How to Write Your Own Life Story

The Classic Guide for the Nonprofessional Writer

Lois Daniel

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Year: 1997
• eBook ISBN: 9781569764466
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Biographies
• Index: Literature

Writing the story of one's life sounds like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. This warmhearted, encouraging guide helps readers record the events of their lives for family and friends. Excerpts from other writers' work are included to exemplify and inspire. Provided are tips on intriguing topics to write about, foolproof tricks to jog your memory, ways to capture stories on paper without getting bogged down, ways to gather the facts at a local library or historical society, inspired excerpts from other writers, and published biographies that will delight and motivate.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• ONE Setting Up Your Memory Bank
• TWO Ground Rules
• THREE Working On Your Assignments
• FOUR Birth
• FIVE Toys
• SIX Some Dos and Don’ts
• SEVEN Parents and Grandparents
• EIGHT It Wasn’t Always Easy for Our Ancestors to Write Their Stories
• NINE The Accomplishment of Which You Are the Most Proud
• TEN Create Your Own Assignments
• ELEVEN Where Were You on Important Days in History
• TWELVE Religion
• THIRTEEN Relatives
• FOURTEEN Courtship
• FIFTEEN Turning Points
• SIXTEEN Children and the Things They Say
• SEVENTEEN Inventions
• EIGHTEEN Holidays
• NINETEEN Politics
• TWENTY Animals
• TWENTY-ONE Family Traditions
• TWENTY-TWO Immigrants
• TWENTY-THREE Your Stories Don’t Actually Have to Be “Stories”
• TWENTY-FOUR Brief Encounters
• TWENTY-FIVE More Living, More Stories
• TWENTY-SIX Where Do You Live? Where Did You Live?
• TWENTY-SEVEN They Read the Book and Got Busy!
• TWENTY-EIGHT RESEARCH
• TWENTY-NINE Revising and Pulling It All Together
• THIRTY Publishing Your Stories
• THIRTY-one Your Special Privilege
• Assignments
• Suggested Autobiographies
• Acknowledgments