About Writing ... Writing Family Stories

Recently, I’ve spoken to several women’s groups in Houston about preserving memories through family stories. Not just in the telling of the story, but by writing down their memories. The women were so enthusiastic and had so many questions, I thought I’d share my thoughts with my readers via the website.

Family stories can be short and sweet or funny or serious or simply a memory that’s important to you. Spelling doesn’t count. Grammar doesn’t count. The only thing that counts is preserving the memories for your children (nieces/nephews/relatives). Your memories help the younger generation answer the question, Who am I? The fact is that some people spend their entire lives searching for clues to solve this mystery. So your stories are a true gift.

Have you noticed how popular scrapbooking is today? I’m not at all surprised. Creating a scrapbook preserves and shares memories. Combining a picture or an heirloom with a short story is really like writing a book.

Here are some basic family topics to get you started:

- a favorite recipe: where did it come from, when did you eat it, who made it best? This can lead into dinners – did you eat together every night, was there a specific menu for each day of the week, was the kitchen the heart of your girlhood home?
- holidays: Thanksgiving traditions, the most memorable Christmas – which could lead us back to food. Who brought what dish to these festive events?
- birthdays: which was the most memorable? Why was it special? Who was there? Where was it held?
- The first of anything: the first date, first teacher, car, home, day of college or first time leaving a child at college
- Toys/games – spark a memory of childhood with a sibling, e.g. Monopoly, roller skates
- The Best Gift I Ever Received
- Turning Points in My Life: the big decisions such as marriage, leaving your hometown, changing jobs or careers, getting a divorce
- Religion: have your beliefs changed since childhood; strengthened? Weakened?
- Lessons I’ve Learned: for example, How I learned not to be jealous of friends who had more than I had.

Here are some ways to start the story:

1. Setting – describe the house you grew up in, or a specific room that sparks a memory such as your bedroom. Did you share it with your sister? Did you hang posters on the wall? Were you lucky just to have a cot?
2. Action – for example: On our first date, Mike and I hit a telephone pole head on. The car was totally wrecked; fortunately, we weren’t. (Then I went back and filled in the details of why we were out so late and what happened afterwards).
3. Character – capturing the essence of specific members of the family. I think that the best stories are the stories about the people in our lives. Here is how I began the story about my aunt:
   Aunt Ethel had a reputation among the kids. She was the doctor. In deference to the medical profession, however, we called her half-a-doctor. She could make “it” better, whatever “it” was. But her specialties were specs in the eye and splinters under the skin. (If you read The Soldier and the Rose, you might like knowing that Edith was based on Aunt Ethel).

I hope you try your hand at preserving a memory. Feel free to use any of these ideas and methods or just jump in and do it your way!