Keeping and Sharing Your Family Stories

One way to keep your Family Stories

Today is the last day this week for our focus on writing your Family Stories. I've posted earlier on why, then where to begin, followed by format, and yesterday some of the tools needed to write your stories. Today, to wrap up this themed week, the topic is keeping and sharing your Family Stories.

Once your first story is complete, you need to decide where to keep it and the many others to follow. What are your choices? 

If you're writing on a computer, an easy choice is to save each story in a file. You could create a Folder and put each story in it. But, what if you're not computer savvy? You could slip that first story in a desk drawer. Then keep adding others as they are written. But that doesn't give you much organization. My preference is to use a three-ring binder with divisions to keep your stories organized. You can create the divisions in any manner you like. By age, by relatives, by years, whatever works for you. 

Even if you put the stories in a file on your computer, make a hard copy, too. If anything ever happens to your computer, and things do happen, you might lose all the stories. Having a hard copy is just a bit of insurance. You can also put those stories in file folders and arrange in a file drawer. 

After you've written several stories about your family, what will you do with them once you've figured out a way to save them? I had three younger brothers. Several years ago, I made copies of the stories I had written about our family, put them in three folders and mailed them to each brother in different parts of the country. I wondered if they would appreciate them or toss them aside. I shouldn't have worried, as all three were thrilled with my gift to them. As I wrote new stories, I sent them to each brother via email, so they could be printed and added to the book. 

You can also keep all of them and designate a younger family member to keep them after you are gone. You've worked hard on this project, so you'd like the stories to continue through the generations. That's one good reason to use dates or eras so that readers later will know approximately when the story took place.

If you would like to share the stories now, bring a few to a family gathering like a summer reunion or a holiday dinner. Pass them around or read them aloud. Each story will most likely trigger some lively conversation. 

I've read some of my Family Stories as examples when I've given a talk to a group about writing Family Stories. One question that often comes up is 'Do I have to write the stories in chronologicall order?' The answer is a simple NO. Write them as you remember them, no special order. When you have a lot of stories ready, you might want to put them in some kind of order, but even that is not necessary. 

I hope some of my readers have been inspired to start writing, or to continue writing, Family Stories after these past five posts about same. You'll have fun, and your family members and future generations will be most appreciative. Every family has good times and bad, happy ones and sad. Your stories should cover all of these. Why not start today?