Life Stories…

Many writers believe that special stories are in all of us, just waiting for the moment to come alive when the pen is finally put to paper. It provides inspiration for writers to develop a fantastic novel or share their personal life stories.

Storytelling is an essential part of human nature. We use stories to establish social mores, preserve history, teach life lessons, explain the inexplicable, and to entertain.
The art of writing transposes oral stories into lasting works of art. If you choose a deadline as you begin writing, you will also want to consider how long you can spend on this special project and always include moments that most impacted the life of your subject. The book of a friend, Frankie Michaud, is all about when war brought so many GIs to the Philippines. Many memories were left behind but for the lady in the book, it was the beautiful beginning of her marriage to Ray, stationed at Clark Airfield. The book title is GIs Forgotten Babies.

Writing process begins with a thought. The next step is to jot down your thoughts. For Orval Stuhr, notes were made daily on a yellow ledger pad for years. When he felt inclined to have a book made, the notes were invaluable, along with memorable pictures, and became his life story. He especially wanted to be able to leave it for his grandson before he passed away. For his family he left A Lifetime Of Memories.
Having amassed many ideas for various times of life, you organize them in a cohesive form to tell your story. For Joe Casanova, coming from Italy, his last name being famous and the interests and humor that was provided, with many interesting family facts, resulted in Go Figure.

Most important, keep writing! It took longer to finish the story about Gary Goodall for in addition to local living, his interests as an entrepreneur led him to spend many years in the islands. There he met his wife and they raised three children to their teens. When the book seemed to be complete, another story would come to his mind and need to be added. His worldwide adventures were written in Where It All Began.

Encouraged and helped in writing their stories was the friendly part-time receptionist. If you, too, are ready to share your life story with family or the world and need help, find yourself a friendly volunteer and enjoy the writing experience.

Even if you write and are never published, research has shown that writing is a valuable tool for personal growth and healing. When you write, you nurture yourself and that is worth more than the most expensive book contract you could have.

Kitty Maiden is a staff writer for Seniors Today.