How to Write Your Memoirs -- Fun Prompts to Make Writing -- and Reading -- Your Life Stories a Pleasure!

"How to Write Your Memoirs" has grown out of workshops I've been leading, for more years than I care to admit, with people from the corporate world, the world of wellness, and most recently, Pawprints literacy and creative writing programs for kids, adults and seniors.

It contains organizing ideas, prompts and reminiscences from both my own and students' lives. Use these to jump-start your own creative juices. You'll see your musings will range from spicy, zestful and smile-inducing to calm, informative, and believe it or not, un-boring!

Is there a philosophy underlying the prompts and the whole process? Absolutely! We all need to lighten up! If my work has shown me anything, it's that many of us fear we cannot write anything, or be creative, for a whole variety of reasons. It's also shown me that not taking ourselves too seriously coaxes our creative genies out of their bottles. Consequently, from time to time you might find a little surprise in the pages that follow; I'm sure you'll find many in your own memory banks.

So go ahead. Use the tips and examples in the pages of this book, and banish those "I'm not creative" and "I can't write" monsters from your vocabulary. I'll bet once you start jotting down your recollections, you'll have a hard time stopping! In fact, you may wind up joining me in the Computer Cooking Clubâ„¢. That's the one that features my special breakfast recipe:

Ina's Magic Egg
Take a small pot, just big enough for one egg
Put egg into pot
Add cold water to cover
Add ½ tsp salt to keep eggshell from cracking
Turn on heat to high
Go back to computer, resuming project
When you hear the explosion, the egg is done.