The Rough Draft of My Life Story

He would love to hear from you and can be reached at richard guidedlifestories.

Recording soon and on the way to you soon after!

Following simple prompts, and based on the principles shown in Writing Your Legacy — The Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Your Life Story , you will be able to complete a personal life story for your family, your friends, and your community. The ten core legacy themes are meant to be written in order.

This will give your finished life story a sense of completion. After reading the following theme descriptions and writing prompts below, you will write your short page life story for each. We all have dozens of turning points in our childhood years, events that often take us in unexpected directions. Some are huge — the death of a parent — or they may be sublime — suddenly knowing what you will excel at for the rest of your life. Here are two points to help jog your memory.

If something else comes to mind, perfect!

We all have family, in whatever context that might mean. It could be our family of birth or one we created later on in life. Want to be remembered? Order now and get started! This can be your professional or volunteer work, looking after a household, or any combination thereof. It is what we do or have done in life. The mind-body connection is a challenge we all face at one time or another.

Most of us have faced a health crisis. I was full of fear—afraid to reveal my authentic self and the vulnerability that came with doing it. I was also fearful that no one would give a hoot about my story. My resistance to the process resulted in quite the crappy effort.

• The New Way to Write Your Life Story: The 10 Themes of Legacy Writing;
• How to Write Your Story in 6 Steps!
• How To Write a Short Story.
• Musings by speculative fiction author Karen Miller.
• 15/15 - family haikai!
• How to Write a First Draft.
• The 5 Surprising Takeaways From Writing The First Draft Of A Novel?

Apparently my chief editor thought so too. She sent the article back to me with these words: So I went back to my computer, stared at a blank page for a while and began to write. But more important than the tears was the overwhelming sense of release. In reconnecting with my story I somehow gave it a voice. I gave myself a voice that needed to be heard. I have continued to write my story and to pursue the practice of helping others do the same.

Writing our personal stories is the most vulnerable kind of writing we can do. We fear being laughed at, rejected, or that our words will be met with silence. And in turn, we ourselves remain silent. So take out your paper and pen and write down some key feelings that you associate with your life so far. Then write something about each feeling and the story behind it. Lesson learned for the next book.

I faced other problems with minor characters. I had big plans for one of them. Two thirds of the way through it dawned on me.

I forgot about him. Once I realized my mistake, I found an easy way to fix it. Go back and kill him off. Picture yourself sitting at the dinner table with your family. I found myself lost in thought thinking about the story.

I may have missed a few updates from my kids about their day at school. Once I ditched my original plan, each chapter became a new exploration. This meant a lot of planning and re-planning after each chapter. For a few chapters, I wrote without any preconceived ideas. I struggled with that approach. A rough outline, even just a few lines, fueled my brain with enough juice to write without interruption.

I surprised myself with many of the twists and turns that made their way onto the page.

Giving up on my original outline turned out to be a great decision. I write about marketing, creativity and writing. Click here to get yours. Connect with me on Twitter or linkedIn. ProWritingAid is a powerful suite of over 20 different writing and editing tools. Copy your draft into their online editor and check grammar, sentence flow, overused words, and more.