Writing To Preserve Your History



Posted: Sunday, June 28, 2009

by
Creative Writing Strategies

As we look around us, if we look closely, it becomes apparent that things have changed over time. To look back in the history of our family or our country it becomes even more apparent how much change has occurred. Some families have a person who keeps a formal record of the happenings in the family. Other families just have a word of mouth system and tell the stories they remember when they gather at reunions or holidays in more of an informal manner.

Think about what happens in your family and who is the one who remembers the most stories of family events.  It can be fun to contact that person and get up to date on what the family has been through over the years.  Those stories can be written down and given to other family members at your next event and are priceless treasures.

My grandfather grew up in the horse and buggy days in the United States of America.  In his lifetime he saw the invention of the automobile and the first trip to the moon.  That is quite a span of events and technology. My he had stories that he shared about how the changes he saw in his lifetime  impacted him and his choices he made in  every area of his life.

Because in my family they were family shared stories and kept informally we never wrote them down.  Now it would be something that could be used for some very interesting stories that many others could enjoy.

In addition it would bring enjoyment to other family members to remember those family members who are not living now.

Gather as many stories as you can about your family and begin to record them even if it is only for yourself.  Decide if you want pictures added to your stories or special items that can be shown at the same time as the stories are being read by you or others.  See how many of these events can be converted into stories that are in the non fiction area.  The characters of your story can be modeled after the real life members of your family.  This adds to believability as well as preserving events of your past history. 

Many people do not take advantage of the story lines that are right at our fingertips.  We just have the attitude that this is what my family is going through and who would be interested in that?  The answer to that question is lots of people would be interested so take time to find an interesting story from your family history and write about it. 

One of the most popular types of writing is sharing short stories about a person, what happened to them, how they handled events in their lives  and what they learned from it.  Others are always able to take away the thought of that might be a way for me to handle a situation if it ever happened to me.

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