Writing Your Life: Lessons 1-6

I've been leading a writing class here at Brazos Towers, encouraging people to write about their lives so future generations will know about them and the world they lived in.  This is an 8-week course, and we're on lesson 6 now.  I thought I'd share the lessons we've done so far.  The sessions are just an hour so they can't finish all the suggestions at one time, but they can use these prompts to keep going.  You might like to use these, too.

Session 1:  My immediate family and stories about my parents and siblings 
                  Ancestors:  Where did they come from?  Interesting characters? stories?
                  My earliest childhood memory

Session 2:  Who were your childhood heroes—fictional, relatives, friends, teachers, famous people living or dead?  Why?  How did they influence you? Are your heroes the same now or do you have different ones?  Do you think you are someone else’s hero?

Wise words of advice you received as a child.

Firsts:

  Day of school

  Date

  Love

  Car

  Job

What are your favorite memories of

    Childhood school days

    Childhood summers

    High school

    College

 Session 3:  How I met your mother/father

Early marriage before children

Session 4:  Married with (or without)children

    3 memories from marriage before children

    5 memories from children (before they were teenagers)

 Special times

    Career

    Moves (to new living space, different city, etc.)

    Holiday memories

    Vacations

 What I learned from this time in my life and what I hope my children learned

Session 5:  Living with teenagers (yikes!)

Empty nest:  How did you fill it?

Session 6: Turning points:  Triumphs and tragedies of your life

Note:  I think this is the most important session of all.

I'll add the last two sessions when they're finished.

And remember, 

   The first rule of writing:  Sit.

   Second rule of writing:  Stay