"Whenever I think of the past, it brings back so many memories."
– Steven Wright, comedian
Because it is almost impossible to write the definitive history of your life, and because, I assume, your audience may have other things to do, it’s important to think carefully about how much you write.
It’s good not to write too much for a couple of reasons: first, you want to actually finish your story, and second, you want your family and friends to read it.
Now writing fewer words is easier said than done, as Mark Twain famously said, “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”. If a great writer like Twain found it difficult, then how are we to be brief I hear you thinking!
Well, the simplest answer is that you don’t have to write perfect prose that will go down in history with greats like Twain and the like.
You are free to write your memories as rough sketches or notes that record your memories as they come to you. For example, you could write your memories of visits to the beach as a child as a string of memories, like this:
- My two brothers and I used to be squashed into the back seat of the scorching hot red station wagon for the half-hour drive to the beach.
- Mum and dad would be at their wit's end because of our complaining about the heat. Dad would get so frustrated: “You’ll be in the water soon, so just try to put up with it”, dad would say.
- When we arrived, there would be the excited run across the boiling hot sand, which burned our feet before we jumped into the waves. Mum always panicked that we would go in too deep and be washed out to sea! “Stay in the shallow water” she would call out at the top of her voice. But we had run ahead.
This three bullet description tells us so much about your family trips to the beach: the excitement, your parent’s frustration and worry, the size of your family, the type of car, and we get an image of these days going to the beach as a family.
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