Gift of a Lifetime

Several excellent books have been published in recent years intended to help seniors and others who wish to give friends and loved ones their life stories in the form of an autobiography or memoir. An “autobiography” is a nonfiction narrative of a person’s entire life to date; a “memoir” is a nonfiction account of an interesting or important theme or period in a person’s life.

Following are a few of the most popular guides to this crowded genre:
• Writing about Your Life, by William Zinsser.
• How to Write Your Own Life Story: The Classic Guide for the Nonprofessional Writer, by Lois Daniel.
• Living Legacies: How to Write, Illustrate, and Share Your Life Stories, by Duane Elgin and Coleen Ledrew.
• Writing the Stories of Your Life: How to Turn Memories into Memoir, by Elsa McKeithan.

The best way to choose which guide to read is to devote a few minutes looking through each of them to see which ones rise above the level of mere common sense. After all, you don’t have to be Shakespeare to write your autobiography, nor does it have to be any set length. Some people can sum up their lives in a few delightful pages; others may write an entire book.

You could begin writing simply by starting at the beginning–which could be your birth, or a time long before your birth or long after it–then continue simply by proceeding chronologically, using your life’s high points as frames for your thoughts and feelings as you remember them period by period up to the present day.

Instead of turning the writing into drudgery, take it easy, describe what comes naturally and immediately to mind without struggle, such as what made you laugh or cry; your childhood and youth; people you loved and loathed; your education, career, hobbies; your adventures, beliefs, dreams, fantasies, reflections, successes, failures.

Try not to write only about events, people, and places outside yourself. Get inside your own mind and heart and lay bare your most private thoughts and feelings, exploring the reasons WHY you acted as you did at different times and places. Don’t forget to write something about your spiritual or religious life, or lack of it, including your thoughts about death and the afterlife.

A memoir would focus these techniques on a special time or theme in your life, such as your service to church, temple, nation, or hometown through the military or other voluntary activity.

The value of an autobiography lies not in whether it gets published or makes a buck. A commercial publisher would probably not publish an autobiography written by someone neither famous nor infamous. But who cares? An autobiography is a lot more valuable than that because from the moment of creation it becomes a priceless family heirloom to be passed from generation to generation–a form of eternal life.

If you wish, you can self-publish your life story by making photocopies, by taking it to a local printer, or by working with an inexpensive print-on-demand (POD) publisher on the Internet. Self-publishing guarantees you will never face the pain of a publisher’s rejection slip. For a comparative database of POD publishers, see http://www.dehanna.com/database.htm; scroll down for the information.

An autobiography or memoir is something you write then give away to those you love who also love you. If you die before they do, your writing will be a way for them to visit you beyond the grave. But even while you’re still alive, your life story is guaranteed to become an instant Best Seller–within your own circle of family and friends.

This article is a much revised version of an article that appeared first in the October 2004 issue of Northwest Prime Time (Seattle) and is reproduced with permission.

Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006 by Jim Mahood. All rights reserved.