Tell Your Story

Twenty years ago I had never heard of Reminiscence Writing. The dean at a North Carolina community college where I was teaching called me in, showed me a newspaper clipping about a class in Oregon, and asked, "Could we do this here?" I foolishly said yes. He asked, "How about working up a syllabus?" So I did-heaven only knows what I wrote! We offered it, and a dozen people showed up. And we were off and running. Now I've taught Reminiscence Writing a dozen times, as a course of six weeks or a semester-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 retirement program at North Carolina State University, and even at a local retirement community.
I teach my students a lot. And they respond by teaching me even more. Everything in Tell Your Story has come out of 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. "Interesting" comes from how you tell your story, not what you have done or seen. It is important for you, and your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, to preserve your stories-interestingly and readably. If you don't, something valuable has been lost. You're not a writer? No matter. If you can write a postcard (or, today, an e-mail), you can tell your stories.
This book will show you how. One step at a time, you'll write down the interesting stories of your life-and they will be interesting, because of the way you will tell them. You'll accumulate lots of stories-more than you would have imagined. You'll compile them into a slim, but growing, volume. And you'll have them printed (affordably!) to share with family and even with the wider world. For an excerpt, please see www.csanford.com
In this book I've included some of my favorite reminiscences. Now let's get started on yours.