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115 prompts to get you writing your life story:

caroling — Sat, 12 May 2012 03:00:11 +0000

What lesson in life did you learn the hard way?
Describe a time when your life took an unpredictable turn.
Who do you think of when you imagine someone saying, “I believe in you.” Now, write about a time in your life when just knowing someone believed in you made a difference.
Tell about a friend from each major stage of your life, and let us know why you think of that person as your friend.
What slice of your life would you like your children to know that shed light on what has meant the most to you?
What do you wish you could have asked your parents?
What message would you like to send to your Mother? Your Father?
As you look back over your life what threads do you recognize?
So far, what are your sacred moments that come to mind?
Write about several moments in your life that touched your deepest feelings.
What one thing did you save that belonged to your parents? As you look at it, what do you think? What are your feelings when you touch it?
Write about a time when you went through a spiritual crisis.
Write about some places of beauty that touched your heart and that you cherish even to this day.
What is the most surprising gift you ever received? Explain the circumstances around receiving this gift.
What is the most enjoyable gift you gave to someone else? Explain.
Write of several qualities of your grandparents that you would most like your grandchildren to possess.
Write about the greatest peer pressure you felt as a teen since your grandkids feel it every day.
Write about the hardest phone call you ever made. Write about the hardest letter you ever wrote. How about the hardest received?
Write about the worst rejection you experienced as a teenager. How did you handle the situation?
Write about how your family handled the bad times during your early years: divorce, death, arguments, lawsuits, and/or estrangements.
Were there any cautionary tales within your family when you were growing up? Write about one.
Write of one specific time when you felt hopeless and alone. What helped you through the experience? As you write, think of how best your grandchildren can learn from this experience.
When you were a kid who could you always go to for honest answers? Explain who, explain why.
Write of a single experience out of your past that found you caring and supportive of someone who was going through difficult times.
Write of an instance when time seemed to stop and you knew you were part of a moment that held great significance.
Write how you would choose to die plus the timing. Explain why.
Explain to your children some of the things you want to experience before you die. Write a list. Explain why.
Share your feelings about being left alone should your spouse die first.
What apprehensions do you have about suffering? How will you explain these feelings to your grandchildren?
Write about a time when you struggled with your identity and self-worth. This may be helpful to a grandchild.
Write about the mirror of comparison that might have distorted a part of your early life; the comparison of telling you how much you lacked.
What is your faith and how do you experience it?
List five things you like about yourself and write a 50 word paragraph on each.
Write about something you learned from forgiveness.
Write about something you learned from fear.
Write about something you learned from contentment.
Write about something you learned from discipline.
Write about something you learned from joy.
Write about an experience in your life when you and your family experienced a flood. Describe it.
Write about an early drought that impacted you and your family.
Describe a dust storm you experienced as a kid. What was it like?
Describe the coldest and harshest winter you can remember.
What kind of heat did your house have when you were growing up? How did you keep warm? What was the process of staying warm in dead winter as a kid?
What was the biggest snowstorm or blizzard you remember as a kid? What things did you have to do to survive such a storm?
Were people more secure in their family values when you were growing up than they are now? Why? Why not?
How common was working mothers in your day? Have working mothers been good or bad for our society? Explain why or why not.
Write about a time in your childhood when father knew best.
Write about a time when your father knew least.
What was the balance between freedom and authority in your home when you were young? Write an experience from both.
Write about a time when you and your new spouse/significant other had an experience that was fun, wild, and spontaneous.
Make a list for your grandchildren of some things you currently consider romantic.
Describe a getaway experience you and your spouse/significant other had that was memorable.
Write about an early experience when you and your spouse/significant other were aggressive and extravagant in your romance.
Write about an experience where your romance was so predictable and boring that it was humorous.
Where did you live during your childhood days and who lived with you?
What kinds of make-believe do you remember playing as a child?
Name and describe the pets you had when you were in grade school. Write about them.
What do you remember feeling the first day of school? Describe it.
What do you see going on around you at meal time when you were a child?
Write a memory of the kind of music you typically heard as a child.
Write a memory of the kind of music you typically heard as a teenager.
Write a memory of the kind of music you typically heard as an adults.
What fills up your senses?
What is your favorite meal and why?
What do you love to look at?
What thrills your taste buds?
What scents entice you? Why? What scents repulse you? Why?
Describe the cars you have owned in your lifetime.
Write about a memorable fishing trip.
Write about a memorable camping trip.
Write about a memorable vacation.
If you were baptized, what were the circumstances around the event?
What were the circumstances around your baptism?
Did you have a memorable babysitting experience when you were a teenager? Explain.
Write of one significant Depression experience that has stayed in your memory all these years.
Write a memory of your first few days in Navy boot camp, or Army basic training.
Write about some of the ways you carry a positive influence of your parents. List them and explain each. Write of some ways you carry a negative influence.
Write of an experience out of your past that found you in a very deep and powerful relationship with your parents.
Write of an experience out of your past that found you in a very deep and powerful relationship with your children.
Write of an experience out of your past that found you in a very deep and powerful relationship with your grandparents.
Write of a childhood experience of genuine solitude you had that impacted your life? Explain the circumstances and what you learned.
Write of your most romantic experience s ever.
What roles did you have as (choose one): an only child; as the oldest child; as the middle child; as the youngest child.
Describe the house your family lived in the first years of your life.
Describe all the nicknames of your siblings and friends and the history behind them.
Write about your weirdest Christmas eve.
List some of your favorite things and explain why they are your favorites.
What is/was your profession?
What was the worst thing that ever happened to you at work?
Who is the one person I really miss in my life during the holidays? Why?
Write about one childhood Christmas that really stands out? Why?
Write what the word “blessed” mean to me? Why?
Who’s the Most Social
Who’s the Best Cook
Who’s the Most into Politics
Who’s the is the Funniest
Who’s the Most Creative
Who’s the the Wildest!
Who’s the Most Reclusive
Who’s the Most Generous
Who’s the Best Storyteller
Who’s the Most Traveled
Who’s the Best Organized
Of those elections that you remember, what do you remember most about each?
Which election was the first that you participated in (actually voted)?
What are your current political views and have they changed over the years?
Describe your teenage hangout.
Describe the view from a particular window.
Describe a sport you play or played.
What is your all-consuming hobby?
Are you a sports nut?
What makes you crazy—pet peeves? How do you handle them?
City-born or country-bred?
Describe a favorite teacher or business mentor.
What is your sense of humor like? Your favorite joke? Were you the class clown?

One Magazine

caroling — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:28:18 +0000

I have not blogged for myself in ages, but it has been on my To Do List. The other day it moved closer to the top of the list, but I must have a theme that is not binding so I chose Lists. I am a list maker. I can be compulsive about it but I have to tell you that I find satisfaction in marking though a task accomplished.

WELCOME TO MY FIRST LIST

Can you judge a person by their magazines? I do buy magazines that catch my eye in single copies however, I only subscribe to one in print, because one is all I can keep up with cover to cover. On my list of writing goals is to find a brilliant article idea and get an affirmative answer to my pitch to… drumroll… WIRED.

I subscribed in 2002 when Spielberg was on the cover.

WIRED is where I first learned that a blind man’s brain could be wired to a portable computer so he could see the world, at least as a negative. I was so captivated by this true story that I wrote a fantasy of my own, “The Bone Flute Maker”, published in Vampires, Zombies and Ghosts, Oh My!

I grew up on a steady diet of science fiction and I long for Richard Branson to make one of those dreams available as science fact.

WIRED is where I laugh at Predict What’s Next and where I used to laugh at Japanese School Girl Watch.

Science news, gadget news, movie news, intelligent articles on people with vision, sometimes skewed, but vision none the less. The DIY issue is a recent favorite.

I know life is busy when I have to make the time to savor my geekiness and read two issues back to back. Ohhh. Instead of writing this blog post, I could be reading WIRED.

Bye.

The taste of buttermilk

caroling — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:30:32 +0000

Time and again, their voices soft with childhood, life story clients have told me what a wonderful treat buttermilk was.

Their eyes sparkle, and they lean toward me as they try, each in their turn, to convince me that the thick white beverage with yellow butter floating in the cream, was the most delightful treat.

Jeannie’s mother would give her a pail and send her to fetch buttermilk from the dairy. So across the bridge over the pond and down the road Jeannie and her friend would walk. Jeannie’s uncle worked at the dairy and he would oblige the girls with a pail of milk which they would go sit on the corner and drink down to the last succulent drop. Then, they’d return to the dairy, pay their 50 cents and return with a pail of buttermilk for Jeannie’s mother to use to make, “the best biscuits.”

“Buttermilk today does not compare,” Jeannie said.

Admittedly, I have never liked the taste or smell of buttermilk, yet clients and acquaintances of a certain age, salivate and lick their lips at the memory of this drink from days of yore.

When I told two other clients I was on the lookout for fresh buttermilk, the both scoffed at the notice of my finding anything that compared with the memory of their taste buds.

“You’re going to bring me fresh buttermilk? Do you know any dairymen? In Payson? Ha!” Frieda laughed.

I am looking. Vita Mart sells products from an organic dairy. Maybe I will get lucky.

A recent veteran of a diet that worked, I still consider myself a foodie.

When you are writing your story, incorporate, where appropriate, how food was a part of your life, how it tasted, how it made you feel.

Some tidbits to get your creative juices flowing:

Did you ever cook with your mother? Grandmother? Child?
What is your favorite food?
Do you make it yourself?
Is there a ritual to eating it?
Why does it taste so good?
Is there an entrée or vegetable you detest?
When did you first eat it?
Did someone make you eat it?
What made it icky? Flavor? Texture? Odor? Looked unappetizing?
Were family dinners and all-out affair?
Who taught you to set the table?
Do your parties revolve around people or food?

Remember, keyboards do not react well to spilt buttermilk.

Happy writing!

Dethroning the Queen of Distraction

caroling — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:15:00 +0000

Don’t behead the Queen of Distraction because the siren songs she hears include e-mails to answer, pets that believe they will starve if not fed in the next two minutes, or laundry to move from the washer to the dryer.

A couple of months ago, March 4 to be exact, the Queen of Distraction followed the pattern of lawyers in offices past and present. These suited upholders of legalities and loopholes documented all of their time so that they could bill their clients.

While there is obvious merit to this line by line detailing of minutes spent, minutes wasted and minutes justified, the Queen of Distraction finally realized that she needs to retrieve her former title, the Lady of Lists.

The Lady of Lists once kept a daily to do list.

“My list had baby steps such as ‘call NVM editor’ and broad jumps like ‘WRITE whr story’,” the Lady of Lists said. “It is how I was able to write 6,000 to 10,000 words per week as a reporter. There is a visceral satisfaction to be gained by making a large strike-through on a task completed.”

On one such list, a colleague wrote: “Circle K w/ Erin ,” because she said there was “nothing fun” on the to do list.

After being deadline driven for four-plus years, the Lady of Lists never would have thought setting and keeping deadlines of her own would prove difficult.

“The Puritan work ethic my grandparents instilled into my being meant a guaranteed sense of accomplishment at the end of a 12-hour day,” she said. “What I did for a payroll check, I can do for me. Right?”

The Lady of Lists can be a compulsive list maker if she does not carefully guard against her basic nature.

However, the life of a freelance writer is ever a learning process, so as the Queen of Distraction and the Lady of Lists merge minds they have made The Confine Distractions List:

1. Check e-mail first thing, but only respond to writing gigs
2. Work on client A’s project for at least three hours (I love paid assignments.)
3. Kiss sweetheart (Ah, the joy of working at home.)
4. Work on client B’s project for at least two hours (Did I mention that I love paid assignments?)
5. Feed pets and water plants
6. Work on client C’s project for at least an hour (Money is a nice thing to have in one’s wallet.)
7. Write fiction – one hour (One day soon, this will replace working on client A, B and C’s projects.)
8. Then, answer e-mails, return phone calls and work on non-paying assignments, bill clients per contract
9. Check in on blog, Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter Sundays and Wednesdays
10. Surf net

The Queen of Distraction and Lady of Lists are imperfect sides of the same personality equation (an equation possible for writers, not mathematicians). Both outlooks have merit when getting it comes to getting the job done, knowing what it costs in time, and being able to live well.

On that note, item Number 3 should have a repeat clause. Just one. Even Puritan work ethics can be derailed.

Check out Cory Doctorow’s excellent article Writing in an Age of Distraction for more advice.

As WKD would put it, shameless self promotion...

caroling — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:13:21 +0000

Not only is it fun to win, it is quite the energy boost. The ATM machine ate the lovely check APW gave me for sweeping the contest right up.

Here are the rest of my awards from the
2009 Arizona Press Women Communications Contest

Columns – General
First Place
“Popa watch me fly”
and
“Purses are just modern bags of infinite holding”
both The Rim Review, both headed for national competition
http://www.paysonroundup.com

Special Articles – Travel
Second Place
“Kilimanjaro hike brings brother adventurers closer together”
Rim Country Gazette, print edition, July 24, 2008

Publications regularly edited by entrant – Non-daily newspaper
Second Place
Rim Country Gazette (RCG)
http://www.rimcountrygazette.com

Personality Profile – More than 500 words
Second Place
“Carl Backus’ Honor Flight to the World War II Memorial” and “Tour of Duty for Lt. Backes”
RCG

Third Place
“A Pretty Girl and a Wild Lad Fell in Love”
Payson Roundup Newspaper (PRN)

Honorable Mention
“Young singer songwriter balances college and her art”
PRN

Special Articles – Physical/mental health, fitness, self-help
Third Place
“The dawn of running therapy for six Payson women”
and
“A man and his dog”
both PRN

Effort vindicated with Outstanding Writing Award

caroling — Sun, 10 May 2009 15:36:36 +0000

When Jeff Vandermeer returned from a tour of duty in Iraq to surprise his younger brother at graduation I was the lucky reporter assigned to the story.

“Brothers reunite at graduation” http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2008/may/22/brothers_reunite_at/ was the last story I wrote as a reporter for the Payson Roundup Newspaper. Graduation ceremonies ended around 10 p.m. on a Thursday and was in the office until about 1:30 a.m. Friday crafting the story for the front page.”

This past evening, the story was given a mere Honorable Mention by a judge for the Arizona Press Women 2009 Communications Contest.

I admit my heart sank as I believe “Brothers… ” is one of the best feature stories I have ever written. The unknown judge wrote: “The extended stage/play metaphor is a bit labored and doesn’t really fit the occasion that well but the story has some nice moments.”

While I believe the judge was dead-on with comments on some of my other entries, and it was nice that the judge took the time to comment, “didn’t fit the occasion” made me bristle.

Payson is a small town and one of my beats was school activities. I knew the school. The judge did not. I met the younger brother Steven Vandermeer while covering another story. I was there. The Judge was not.

At the end of the evening I was stunned when the contest chair announced “Brothers reunite at graduation” was recognized by the Arizona Newspaper Association for the Arizona Press Women Communication Contest with the Outstanding Writing Award.

Kristin Gilger, Assistant Dean, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications wrote of ”Brothers…” in an e-mail to the contest chair:

“What makes this simple story compelling is the way it is constructed. The writer sets up her story like a stage play… Telling the story this way draws the reader in, gives the piece a dramatic narrative structure and also helps to capture the drama and fun of the event…. The author’s voice comes through, but it does not overwhelm the telling of the story or the real heroes–two brothers who are happy to be reunited.”

Yes!

So although the story won’t be going on to nationals, I am delighted.

My journalism training was in the newsroom, and while my first editor, Jerry Thebado, told me ”writing news stories is not rocket science, ” it is nice to hear from someone whose job it is to know that I am quite capable.

Kudos to photographer Andy Towle for staying up late to get the picture and editor Tom Brossart for the assignment. And, thanks to the Vandermeers for the flowers.

I also won the Outstanding Writing Award in 2007 for ”Happy ending.” you can read it here: http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2006/nov/30/happy_ending/