There is so much to celebrate in life, and yet we
remember so little of what happens. We are admonished
to record in journals what happens in our lives and then
to write our life stories in our church.
I decided this year would be a great year to get that
published, with my sixtieth birthday. I can always
write volume two later!
In 2000, I started writing my life story, and printed it
out. I used journals, and planning calendars and day timers
that we had kept over the years. That really helped, as it
gave me specific dates and activities. Now we keep everything
on our phones, and having had phones and computers crash,
all of that is lost. I couldn't have produced a lot of what
I was able to write based on memory alone.
I finished the majority of the writing that year,
but continued to add to it.
Those who follow me regularly know that this past
year and a half I have written and published numerous
life stories of both of my parents, my grandparents,
my aunt, my mother's and father's love letters to
each other, and my mother's short stories.
After doing my parents' books, I realized that the pictures
tell half of the story, so to complete my life story, I had
to dig through all of my pictures, my files, my discs
and add photos to my life story. That was as much work
as the writing, but I scanned hundreds of pictures into
the computer, and then cropped and edited them so
they could help tell the story.
I had the good fortune of reading someone's blog
and they recommended using Lulu.com to
publish their blog. I tried Lulu out before I had
even finished writing my dad's life story. I wanted
to see how their work was.
Of course, you know I was thrilled. I could print
one or one hundred, I could edit and add to, I could
receive discount flash sale coupons, I could send others
to their site to order these family history books.
It was as simple as creating a word document and
turning it into a PDF file as you save it on the
computer.
The completed book has 520 pages in it. It started
with 320 before the pictures were added. Of course, I
would have loved to have made most of the pictures
larger, as they are my favorite part, but it was already
too big. This book was so large, that I had to
upload it in two parts, but it worked perfectly.
The cost for the book would have been $100, but
Lulu.com offers one day flash sales throughout the
year - usually 20-30 percent. On Black Friday, they
offer their best sale, and that was 40 percent, so the
book cost me $60. I made one for each of my children
and gave them to them as a gift. As I told my family,
even if you don't read it, look at the pictures - they will
tell a lot of the story.
Start to write your life story now, as people you would
want to talk to and ask questions will be gone. Your memory
gets overloaded, and you forget.
As my husband loves to say, "Those who are remembered
are those who are published." Let generations to come
know who you were and what you believed and did.
What would you give to have written documents
of those who went before you? Maybe they came
across the plains, or maybe they crossed the ocean.
I hope you get inspired to write your own
life story and publish it.
