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===Writing Challenges=== | === Writing Challenges === | ||
If your writing isn’t going well, ask yourself why. Maybe you are writing about a subject that you feel needs to be included but that doesn’t really excite you. Ask yourself if it is really important and consider skipping it, at least for now. If you feel it is important, then include it. But realize that hard work is often necessary before inspiration comes. Self-discipline when you don’t feel like writing may be the answer, but perhaps taking a few days off might help too. An afternoon selecting photographs for your history or visiting a place you talk about in your history might give you a good break from writing. (Consider taking a tape recorder with you and speaking into it as you look over the photographs or visit places important to your history.) Activities related to your history might just be enough to get you remotivated. | |||
Sometimes the hardest time in writing is starting. If you can do nothing else, just write one word. Then expand it into a sentence. Add another sentence. Make a paragraph. Once you get started, the writing often becomes easier and more enjoyable. When you need to take a break from your writing, stop in the middle of an interesting story or paragraph. Then, when you come back, it will be easier for you to start again where you left off. | |||
Another way to get started when you are stuck is to start at the easiest part of the story you want to tell or to begin with a subject you want to write about. If you find that you just cannot continue writing, consider recording your thoughts and memories into a tape recorder. You or someone else can transcribe the recording. Then you can add additional details. | |||
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| valign="middle" align="left" bgcolor="#ffff99" | Expert Tip: If you are using a computer to type your personal history, remember to save your work often. It would be very frustrating to lose all your hard work because of a computer failure.<br> | |||
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=== Review and Evaluate What You Have Written === | |||
Writing a first draft is only the beginning of the process. Some of your best writing will happen as you review what you have written and revise and rewrite sentences that don’t work as well as you would like them to. A trusted friend, your spouse, or another family member can help with this process. Ask yourself and other reviewers the following questions: | |||
*Does the reader feel involved and care about the outcome of the stories? | |||
*Do the stories flow well? If not, how can they be improved? | |||
*Is the identity of the people in the stories clear? For example, if you speak about Grandma, have you explained which grandma? Do you explain which aunt you mean when you say, “My aunt gave me my favorite Christmas gift that year”? | |||
*Does anything need to be clarified? | |||
*Are the sentences too long or complicated? | |||
*Is there too much detail? | |||
*Are there any spelling errors? | |||
*How is the grammar? Often grammar mistakes become obvious if the material is read aloud. | |||
*Are the same words or expressions used too often? Do too many sentences begin with “I remember”? | |||
*Is it clear and organized? | |||
*Do the stories need to be shortened or do more details need to be added to make the stories more enjoyable? | |||
*Are the characters explained and described so the reader knows them? | |||
*Are names, dates, and places accurate? | |||
*Is the proper tense used throughout the history? | |||
=== After the Review === | |||
You must decide what input to incorporate. Decide which feedback is useful and which is not. Sometimes a reviewer will express a concern that will indicate a problem besides the one mentioned. For example, a reviewer might say that a certain story is too long. But perhaps length is not the real problem; you may need to consider instead how you tell the story or how you describe important events. | |||
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| valign="middle" align="left" bgcolor="#ffff99" | Expert Tips: | |||
Record your story on tape. Consider reading your story on to tape, and then listen to the recording. Do you feel it is honest and worth listening to? Does it represent your life accurately? Be careful about using information about living people. Be extremely sensitive to personal information, such as dates, sensitive issues, and contentious stories, of individuals who are still alive or who have living family members who may ready your history. Never publish anything that you would not want to appear in tomorrow’s newspaper. Also, be extremely cautious about including addresses and phone numbers of living people.<br> | |||
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=== Decide How You Want Your Finished History to Look === | |||