Many Ways to Tell a Story

There are many different formats to record your memories. Some of them will make your stories even more simple to write. Imagine you have a book of stories about your life. Each story has a title and your stories are written in random formats. Wouldn’t that be a fun book to read, and a fun way to represent YOU!

I want to tell you about 4 of the most popular Story Formats:

Short Story Format

People are much more likely to read a short story than a long one. If you break up your life into events, themes, places, activities, people, etc. and then make each one of them into a short story, they will be much easier to write because you don’t have to worry about transitioning from one story to the next. Give each story it’s own title and you can place them in chronological order or leave them out of order for a fun/casual review of your life.

List Format

If you are writing about the houses you have lived in, the trips you have been on, the jobs you have had, etc., making a list of them might be easier than turning them into a story with paragraphs. You would simply make the list and then you can tell something about each trip (or just the ones that might have a good short story to go with it). I recommend using bullet points to separate them but you can number them if you like that better. And don’t forget to give your “list story” a fun name that will capture the reader.

Letter Format

When you write a story, you should always keep the reader(s) in mind. This will help you keep your story interesting as you write what you think would benefit the reader in some way (see the Part 3 series for details). You can begin your story with "Dear (Reader, Family, Friends, etc.)." This will help the reader feel more connected as they read your story. It will also help to remind you to add meaning to your story. When using the "Letter Format," it is optional whether you want to include a title or not.

Question & Answer Format

This is another easy format that works really well if you don't think you are a good writer. You can write questions and then put the answers right under each question. This format doesn't require titles because the questions can act as the title to separate each story.

I hope this helps you and encourages you to write your stories.

Happy Memory Making!

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