personal storytelling

86 percent of baby boomers surveyed agreed that family stories are the most important aspect of their legacy, according to a new survey from the Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America. Its American Legacies Pulse Study surveyed boomers (age 47 to 66) and "elders" (those age 72+) about inheritance issues.

Stories ranked ahead of personal possessions (64 percent) and the expectation of inheritance for financial well-being (9 percent). Both boomers and elders said that inheritance is not something a parent owes to a child.

Authors Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham describe the spirituality of imperfection as “a spirituality of not having all the answers, stories convey the mystery and the miracle — the adventure — of being alive.” Though much of the focus falls on the Alcoholics Anonymous program — hailed by many as one of the most important organized movements of the 20th century and criticized by some for its own imperfections — the book, which passes the skepticism radar even of someone as non-religious as myself, is really about cultivating our capacity for uncertainty, for mystery, for having the right questions rather than the right answers.

The winners of the first ever public writing competition to take death as its subject have been announced, after a massive response of almost 1,400 entries.

The Final Chapters Competition was launched in January 2012 by Dying Matters to encourage people to push against the taboos surrounding dying, death and bereavement by writing about them. The winners were announced at an awards ceremony during Dying Matters Awareness Week, which ran from 14-20 May.

Last year on this blog I was given the honor of guest posting A May Basket of Journaling Prompts and I'm really pleased Sue has invited CreateWriteNow back for a 2012 version.

Whether you're in the northern hemisphere and celebrating springtime or enjoying fall if you're south of the Equator, now is a transitional time. That means it's a good opportunity to open up to new possibilities, and a great way to do that is to explore impulses through your journaling.

Here are a few of my latest prompts to help get you going. Remember that the prompt is only a starting point: if you end up on the other side of the universe from where you started, that's more than acceptable.

Every few months, Wow, Women on Writing contacts us when they feel they are representing an author who would be of special interest to you, our readers. Recently, they emailed us about Dawn Novotny who has just published her memoir: RagDoll Redeemed: Growing up in the Shadow of Marilyn Monroe

Once we heard Dawn’s story, we thought you would be quite interested. So interested, in fact, that we invited her to appear on our website twice. Today, we’re bringing you her thoughts on writing and sharing the few treasured stories every family has, even when most of them are terrible. It is a clear reminder to cherish all the good that has been in our lives. No one is 100 percent bad as you will see in Dawn’s article.

... narrative medicine means an understanding of health and disease for humans, that is grounded in the stories humans live out in their lives and the stories that we understand about our lives which give our lives meaning and purpose. Whatever we do only makes sense in the context of being grounded in a story or two. When you recognize that I have a belief, that belief only makes sense if I tell about the experiences that led me to form that belief. This belief rests upon experiences that led to certain conclusions that are stored in a narrative template.

Do you have a question about writing memoir? I’m here to help. Send me your question in a comment to my blog post or email me directly at suzannesherman@sonic.net.

Q & A: I can’t figure out where to start writing about my life! I’m 72 and my memories go back to living in my first house. I wasn’t even 3. That’s a long time. How do I manage everything when there’s so much to write about? It all muddles together and I feel overwhelmed. — Muddled with Memories

... why not use your journal as a planning tool, now and then? Spell out your dream, and identify the steps you can take to realize it.

The best stories make sense. They follow a logical path where one thing leads to another and provide the most relevant details and signposts along the way so that you get a sense of continuity and cohesion. This is what writers refer to as the narrative arc – a beginning, middle and an end. If a sequence of events does not follow a narrative, then it is incoherent and fragmented so does not have meaning. Our brains think in stories. The same is true for the self and I use a distinction that William James drew between the self as “I” and “me.” Our consciousness of the self in the here and now is the “I” and most of the time, we experience this as being an integrated and coherent individual – a bit like the character in the story. The self which we tell others about, is autobiographical or the “me” which again is a coherent account of who we think we are based on past experiences, current events and aspirations for the future.

I did this tweetchat with my publisher Alpha Books back in January and after giving it a reread, I think there’s some really useful stuff here for focusing your memoir writing. Makes me think there’s some value in having to hone your thoughts down to 140 characters at a time. Hmmmmm.

 Q&A with Memoir Author Dawn Novotny.

Journaling can be a powerful method for uncovering what you truly want for your ideal retirement lifestyle. Follow these steps.

What is Storyline? is an animation that looks at the surprising amount of coincidence between crafting a good story and living a fulfilling life. 

This week’s journaling prompts explore the ways we break through barriers in our lives.

Recently I concluded a class that I teach using Skype by discussing the importance of digging deep into the characters in our memoirs. It’s important to visually describe each person so that the reader can picture the characters in our stories. (And, yes, as we’ve said before — the people in our lives are definitely characters.) But that isn’t enough. We need to understand their personalities and their backgrounds in order to be able to explain their behaviors.