yourpassions.tk

I awoke this morning from a most wonderous dream: I was with a group of friends, sitting around a table talking about our various projects and ideas, encouraging each other on. Suddenly something dawned on me: “Have you noticed he each one of us is responding to suggestions with ‘I could do that,’ or ‘maybe I could’? Nothing is going to happen as long as we say ‘maybe’ and ‘could.’ I’ve lived long enough to know no that nothing happens until I say, ‘I will do that.’ ” I was as surprised at my words as anyone in the group, but I recognized them as absolute Inner Truth, a genuine epiphany. The dream ended before they had a chance to respond. I have a lot of dreams, but I seldom remember details. Now and then one speaks to me, and this one spoke to me. I took it as a message that I’m ready to turn “could” into “will” often in the coming year. Attitude is everything. Beyond any personal meaning in this dream, it applies to readers who think about writing, whether anything from a single v...

This is the time of year for Top Ten lists. I found a swarm of these lists on the Tech Republic website. I visited there in search of help on a problem that has hosed the Vista operating system on my almost brand-new laptop. I think I shall make my own list of Top Ten Tips for Lifestory Writing, but until I get it written, I recommend that you take a look at Tech Republic’s list : Another 10+ tips to keep your writing sharp and professional. You may wonder why I’m sending lifestory writers to a site with tips for professional writing. Those tips will improve any writing, with the possible exception of poetry. If a tip doesn’t make sense to you, post a comment here, or ignore it. For right now, if I can give you one gold-plated tip, it is to back up your work! I had one file on that trashed laptop that I cared about and had not saved elsewhere. I’d worked about six hours on that file and would hate to lose it. I feel sick when I hear of people who lose a whole hard drive full of file...

Merry Christmas What a memory rich season this is, perhaps because it’s so full of ritual and repetitive tasks. As I wrapped a few gifts this afternoon, I used some ancient ribbon that I swear could have come from my great-grandmother’s attic. She died when I was four. The ribbon has shiny satin threads — on one side. The other side is dull paper. It works well for puffed bows that are ever so much more elegant than the commercial ones that you simply peel and stick. As I fluffed half a dozen bows, I remembered sitting on my parents’ bed wrapping presents fifty years ago, and learning to make elegant bows. The packages had to be perfectly wrapped, with crisply folded creases, and neatly balanced ends, taped just so. This year my hubby received his Christmas gift early — a record turntable that plugs directly into the line-in port on a computer. This is the first time in a dozen years that we’ve been able to listen to our old LP albums. We converted half a dozen decades-old Christmas al...

My words are stuck. They are not stuck in my fingers. They are not stuck in my mind. They are stuck in my heart, frozen in an iceberg of indecision and doubt. I sense my Truth is in there, but it remains veiled, refusing to reveal itself. How do I move forward? Have you ever felt that sensation? Like you know there is something you really need to write, but you aren’t even sure what it is? You don’t even know where to begin? One of the best ways is to begin is with free writing. Begin by writing the phrase "I can't write about ..." at the top of a piece of scrap paper. Then list as many things as you can think of that you can't write about. Don't worry. You are going to destroy this list as soon as you make it. Then pick one topic and use it as a free writing topic. Sit down with several sheets of scrap paper and a smoothly writing pen — a gel one is excellent, because it hardly drags on the paper — and start writing. When you are tempted to quit writing, pull ra...

After decades of keeping a secret so large he can hardly believe it himself, he needs to tell his story, to know who he really is. — Jesse Kornbluth These sentences appeared on Jesse Kornbluth’s electronic concierge service, Headbutler.com in a review of the book, The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood , by Mark Kurzem. I urge you to click over to Headbutler.com and read the whole review for yourself, then pick up a copy of the book — or urge your library to do so. Although this book bears the name of Mark Kurzen as author, it was written at the request of his father, Alex, who felt the need to unburden his soul by revealing the past, and he chose his son as the instrument of doing so. I have not yet read the book, though I have ordered it. I don’t need to read it to recognize the truth in Kornbluth’s words about the motive behind it: Alex Kurzen needs to tell his story to know who he really is. To me, that crystallizes the essence of lifestory writ...

Detail of Sandra German quilt , from Sandy's Quilt Complex Do you ever start writing a story and find it just isn’t going well? Do you then wad it up in disgust and throw it in the trash? Or hit the delete button? There’s hardly a writer alive who wouldn’t admit to that response to frustration, but you may want to think twice before doing it again. Not long ago I attended a program at the library presented by Sandy German, a local quilter of international renown. As she paraded out one dazzling quilt after another, each more stunning and provocative than the last, she explained how each quilt came about. I began to notice that she often commented, “I never plan my quilts. I just start working, and they grow into what they are supposed to be.” Or something like that. I finally had to ask, “Do you ever start a project and find it just isn’t going well; that the whole thing was a mistake?” She paused and smiled her great big Mother Earth smile before she answered, “There are no mista...

More than ten years have flown by since I first set fingers to keyboard to write stories about my life. Those who follow this blog know how I started by writing about my preschool years. In the interim, in addition to a how-to-book, I’ve written more than 700 stories, personal essays, blog posts and articles, many of which are now published. I’ve always known that the time would come when I’d feel the urge to knit many of the scrapbook stories together into an integrated fabric — a Crazy Quilt of my life, so to speak. That time has come. With The Albuquerque Years now finalized, I’m moving on to The Los Alamos Years . Writing this volume is quite different from my earlier experience. The Albuquerque Years was all freshly written. Nothing in that volume previously existed as free-standing stories. In contrast, I have already written several folders of vingette stories about my school years, and I have way more memories of that time that have yet to be written. The Los Alamos Years is...

In a post on June 11, 2006, I discussed the pros and cons of using autobiography kits. My personal distaste for the idea of filling in someone else’s blanks and facing the likelihood of leaving many pages empty because the questions are meaningless for your specific life has not abated. However, I’ve always acknowledged the value of “memory triggers” and include over two hundred of them in The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing . As time goes by, I’m becoming more keenly aware of the value an organized set of questions can have for helping people organize their memories. Just a few days ago I discovered GreatLifestories.com , an amazing website that offers a couple of valuable services. It provides a set of thoughtfully organized questions divided into twelve topical chapters to help you work sift through your memories and get the stories written. The questions are general enough to apply to anyone, so you won’t be boxed in with questions (for example, about military service) that m...