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kristine-woodworth
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Short piece of narrative
Shares the story
Photo or group of photos
Provides more detail
Background and context
Adds life experience, opinions or feelings
“BUT I AM NOT A WRITER!”
Consider your audience Yourself, children, grandchildren, descendants,
friends, co-workers, organization
What stories do you want to tell? Your childhood, your parents’ story, your children’s
childhood, special vacation, achievement, love story, family home, traditional holiday celebration
How do you want to tell them? How honestly? What about privacy?
What will your end product be?
Remember the three techniques:
1. Look with fresh eyes
2. The slow reveal
3. Eyes wide shut
Make your memory list
Make sure it includes: Who When Where What the people are doing, feeling, showing, saying
Use all five senses: What did this scene look, sound, smell, taste, feel
like?
You have the building blocks
Now just write
4-6 sentences about your photo(s)
Try to identify the heart of the story
Consider your audience What will matter to them
What might not be obvious to them
Be selective – you don’t have to include every memory you uncovered
Repeat this process for other photos in your group
Several short narratives
Or combine into one longer
Narrate an entire scrapbook/photo album
Bullet Points Turn each memory into a complete sentence.
Lists Top Ten Things I Remember about this photo
Headlines Imagine a newspaper running a story about your photo(s).
What would the headline be?
Dialogue Recall or reimagine what the people in the photo are
saying to each other
Poetry Structure can make writing easier. Try a haiku or a limerick!
Verify facts, dates etc.
Consider your audience
Tell the stories that are important to you
Tell the truth Write only what you're comfortable telling.
Think carefully before concealing or withholding.
Guard against dark motivations
But don't shy away from writing about hard times.
Anything left out?
Verify details
Check for detail and sensory images
Show don’t tell
Choose powerful words Watch for passive tense Change out “is”, “was” “nice” “good”
“Grandma’s fried chicken was good.”Vs.
“Grandma’s crispy fried chicken tasted like home.”
Find a writing buddy
In person or online
Someone who will: Share in the memories
Offer constructive feedback
Ask questions when something is unclear
Tell you what to leave out/where to add more
Less about content
More about form
Editing includes: Checking spelling, grammar,
punctuation
Verifying spelling of names
Rereading for style consistency
Check for flow
Eliminate redundancies, irrelevancies
Keep going
Combine into a longer work
Create a family tree – with a story about each leaf
Copy and bind stories as a holiday gift
Prepare stories for school reunion, post on website/Facebook page
Read a story aloud at a
family event