Home

What Story and Why

How to Tell

What's New

Blog

Life Story Resources

Research is Fun

Get Started

Sample Writing

Free Newsletter

Articles

About

Privacy Terms

[?] Subscribe To
This Site

A Great Free
Ezine to help
you
"Tell Your Story"

Email

Name

Then

Don't worry — your e-mail address is totally secure.
I promise to use it only to send you the
Your Life Is Your Story
newsletter.

Writing Your Life Story Blog

Here's where you find out what's new at Your Life is Your Story.

May 22, 2022

Every New Beginning

It’s nearly the end of May. There are very few days left in the school year. What a year it has been. Everyone is tired. Everyone has been through the ringer, at least some kind of ringer with Covid, masks, vaccinations, and kids back to in person learning after their “freedom to do whatever they wanted”, at least for many of them who had little supervision during the remote learning of last year. We tried really hard to educate them through online meetings, but the truth is that wasn’t very effective for most of them. The flipside is that back together the students had to adjust again to being around each other and following rules and there was a lot of friction.

There’s no tired like teacher tired. By this point in each school year I am pretty spent. In a way, that’s how it should be. Good teachers work really hard and I’ve given it my all, poured out my experience, strength and hope to a group of 5th graders who may or may not have taken it in. And it is okay. Kids learn, even if it is not always the particular lessons I was teaching them. Teaching is an artform. Kids learn. And there were plenty of good things happening this year. So I have come to trust the process.I have been aware of many of these classics and read a few of them. More are on my list to get to. I think it is fascinating to read a good memoir. There is an additional benefit if you are someone interested in doing your own, or having someone help you. The more memoirs you read the more insight you get into the art of storytelling. Believe me - it is crucial that you are able to present an interesting story, one that people can relate to.

We live in cycles. One thing ends, the next begins. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.

Continue reading "Every New Beginning"

May 09, 2022

The Influence of Memoirs

Do you read memoirs? In the past several years the genre has become increasingly popular. Memoirs are different from an autobiography or biography. Instead of giving the full life story a memoir focuses on a particular time in a person’s life, often with a theme. It could be about an adventure you lived through or your spiritual development. Maybe you have experienced addiction to drugs and alcohol and then gotten sober. Perhaps you overcame some other great difficulty to achieve something special. The world is full of incredible stories.

Continue reading "The Influence of Memoirs"

May 04, 2022

The Force is Still Strong With Star Wars

Do you know what today is? May 4th. And all the Star Wars geeks celebrate! As in May the fourth be with you.

Get it? The Force is a big part of the spirituality of the Star Wars Universe. And you can slide to the positive side or the dark (negative) side. There's actually a certain philosophical side to this that appeals to me.

Continue reading "The Force is Still Strong With Star Wars"

May 04, 2022

Your-Life-Your-Story - My Life Story Blog Archives, April, 2022

An archive of previous My Life Story blog entries from April, 2022 regarding personal history, life story writing and more.

Continue reading "Your-Life-Your-Story - My Life Story Blog Archives, April, 2022"

Apr 27, 2022

Memoir Writing Help for Fee and Free

It is exciting to think about a finished memoir or life story! All the adventures, memories and lessons learned, told in an interesting or even entertaining fashion is a goal of many people. And why not? As I like to say, everybody has a story.

But the reality of producing a life story or memoir is that it takes time and it is a lot of work. Sometimes really hard work. But take heart, life story teller! I am not trying to discourage you.

What anyone needs when they embark on the journey of writing a life story (or working with someone who will do the writing) is encouragement and good advice. There is real value in paying for the services of a professional. At the same time there is lots of free information and help available for free.

Continue reading "Memoir Writing Help for Fee and Free"

Apr 19, 2022

Wow, What a Day!

All of us have days that stand out. It could be remarkably good. Or depressingly bad. Such is life. Although most days are not on the extreme of positive or negative, the ones that we remember typically are.

A writing task you can try would be to pick a day in your life to write about that would have the final line of, "Wow, what a day!" I got the idea from reading an article about a retired University president who is now teaching writing classes to an unusual group of people. Homeless people.

Continue reading "Wow, What a Day!"

Apr 14, 2022

Trash Talking Times

Does it seem like people are more disrespectful and rude than ever? I don't know if that is a fact, but it sure seems like trash talking and tearing people down verbally is on the rise.

I sure see it. Not just at the elementary school I teach at, although there is plenty of mean and rude comments there. I seem to encounter it more in public. Road rage, arguments in lines in stores, and neighbors not being "neighborly".

Continue reading "Trash Talking Times"

Apr 07, 2022

Writing About Walking

It was four years ago to the day that I wrote and posted an article about one of my favorite themes. It is about walking. I like to go for walks. It's not just for the exercise. It could also be considered a spiritual practice.

We need time when we can move around, but at a slower pace than our typical modes of transportation.

Continue reading "Writing About Walking"

Apr 05, 2022

Your-Life-Your-Story - My Life Story Blog Archives, March, 2022

An archive of previous My Life Story blog entries from March, 2022 regarding personal history, life story writing and more.

Continue reading "Your-Life-Your-Story - My Life Story Blog Archives, March, 2022"

Mar 23, 2022

How Story Breaks Help

There are times when breaks in your story can be a good thing.

Everyone needs to take breaks. We can't be constantly on the life story treadmill. I liken it to the need to have some space where we let our stories breathe.

I've been reflecting on how we put a story together. Memoirs are a valuable way to tell about times or themes in our lives. They don't always progress in a straight line.

Continue reading "How Story Breaks Help"