Life Story Tips: Tell an Interesting Story
I know you have said that anyone's life can make an interesting story, but I just can't seem to find a story line.
In a recent issue of AARP Magazine, I read an excerpt from a book that will be published later this month. The title is How Starbucks Saved My Life. That title would be a great way to tap in to some interesting aspects of your life. Fill in the blank: How _________ saved my life. Your sentence could be funny, sad, literal, or metaphorical. It could be a person, a place, knowledge, or an event. For example, I know someone who has said that the best thing that ever happened to her was being turned down for graduate school. So that might be what saved her life. I have heard someone talk about how the military kept him from prison and a life of crime.
The sentence doesn't have to be an actual title for your book. Use it as a tool to get you thinking about events of your life and how your life was shaped. You might write several "saved my life" sentences and choose one. Or try writing about several and see which one is most stimulating.
You are right. Anyone's life can make an interesting story. It's just a matter of investing the time and thought to find the story line.
I am writing my life story and enjoying the process; but when I read back what I have written, it seems tedious. What is the problem?
You may just be being too hard on yourself, but here is one possible culprit. Certain words and phrases can slow the pace. Look for phrases such as I remember, I saw, and I heard. These phrases often can be eliminated. In telling your life story, you are telling things you remember, you saw, and you heard. We know that; therefore, it is unnecessary for you to actually say, "I remember."
How would that work? For example, you may have written, "I saw the ducks flying across the pond toward me." You can easily change it to, "The ducks flew across the pond toward me." Or, you may have written, "I remember walking three miles to school." Change that to "I walked three miles to school."
The writing is crisper and moves quicker. Of course, there are times when you may want to include those phrases—for style, to slow the pace or for other reasons. In those cases, include the phrases. Just know you have an option.
How can I give my story a unique twist so it doesn't sound like bragging? Also, I don't want to go into every single detail of my life. Is that possible?
This year I received a Christmas letter from Patty and Darrell Holtz that offers a perfect solution. The letter began by saying it had been an uneventful year for them. Then they suddenly "remembered" something good that had happened. With each paragraph, they "remembered" another event. This created a light tone that carried the reader to the end of the letter. Also, the Holtz's technique is a nice way of counting blessings without getting all pious and pompous. The first sentence of each paragraph was in red, and that seemed to move the story too so you might experiment a little with font size or color. There were about six paragraphs—not every detail of every day. Just enough to keep the reader smiling. You can do the same. Look back through the year and remember the good things that happened. Or apply the principle to your entire life. Look back through your lifetime and recount the major highlights.
My stories don't seem like stories. They are like journal entries. What can I do?
It was the last day of the six-week session of beginning life story writing when (I'll call her Nora.) asked this question. When she read what she had written, neither the group nor I at first saw anything wrong. Nora started with a character (herself) on the brink of adulthood, about to embark on a journey, to a distant country, aided by a wiser older person. Sounds like the perfect setup in the classic story. We were immediately interested.
What was the problem?
"The story has no point," Nora said. "It doesn't go anywhere."
When she acknowledged this was her first draft from her first writing session for this particular story, I knew the solution. "Keep writing. You haven't written to the end yet."
"How far do I go?"
"Until your character finds resolution: learns something, gains something, or loses something. Write until you get to the end, whatever or whenever that is."
Then I reminded her of a quote I had read to the group the previous week. Mary Ann Shaffer, in the author acknowledgments of her novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, writes: "Unfortunately, books don't spring fully formed from their authors' foreheads."
And, keep in mind, a story may take many sessions to emerge onto the paper; and even after it emerges, it may require more sessions of re-writing to become a fully formed and polished story.
Disclaimer: Remember the Write Your Life Story in Eight Weeks Workbook motto: Good Enough is Good Enough. If you are writing for your family and have neither the time nor inclination to form and polish your stories, your family still will love whatever you have written.