Write Your Memoirs Now

Tell your story

Let it roll from your mind like an avalanche

Mighty and intense

Driven by unstoppable forces

Knowing that if not you

No one

Will ever know the depth of joy and pain

It will be lost

Forever

Now is the opportune time to write your Memoirs. With Covid-19 keeping us from the many activities we used to do, you now have the time to reflect on your life. The shadow of death all around us reminds us that our mortality is not an ongoing thing. You can do it all and self-publish it yourself.

You might think you can’t remember all the details of the past enough to write a memoir. But, it is a lot easier than you might imagine. Take time to reflect on your life. Remember your family events, funny incidents, serious incidents, births, deaths, travels, school experiences, church experiences and many more. Think of the significant things that have affected your life and made you the person you are today. As you write, the memories come back and build on themselves.

When I wrote my childhood memoirs, I sat down and wrote one story each evening for thirty days. It was like writing a stream of consciousness poem. Write what ever comes to mind, you can edit later. You don’t need more than two or three pages each. Short stories are much easier for others to read.

Each day, I emailed my stories to all my family members. They enjoyed reading them and often sent tid-bits to add to the story or corrected my faulty memories. They were my editors! I have done four memoirs and self-published them since 2014.

Write your stories on your Word Processor. I used MS Word for mine. Use at least a #14 font. Save each one with a title. Then copy each one into an ongoing Memoir file that will become your book. You can include photos as well. Change everything to black and white. That keeps the cost much more reasonable. You can edit and move stories around as you choose.

When you are done with the stories, create a table of contents, and a title page with your personal publishing information on it. Make note that you reserve all rights to the content. You can make a copyright symbol with a ( a small c and )… (c).

Create a cover page file, with a title and a picture, if you like, and your name. Keep the title page on a separate file so that it can be printed on heavier paper.

Load your completed story and cover pdf.file on a flash drive. Take it to your local Office Supply store (Office Max/Office Depot) to get printed. They can print them in half size 4.25 x 5.5 and put a spiral binding on them. You can choose to get a clear plastic cover added as well. For 100 pages it can run $9 to $14 per book. Get at least twenty copies or more for the best price. It doesn’t cost that much more that getting ten. Watch for discount print coupons as well.

Do it for your grandchildren, do it for yourself. It is so rewarding when you are finished. Tell your story so that it is not forgotten in time. Give them to family and friends. They will thank you! You can also publish them as an e-book for free on Amazon Kindle.

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Photo of me and my older brother on our cistern with our pet goat!

Tonight is open link night at d’Verse Poets Pub. Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

You can check our some of my books on Amazon Kindle… just type in my name in the amazon search box and my books will come up. Click on my name in blue under my photo and all my books will come up!