You have finally made the decision to start writing your life stories. That’s terrific news.
Now you can relax in the knowledge that all the things that have happened to you, your
experiences, your learnings, the people who have influenced and shaped you, the places
you have been and everything that matters to you can be preserved.
When you write your life stories you can:
Share what you know
Share your stories
Ensure your knowledge does not go to waste
Leave a legacy
Inspire your readers
Let your memories live again
Start to write richer, fuller journals and accounts of your daily life
Everyone knows the importance of strong foundations. As a published writer I have
mad my fair share of mistakes. Now, here, I share with you the Inside Secrets - How to
Write Your Life Story. Now you can craft compelling stories that leap off the page. At last
your stories can give your reader a glimpse of your life, let your experiences live again
you help the world to begin to understand who you really are.
Are you ready?
Then let’s begin . . .
Secret one
Paint a picture with your pen
Your reader is not a mind reader. If you want your reader to be able to
visualize the places you have been, the people you have met and imagine
they are there with you in the room, then you need to paint a picture
with your pen.
Describe the scene using words that evoke the setting perfectly. If
you write: ‘the view was breathtaking’ no one will be able to see it.
‘Breathtaking’ does not describe what you saw.
Instead, write about the trees, flowers, hills, valleys, buildings and lakes.
Include their colour, texture, scent, sound or taste. Name the flowers.
Help your reader to be there with you. Help your reader to see.
Secret two
Test it out
What seems funny to you and your good friends and family may not
seem half so amusing to a complete stranger. So, if you plan to get your
work published it is vitally important that you find out if people who
do not already know that Aunty Madge is a drunk and has holes in her
stockings get to know her too. It is easy to forget to include details that
you know so well you take them for granted. So test your writing on
other people. Get feedback. Join a writers’ circle. Take a class.
The great essayist, David Sedaris, tests all his new pieces out live on an
audience before he commits them to paper. If the audience doesn’t laugh
he cuts or changes the story.
Secret three
Don’t be scared of being vulnerable
If you want your reader to understand how an experience made you feel
then you need to share your emotions too. Share your joy, exasperation,
sorrow or humiliation. Show your softer side. You can start to connect
with a reader at a deeper level when you allow yourself to be vulnerable,
when you show your weakness. Writing from a place of pain can often
lead to your best writing. Make it clear how the other characters in your
stories felt too.
Be honest, frank, authentic and true. Your reader will want to get inside
your head and empathise with you. Your writing needs to resonate with
the readers, so tell your stories warts and all.
Secret four
Show not tell
Every creative writing tutor in the world tells you this one. Rather than
writing: ‘Jane was angry’ show her anger. Have her slamming a door or
smashing a plate. Rather than telling us what someone said to you in
reported speech, show us the dialogue. Show us what you said to each
other and how you each reacted. Bring the scene to life.
Secret five
Remember it’s a story
If you read novels or short stories you will be familiar with the elements
you need in a piece of fiction to make the reader care what happens next.
It is the same with life story. You need to keep the reader interested.
Think about what keeps a reader page-turning in a novel and add that
to your life stories. Create believable characters that interest you, a plot,
good writing, dialogue and setting your scenes well. To make your life
stories compelling you need to imagine you are writing your real life
stories as if they were fiction.
Secret six
Introduce your characters
When someone has a name it helps you to picture them. If you include
people who you refer to as ‘my teacher’ or ‘the lady in the grocery store’
it makes it hard for the reader to be able to picture them. Giving people
a name makes them memorable and lets the reader imagine he knows
them.
If you can let the reader see your characters, hear them speak and almost
feel they are in the room, then the things your characters do will be more
plausible.
Secret seven
Pay attention
Start paying attention to what is going on in your life right now. Notice
the shapes of the clouds in the sky, the colour of the sky, the way the wind
feels on your skin. Notice the furniture in your room, the architecture in
the town. Watch the birds. Listen to the traffic. Breathe in the smell of the
countryside. Take life more slowly, watching, listening, smelling, tasting
and feeling everything around you. Look out for the details. Watch people
and notice how they move,speak, cross the road and so on. When you
pay attention to the world around you it will enrich your writing and
help you to add these details to the stories you write. I recommend that
you start writing about your daily life right away, noticing the details.
This will be a great limbering up exercise for your life story writing. Even
if you only practise for ten minutes a day, this will make a big difference
to the quality of your writing.