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Why YOU should write your story!

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My mother and a few siblings overcoming their past.

Family stories are important in sharing bonds with each other and imparting family history. But for children, appreciating family stories actually increases their self-esteem. Since kids learn from our stories, it’s important to write them down while we can.  And as truthfully as we can.

From small details to larger stories, my mother’s sister revised history.

“Mother and Father?” muttered my mom after my aunt shared a story about their parents.  “They were Ma and Pa in our family.”

Suddenly, gone were the lean years.  My grandfather never drank.  All was rosy in their past lives.

Why do families change their stories?

“It sounds better,” said my mom, of her sister’s tales.  “But it’s not true.”

“Mom,” I assured her.  “It wasn’t your fault you were poor and your pa was an alcoholic.”

Understanding why people act the way they do gives more layers of meanings to family stories. But for families sharing a legacy, the Pollyanna picture rather than grim reality is easier for them to face and they won’t have to fear possible judgement.

Actually sharing the less-than-picture-perfect tales are vital for family members.  We learn from longings, wishes, and regrets.  Cautionary tales show how to learn and move beyond mistakes, sorrows, and tragedies.  People grow from these experiences and strengthen bonds perhaps more than through the happy, contented moments in our lives.

“There’s nothing to writing,” said author Red Smith.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

Writing Prompts:

  1.  Write about your life from the moment of your first memories.   Use photos to jog your memory.
  2. What was going on in the world during the time?  Your community?  Neighborhood? You may begin your stories chronologically, but you don’t have to stick to this format.   What moments in your life were emotional for you?  Why?  Your favorite moments, scary times, funny anecdotes, and tragedies all should be explored.
  3. Interview others in your life as you grew up.  What is their take on the experiences you shared together?
  4. Listen to music of the time.  Remember the foods you ate.  Senses help us to recall our thoughts and actions.

 

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The Final Frontier

 

For someone whose idea of a vacation is the clean, crisp scent of pine trees, squirrels scampering, deer delicately nibbling leaves, and gentle ocean breezes, Las Vegas wasn’t on my 1000 Places to Vacation list.

But when I discovered my East Coast son was attending a conference there and our friends Denise and Mike Okuda would be speaking at a Star Trek Convention at the same time, a trip to Las Vegas was in the cards.

(Did you know the pun is the lowest form of humor?)

I’d never watched Star Trek other than to read a book in the same room with Star Trek: Voyager on for my son, so to say I was a fish-out-of-water at this convention is an understatement.

(*clichés are predictable and unimaginative.  Avoid them like the plague.)

Although I thought I had nothing in common with Star Trek fans, I discovered their friendliness, passion, and joy contagious!!  Fans of all ages dressed in creative costumes and willingly posed for pictures.  Their energy turned the event into one big party! !!

(*Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!!!)

Getting into the spirit of things, and trying to belong, I saw a tall man in costume which looked vaguely familiar.  “Chewbacca?” I asked my son.

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“Mom, that’s Star WARS,” he said.

It’s good to ask questions, I reminded myself.

The Star Trek culture has been so beloved and ingrained within our culture the Smithsonian is opening an exhibit on Star Trek in July 2016, the show’s 50th anniversary.  Mike and Denise Okuda’s new book, encyclo_book

will be released at the same time.  Mike Okuda, Scenic Arts Supervisor, was nominated for Emmy Awards in Outstanding Special Visual Effects.  His wife, Denise, a scenic artist and computer/ video supervisor, is the co-author of this two-volume edition.

“We were bombarded with questions from NASA,” said Mike at the convention.  “We tried to be so far ahead of current technology –at least visually.”

In a turn of events as strange as green aliens on earth, Star Trek not only became an icon for fans, but for NASA scientists who contacted them for ideas.

You don’t have to attend a Star trek Convention to boldly go where no man has gone before to create your own science fiction or fantasy world.

Writing Prompts:

  1. Create your own world.  How far can your imagination go?  Describe the inhabitants, government, environment, character goals.   Let these ideas simmer for a while, building upon them as you take walks, daydream, and sleep.
  2. Begin crafting your own story, using your new world’s parameters.
  3. Experiment with different genres.   Poetry, graphics, music, short story.
  4. Writing rules.  Know them before you break them.

(*A nod to William Safire’s list of writing rules from the New York Times.)

 

 

 

 

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Everyone Needs a Treehouse

 

 As a child, my favorite place was the cluster of trees which grew behind my childhood home. As a neighborhood hangout, several of the nearby children and I spent hours play-making here.  The trees provided a leafy canopy roof to the playhouse. I’d sweep the mud floor with a large branch, a nod to housekeeping.

Stones and the natural slope of the earth provided three clear rooms.  The living room’s entryway was marked by a worn path to low, overhanging branches, concealing our treasured hideaway and creating a cozy canopied roof.  A natural rise in dirt served as a couch while a rock became a chair.

Stepping above the couch was the bedroom, a small platform where an old doll slept.  She was someone else’s cast-off, my discovered treasure from an earlier exploring expedition deeper in the forest.

The kitchen, off to the left of the living room, consisted of piles of sticks and rocks serving as the stove and counter.  A path from the kitchen led to the backyard, which led to another grove of trees.  Here someone had built an actual wooden house in a tree.  A tree house, a house surrounded by trees, and yet a third structure:  tall, dried reeds, tilted together as a tee-pee.   Mother Nature provided Disneyland-like adventures for any child with an imagination.

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Ever since my youth I have sought out trees.  When my husband and I searched for a house and we discovered one amidst large, tall oak trees, we knew we were home.   The deck places me inside the branches.  This is where I relax, write, and meditate.

Writing Prompts:

  1. Even if you only have a small corner, you can create your own space.  Where is your place of comfort, imagination, and peace?
  2. Use your comfort place as an inspiration for a poem, story, or art work.
  3. Write about a time where you sought a setting to feed your creative spirit.
  4. What’s your favorite trip or adventure where you discovered a new setting which you loved?  Write about this place and your experience.

 

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