By Cathy Sabol
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
Why not write your life story? Your own relatives as well as students of modern history would welcome a record of your life.
And for your own benefit, researchers at the Universities of Wisconsin and Texas have proven that the act of telling your own history can lower your blood pressure, increase your selfesteem, and improve your immune system.
But how do you get started? Try one or more of these dozen tips:
1. Sit down alone or with a friend and a tape recorder and just start talking conversationally about your life. You can transcribe the tape and edit your words later. If you get tired or draw a blank, stop talking and come back to the project another day, picking up where you left off.
2. Find a local class or a writing group to help you stay the course. This will motivate you to produce work for each meeting rather than showing up empty-handed. Or just meet with a friend or two on a weekly basis to share what you’ve written and give each other encouragement.
3. Give yourself good writing tools—a supply of notebooks (loose-leaf is good so you can move pages around) and pens if you’re writing in longhand, or a user-friendly computer if you’re going electronic. And remember to back up your files so you don’t lose your work if your computer crashes!
4. Set aside a specific time and place to write, and stick to your schedule at least four to five days a week. You could set a page minimum to write for each session. Do whatever works best for you, but be strict with yourself or nothing will get written.
5. Divide and conquer. Take one person or event of your life at a time and describe it thoroughly. For example, write “Dad” at the top of a page then put down anything you remember about him—looks, hobbies, favorite sayings, special times with him, whatever you recall. As you’re writing, if you find yourself going out on a tangent, start another page for your new ideas, then go back to your original topic.