From Difficult To Easy-Writing Your Personal History

This post is all about simplifying the process of writing your personal history so it's easy to write and fun to read...

I want to begin with a short story...

At a truck suspension shop, a year-end inventory count was required of all of the different kinds of screws and bolts. They did this ONE BY ONE and it was tedious and took days and days to do this. It was a dreaded task that had to be done.

Along came a new employee who suggested something no one had thought of before... "Let's just weigh each individual screw, and then weigh the whole bin of screws then divide that weight by the weight of one screw and you will have your total." They did this for each bin of screws and bolts, and the task went from taking days to complete to just taking a couple of hours.

All they needed was a smarter system to be able to accomplish the same thing with less effort.

When writing your personal history, it really can be a daunting project...BUT, it doesn't have to be. Just like counting screws and bolts, there are ways to simplify the process and that's what I want to talk about.

This "simplified" process is about breaking up your memories into separate short stories - each with their own title. If you are going to spend the time/energy writing your stories, you probably want others to read them at some point and people are more interested in reading a bunch of short stories, than one long story. Short stories have "breaks" and "pauses" that make them interesting and fun to read. Just as an example, which one of these pages would you be more likely to read?...

#2 has short stories that someone can read quickly, and you know that the story "gets to the point" quickly. But, in #1 you have several thoughts transitioning into each other and the reader might be wondering if the story is rambling on with very little substance. If you decide to read #1 you will most likely read it because you think it's shorter, but it won't be as comfortable to read because there are no breaks. Translate these page examples to a whole book and the short stories will, not only be much more fun to read, but there is a much better chance of them getting read by others.

Randomizing Your Stories:

The stories don't have to be in a certain order and you don't have to include everything about your life. Just begin writing your stories and if you want to put them in order later, you can copy/paste your stories. I personally like them placed in random order because it allows me to just write the stories that matter to me. If I put them in order I would be more inclined to want to include things that I would otherwise leave out.

You can write the stories that:

• Come to your mind first - the ones that are easy to write about because you remember more details.

• Are the most fun to write about. This will help you build momentum to keep going because you're having fun recounting the good times from your past.

• You want to be remembered by. You get to choose what others will know about you from the stories you write. If you remember a story that is unpleasant (we all have them), don't write it, if you don't want to. You can leave it out or save it for writing about later. You get to decide!

• Are missing some details if you don't have them. Anything is better than nothing so write what you know.

• Are told in YOUR own words. You don't have to be a writer, just write your stories the way you would speak them. This allows the reader to "feel" your presence as they read your stories because they are written in your personality.

I encourage you to begin writing a story. Just ONE story, and begin with whatever comes to your mind and see where it takes you.

AND...

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