“What do I do when I run out of stories after 2 weeks?” That’s the question I had for a mentor when gave me the direction to write a story about my life every day. His answer? “You Won’t.” That exchange took place a few years ago while speaking with one of my mentors about where to find stories about my life. He had just finished explaining to me that given that I wanted to do more public speaking, I would need more personal stories so I would be able to use them to make a point. He told to that starting that day I should write at least one story form my life every day. So I did. I wrote about things I did with my grandma. I wrote about living in Philly. I wrote about living in the different places I have lived. That was over 5 years ago. It’s the reason I run out of time to write the stories long before I run out of stories.
As we talked about already this series on where to find ideas for personal narrative stories, there are a number of ways to generate ideas for how to get the stories. For today’s post, I am speaking directly to the retelling of stories about your life that you already know. When someone’s ask us a question about ourselves, the answer normally comes in the version of a story. You remember how you got a scare. Some stories you tell over and over.
I’m willing to bet that you will find, as I did, when you start writing down or recording the random stories of your life, other stories will also emerge. Then you’ll go speak to someone you know to verify something you remember and find a new story or new details for a story. Working on the stories you already know about yourself, in a way, actually helps you get to know yourself.
I have countless stories about myself by doing this. And that doesn’t include the stories I come up with about present day things. That, will be next post. Until then, be sure to find and tell your story on purpose
Story Telling On Purpose 