How to Write Your Personal History

Your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will want to know all about you. Make it easy for them by writing your personal history. Nobody knows as much about your life as you do. Read on to learn more about this fun and enlightening project.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Journals
• Letters
• Yearbooks
• Cookbooks
• Trophies and certificates
• Report cards
• Photo albums

How to Write Your Personal History

1. Dig out your old diaries, letters, yearbooks, report cards as well as any other documents you have that will stir up old memories.
2. Using a notebook or a word processing program, arrange a note-taking space divided by years of your life.
3. As you come across interesting tidbits, put them in the appropriate year. In this manner, you will come up with a timeline of your life. You'll be able to put memories in chronological order, which will help when you write everything out.
4. Include your trials as well as your triumphs. Years down the road, someone in your family may encounter a similar problem. Knowing how you dealt with it could be a big help.
5. Include dates, names, and places. Instead of writing, "I went with my sisters to a dance," write, "My sisters Jane and Elizabeth and I went to a dance at Mayfield Hall in Birmingham on the night of January 21." These details bring life to your narrative. They also help people make connections.
6. Take it slow. This is a huge project. You may want to break it down and make realistic goals. For instance, you could make a goal to write about your high school years in the next 3 months.
7. Write about your favorites: your favorite foods, clothes, songs, friends, books and sports. These things help people understand your character and personality.
8. Ask relatives and friends for more information. You probably don't remember much about your infancy, but your parents and older siblings might. Find answers to questions you've always wondered about. For example, why did we move away from Ohio when I was a baby?
9. Once you have a chronology established, write your entire story in one document. Make sure you have backups. Print it and give it away to your children and siblings and anyone else who would be interested. What a great gift!

Tips & Warnings

• Update your history every few years after you've completed it.
• Don't be afraid to be yourself. That's what you're after.
• Don't worry about spelling and grammar. Write as you would speak.