Author: Christopher B. Sanford

Publisher:

Published: 2005-06-01

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 1413485367

I became interested in Reminiscence Writing almost twenty years ago, when I had never heard of it. The dean at a North Carolina community college where I was teaching called me in, showed me a brief newspaper clipping about a reminiscence-writing class in Oregon, and asked, "Could we do something like this here?" When I foolishly said yes, he asked, "How about working up a syllabus so we can offer it next semester?" So I did (and heaven only knows what I said in that syllabus!), we offered it, and about a dozen people showed up. And we were off and running. Over the years, I have taught Reminiscence Writing at least a dozen times, as a course that ran anywhere from six weeks to a semester. I have taught the course at that same community college, in Duke University's Institute for Learning in Retirement (four times--a record in a program where classes are normally offered only once), in a similar program at North Carolina State University, and even at a local retirement community. I taught my students a lot. And they responded by teaching me even more. Everything in Tell Your Story has come out of the group experiences in these many reminiscence writing classes. The message (for you!!): You have a story to tell -- even if you don't think you have ever done anything "interesting." (The interest comes from how you tell your story, not from what you may have done or seen.) It is important for you (and your children and grandchildren and nieces and nephews) to preserve your story (and stories) in an interesting and readable form -- if you don't, something valuable has been lost. So you're not a writer? No matter. If you can write a postcard (or, today, an e-mail message), you can tell yourstories. This book will show you how. One step at a time, you can write down the interesting stories of your life (and they will be interesting, because of the way you will tell them), you can accumulate lots of stories (more than you would have imagined), you can compile them into a slim (but growing) volume, and you can have them printed (at modest cost) to share with family and even with the wider world. In this book I've included some of my favorite reminiscences. Now let's get started on yours.