Where to start with your memoir, life story or family history?

It’s a question I hear often. 

Are you feeling overwhelmed with ideas and paperwork, yet yearning to  write your life story, memoir or family history? Do you have absolutely no idea how to get this party started, so to speak?

Ok, as my 15 year old recently said to me “I’ve got you.” 

Here’s where you start.

Step one: Get it all out there. Know what you’ve got and where you’re starting. Get all your paperwork and info together. Jot your ideas down onto paper too. Get it all into one place, somewhere you can keep it without having to move again.

Step two: Organise it. Create some order out of this chaos. Physically arrange your paperwork into boxes, folders or piles, perhaps in order from oldest to newest. Maybe you box it up by year or decade, or place. The important thing is that you create a system for your information.

Step three: Identify your beginning. What’s the beginning for you? Often it’s the furthest back you can go. But not always. Some people start at the end. Choose your beginning.

Step four: Focusing only on your beginning: start writing about it, from the very beginning of your beginning. Ignore the rest. Just focus on writing about that time of your life, or your ancestor’s life, until you’re finished writing about it. As other ideas, for other times arise, put them into your box or folder or notes, for when you’re writing about that time. 

Step five: Choose what comes next, after your beginning. Write about that. 

Then: Repeat. Until. You. Have. Finished.

You are worth writing about.

Charlotte

PS in 10 days I’m meeting with a group of Write Your Memoir students in Tākaka to help them progress on their stories, we’ll meet once a season after that. All students who have enrolled on my course are welcome to join us. If this appeals to you, please join us here.

PPS I created another tool to help people move through overwhelm and ‘where do I start?’ and into finally writing their story. It’s called ‘5 steps to write your life story or family history’ printout and you can download it for free here. 

Download this free printable guide ⬇️