NOW, ABOUT YOUR LIFE

You can’t put an old head on young shoulders. It’s often tempting to wish that we had the knowledge and wisdom of today when we were young. But we have to accept life as a journey, learning as we live.

We mentioned, recently, the extent to which recreational reading of good literature had diminished in popularity in recent years. Even fewer people have a passion for writing. Some young people do record the basics daily in a diary. 

But all of us, regardless of age and means, are living life itself. And gaining experiences that will be fascinating to reflect upon at a later time, as well as highly rewarding for our descendants to learn about in the coming years; a vital component of social and family history on record. So, in short, why not capture your life story in writing?

Very few people actually do that. And what a shame that is, both for them and for their family in the coming decades, even centuries. Capturing the experiences of your life in writing can, of course, be quite challenging, especially if you are not used to writing. But with the personal computer, you now have the ability to draft what you want to say, bang it out as fast as you are thinking, and then go back later and re-craft every sentence to your satisfaction. And thinking hard and deep, while articulating those experiences, gives rise to a far more profound recollection. Achieving that greater depth of recall is very rewarding; guaranteed.

Choose

You can choose one of two broad options – an autobiography or a memoir(s). The autobiography is a more substantial project in which you relate your life story from the beginning and through the various stages. The events and experiences in detail where appropriate but preferably not to the extent of what you had for breakfast on November 4, 1993!  

A memoir is more a selection of experiences, and thus a somewhat easier project. And if you remain aware throughout that you are doing it as much for your family of today and tomorrow, you will retain the momentum to complete the book. I would have loved to read a memoir of my father and mother, my grandparents and so on. 

How they lived, what they ate, what a day’s work was like – how they wrote with a fountain pen that they had to fill with ink every week or so, the ballpoint not yet invented. How the family fortune was lost in the 1920s Depression. Can you imagine how fascinating that must be the other way round - four or five generations into the future? 

Your descendants will be intrigued as you entertain them with your views, experiences, the joys and challenges, and your description of making your way from one place to another, sitting in a comfortable box-type thing on a set of wheels, with a circular implement in your hands to steer you. Very quaint.

Start today; you will never regret that. You don’t have to sit down and write it from beginning to end in one go. Capture episodes as they come to mind. During an ordinary day, but in a very extraordinary traffic-jam you suddenly remember, how many years earlier in Birmingham, England, in a similar bumper-to-bumper traffic queue on the highway, the air pollution turned the mist into a ‘smog’ – that’s ‘smoky-fog’ – so thick you eventually couldn’t see the end of your car bonnet. Same for the vehicle behind and in front. You had to leave your car in the middle of the highway and walk the 10km to your home; and return to it by bus the following day. The air in England is now much cleaner so it’s a unique memory to be shared.

Sense

A word for the younger folk; you may not get the same sense of urgency that the elderly feel about capturing the stories of your life. But do keep a diary that records your thoughts, views, pleasures and concerns. Remember your friends in those words, and the incidents and accidents of your lives together. Not only is that rewarding in the present day but it also becomes valuable source material for when you get down to the serious task of writing your memoir.

A few years ago, I passed a piece of fiction to one of my sons for review. He came back with – ‘why don’t you write your autobiography, dad?’ I replied, ‘who’s going to want to read that’? He replied, ‘why not just do it’? I may have been hoping for something more flattering than that, but I made a start and have never enjoyed a writing experience as much in my entire life. Everyone has seen and done things that make interesting – even fascinating – reading for themselves, family and friends. Ready to go?

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