So we’re talking about pulling together a collection of life stories. The collection could be for yourself, your family, or travel buddies. Story collections could be written in a notebook, assembled in a ring binder, bound by a photo book service, or saved as a digital book.
Choose a Time Frame
A time frame for a story collection adds some continuity. The time could be a season, a holiday, or a vacation.
Stories kept together by time will have common threads throughout the collection. My family had a recurring summer story. My parents and grandparents picked peaches in a famous peach orchard in a city sixty miles away. They returned late afternoon with bushels of peaches. The four peeled, sliced, and vacuum sealed the fruit for the freezer. Then, peaches showed up in other stories throughout the summer. Bubbling hot peach cobblers for our family and cobblers delivered to the doorsteps of friends who lost loved ones. Peaches were a common thread in our summer stories.
If you’re conflicted about whether to assemble stories within a time frame or by topic, a common decision-making process among memory keepers, borrow an idea from diarists. Assemble stories chronologically, then catalog stories by subject and date in a separate document. I’ve made and used several of these catalogs. I set them up before the new year, with one page per letter of the alphabet. Then, as I began to write stories, I filled in the story topic and the date of its whereabouts in my diary.
- Girls’ Night Out- 6/12/2019, 11/19/2019
- Lake House- 3/212/2018, 10/9/18
- Rosco- 9/6/99, 10/6/23, 12/25/23
Cataloging is helpful when you’re looking for a story to share about your adventure with a friend or loved one, perhaps in a birthday card, a holiday card, a toast, or a milestone event.
Vary the Conflict and Plot
As a time frame gives continuity, various story conflicts will make things more interesting. Not all conflicts are personal. And conflicts don’t always mean people in a fight. Fill out your collection with stories where the solutions were not always the same.
Switch up Story Beginnings
Can you imagine reading ten stories, and each begins at the very beginning? Mix things up a little. Begin with the end. Or, start in the middle where the action is most intense. Jotting down a story’s timeline will give perspective and clarity about where to begin your account.