individuals in the picture.

Write the First Draft of Your Personal History
Write an outline of the major aspects in your life that you especially want to
record.

General Age Periods:
Early Childhood (0-6)
Childhood (6-11)
Adolescence (11-18)
Early Adulthood (18-25)



Other Topics and Sub-Topics to include
Memories of friends and family
Community Service
Health Record
Physical Characteristics
Social Life
Core beliefs (Your family’s and your own)
Memorable World Events
Military Service
Education
How do your father and mother earn a living?
How have you earned money?
Counsel to Posterity

Basic Helps:
Organize your thoughts by using memory triggers (See the accompanying document)
Write as the thoughts come to you. (Keep a notebook)
Don’t worry if it is out of order. You can organize it later.
Start with the topic that you’ve been wanting most to record.
Be honest about your life.
Transfer an emotional experience to the reader (e.g., frustration, anticipations, amusement, pleasure, pity, envy, humility, gratitude, boredom, greed, pride, etc.)
Include real events. Include tragic, exciting, and normal every day things.
Use a word processor to record your writing for easy editing.

Add Photos and Scanned Images
Decide which items you will use. Ask yourself:
Would I find that item useful or interesting if it were in someone else’s history?
Would it be as effective to simply describe the item rather than include it in the history?
Choose best quality and most typical images to use in a personal history.
Achieve an appropriate balance between visual imagery and text.

Edit and Finalize Your Personal History (Rough Drafts)
Ask family members or a good friend to read through your history to suggest revisions and identify necessary corrections.
Ask for constructive ideas on how to make your history easier to understand.
Be sure that the fonts you use are easy to read and photocopy well.
Complete your history now–do not put it on hold while seeking absolute perfection.