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Your Life is Your Story, Issue #239 – The Right Time to Write A Memoir August 29, 2026 |
| Greetings "Your past is your story up to now. The future is the story yet to come. The present is where you live with that experience, your hopes and your dreams." 
Your Life is Your Story Newsletter August 29, 2026 Your Life is Your Story, Issue #239 – The Right Time to Write A Memoir From Tom Gilbert – Editor and Writer, www.your-life-your-story.com In this Issue: Opening remarks: Sharing Life Experiences Featured Article – The Right Time to Write A Memoir Featured Resource – Finding Your Calling Opening Remarks: Sharing Life ExperiencesHaving special moments in life, experiences that you will always remember is a wonderful thing. What makes those moments even better is when they are shared life experiences. Sharing life experiences makes it all the more memorable. Those shared life experiences can be grand. But they don’t have to be. Going out to dinner with family or friends. Attending concerts or sporting events. Traveling together. I’ve done all these things and I continue to do so. I am very blessed that my grown children live near my wife and I and we all like to do stuff together. We’ve also included our two grandchildren in some fun life experiences like doing an escape room together. Those young minds combined with elder knowledge has helped us solve those big puzzles. Enjoy your life and share your life experiences with others. Thank you so much for being part of the Your Life Is Your Story community. Thanks to all our subscribers. I hope you enjoy this month’s issue. You are receiving this e-zine because you signed up for it or someone who is subscribed passed it along to you. If a friend DID forward this to you consider subscribing by visiting our signup page . Also, let me know what you’d like to see more of in this newsletter – simply reply to this email e-zine. – Tom Featured Article: The Right Time to Write A MemoirReady. Set. Write!That seems deceptively simple. In one sense it is true. However, discovering the right time to write a memoir takes thought. There are considerations and planning. 
When is the right time to write a memoir? The glib answer would be right now! But in reality there are a number of factors to consider. The right time is when you have prepared and are ready to get to work. This does not mean that before that point you don’t do any writing. You can always be writing. In fact, that is part of the preparation. For myself, I have journaled a lot over the years. Those journal entries contain a lot of material that I can use for my memoir. Additionally, making a memory list is a great way to get the juices flowing as well as providing some ideas, a sort of outline if you will, of things you may want to include. The memory list should just be a phrase or two, enough to jog your reminiscence. Each item on the list can also be good for a writing exercise. I often refer to my list when I am not sure what I want to write about on a particular day. One of the chief considerations when it comes to memoir is just what your focus will be. What story and why? Memoirs differ from an autobiography or complete life story. A slice of life can be a good way to write about and share to readers a time in your life that was significant. Think about periods in your life that were transformative or perhaps a challenging, yet ultimately rewarding, life experience. For myself, I write about my time in radio broadcasting, my great love of music, my passionate love affair with baseball, and how at age fifty I took up long distance running and ran two full marathons and about a dozen half marathons over a period of about a dozen years. I have also had a variety of occupations in my life. One of the most challenging and yet rewarding “second careers” was as an elementary school teacher. I did it for a little more than a decade and in my first year teaching I was 55 years old. That experience kept me young at heart! Is age an important consideration for when to write your memoir? It can be. Let’s face it, the more years you are alive the more life experiences you have. And there is more to reflect on. But it is not an absolute. Some people have produced memoirs at a young age, usually because something dramatic or really important happened to them in their youth. But more often than not people are in their second half of life when they get serious about a memoir. Such is the case with me. I am now 70 years old. Even though I have worked in the life story field for over twenty five years, now feels like the right time to write my memoir. Regardless of when you decide to write your memoir, do consider the importance of preparation. Be ready for some honest reflection. Ask yourself good questions (see this list). And don’t let fear or procrastination prevent you from sharing your important story. Read more articles here. Featured Resource: Finding Your CallingAll of us yearn to discover our true path in life. You might name this your calling. How do we discover our calling in life? That could be a long conversation, but allow me to suggest a helpful book that addresses this very subject. Anne Tropeano is a woman who has considered the subject deeply. She is a woman who firmly believes she is called to be a Roman Catholic priest, but the institutional church refuses to ordain women. This has not stopped her from pursuing her calling, despite obstacles and great pressures from those who oppose women ordination. She calls herself Father Anne and took an alternate path to ordination. Her recent book The Shepherd Within helps you struggle through discovering and following your calling. No matter the obstacles. She states in the opening of the book, “This text is a collection of insights about the spiritual principles that govern life on earth–laws that emerge from what I call God’s incarnational initiative. I explore how we can recognize God’s inbreaking into our lives, the ways institutions seek to obstruct this inbreaking, and how we can overcome these obstructions to become who we are to bless the world with goodness.” I found this book to be insightful and helpful regardless of one’s religious or spiritual beliefs. Father Anne’s helpful suggestions for discerning your calling in life are profound for anyone who is examining their life’s journey, which is much of what makes up the work I do with Your Life Is Your Story. Closing InformationThat’s it for this month’s issue. Thanks for reading. Here’s to telling your story. Do give it some serious consideration because I just know you’ve got a great story to tell! Be sure to see the Get Started section.Any comments, ideas or feedback is greatly appreciated. Just reply to this ‘zine and tell me what you think! Until next time, – keep your story alive! Tom Gilbert |
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