#14: Unlocking Your Inner Writer: The Seven-Step Process to Writing Your Powerful Personal Story

Ever been in a situation where the stories inside you are eager to come out, but you just can't seem to find the right words? This week, I'll be letting you in on the secrets to setting yourself up for writing success. I'll be sharing practical tips on creating a conducive environment and understanding your purpose for writing, because let's face it, knowing your 'why' is half the battle won.

I'll take you on a journey through a powerful seven-step process for personal story writing. From fanning the embers of your past to harnessing your creative spirit and finding your unique voice, these steps are your roadmap to transforming your ideas into finished drafts you'll be proud to call your own.

Bridging Your Past and Future:The Top Ten Items to Include When Documenting Your Personal History

This group is for people who are in the process of writing their own personal stories to preserve their past for their future. It’s a place to come for story writing inspiration, weekly writing-related events and memes, and continued support from me and the other members.

Join like-minded people and get your stories down on paper for your future generations!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Preserve your Past podcast, where we'll explore all things related to the creative process of writing your stories for future generations.

Speaker 1: 0:10

I'm your host, melissa Ann Kitchum, author, teacher, speaker and coach. I believe that your personal history is a priceless gift for family, friends and generations to come, whether you consider yourself a writer or not. We are discussing the topics that help with every step of the process, like how to mine for the juiciest story ideas or how to refine them into polished final drafts you'll be proud to share. Let's face it, sure, your stories can be overwhelming, but I've got you covered. We all have a lifetime of memories to share, so why not save yours to pass along? Let me help you leave your lasting legacy. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Preserve your Past podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:07

We're going to have a little bit different format today, so some of you may be listening on a regular podcast feed and others of you may decide you want to go catch this recording over on YouTube, and when we're done with the recording, I'll give you the link to where you can find this. On my YouTube channel. I am presenting it as a traditional podcast also and then utilizing the podcast format on YouTube, but also the video format on YouTube, so we have a little bit of a different format today that I'm excited to play with with you. So this is our first time and I'm certain that it will be interesting, but it's always good to try new things and this topic, I feel like, is one that will be good to be shared visually. So today we're going to talk about a topic that's come up as I've been sharing more of the podcast on Facebook and on social media and I'm having a lot of people reaching out saying I don't know where to start my stories. I don't know the steps to take to write my stories. The whole process seems overwhelming and, as we get ready for the fall, I'm going to begin launching some in person well, virtual, but live virtual trainings for walking you through getting started with writing your stories, and I'm going to walk you through from beginning to end with some sample story templates, using the seven seven set process that I use when I'm helping people write their powerful personal stories, and I did a live class last fall with a group and it really went extremely well. I've been testing it to be able to do it virtually.

Speaker 1: 3:06

Today I'm going to walk you through here on the podcast and again, if you want to see visuals, to be able to go over to my YouTube channel the seven steps, really, simply and basically because I want you to see, I want you to have the steps so you can begin getting started, and I want you to see what we would be working on if you chose to work with me and a group of people on a writer's kind of like a writer's workshop going through the seven steps with an actual story you're writing. So today we're not going to be going over a sample story. I'm not going to be having you do that like a class. This is going to be an overview of what are the steps so that you can get started on your own or decide whether or not you want to join a group of like minded people and we can all work on our writing together. So I'm going to for those of you on YouTube are going to see my slides I will make sure that everything that's on the slides for you, my tried and true podcast listeners If you're listening while you're driving in the car or listening while you're cleaning house or all the places I listen to my podcast, or wherever else you might be you do not need the slides to be able to participate and to soak in the content, but if you want them in writing While we go through, I invite you to join the visual experience on the YouTube channel and just to introduce that to the.

Speaker 1: 4:40

My YouTube channel is at preserve your past, so we'll get into that at the end and I'll give a visual and I'll Make sure you know all the places to go. I'm going to now share my screen for those of you who will be joining me on YouTube and, again, this is a first time process, so I hope that you are able to see the slides now and we'll go through and look at exactly what we're talking about when we talk about the powerful personal story pillars and I call them pillars because there's seven steps, seven main important pieces to hold up your story, and it's really as a process when I talk about story pillars, more than the pieces that need to be in your story. These are the steps so that you can write your own story. So let's get started. So the first pillar, the first step in your powerful personal stories, is to set the stage. Now I've talked about this in some of the other podcasts.

Speaker 1: 6:00

I talk about gathering the materials that you'll need. I talk about setting up your environment for success, determining your who and your why. So when I talk about that, I talk about how can you set the stage so that you have everything you need to get your writing done all in one place. So get those materials together ahead of time so you're not interrupted with where's this, where's that. Oh, I could have used this, I could have used that. And also, aside from materials, thinking about what's your environment gonna look like.

Speaker 1: 6:35

I personally like to be away from my normal hub above my household. Now I do have this office that I use for my writing. I also like to go out into either nature or to a coffee shop and be out of my regular routines for my writing, but that's just depending on what you're in the mood for. And if I am home, I set my environment up for success. I put on music, I sometimes have a candle going, I really think about what's gonna be. Do I need? If I'm planning a whole day of writing when I get into some of my bigger projects, I'll do that. Then I even think about snacks and the things that will keep me going so I don't have to stop and get pulled into something else. So setting up your environment for success is really important.

Speaker 1: 7:30

The next part is determining your who and your why, and so many times on this podcast I've talked about really knowing who your audience is going to be for your writing. Are you writing for a family member? Are you writing for strangers? Is it an adult family member? A younger family member? Who's your audience? Know your who and then your why. Why are you writing this? What's the purpose of your writing? And that could be a wide variety of reasons. Right, we talked about writing as a parent, and even just writing to our children. As a parent, the purpose could be to share our own stories, just so that our children have our voice and know us. But there could be other purposes, like lessons learned or pointers on how to get through different life stages. Right, so we can have different purposes. So knowing your who and knowing your why is that beginning first pillar. So that first pillar is setting the stage. When you decide to get her writing, you're setting the stage for success right at the very beginning. So that's number one.

Speaker 1: 8:53

Number two is to connect and ground, and this is what I think of as like the secret sauce of getting this together. It's one of my steps that I think. I think a lot of writers do this and, excuse me, I got tickled. I think a lot of writers do this, but I also think when we're writing our own stories or journaling, we forget how powerful it can be. And I also think this is a special step when we're talking about writing about our past, writing about past people that might have passed in our life that getting connected and grounded before we begin writing is going to be really helpful. So it means getting connected and grounded to your past. What are ways you can really be quiet, thoughtful and really immerse yourself back in your past, back in time, to really feel the senses Like I talk about in our writing? We want sensory experiences, we want as many little details as we can to bring back the reality of that story. So that part of connecting and grounding to your past is going to help bring out those special details.

Speaker 1: 10:12

Next, I'd say connect and ground to your creativity, that creativity within you that might get suppressed when you're like I do, do, do, do, do. Maybe you forget, maybe you don't even think you are that creative, but I know that if you can connect and ground that within all of us we can be playful and we can test that creativity. We might not be using it every day, but there's an inner child in all of us that's able to be creative, that's able to be playful with our writing, and that's part of our human nature, right? So connecting and grounding to your creativity. And then, finally, connecting and grounding to your voice. So in the book that I share, the 10 things to I'm sorry, bridging your past and future, the top 10 items to including your writing.

Speaker 1: 11:16

I talk about writing in your own words and using your voice. So, taking time to connect and ground and really thinking about your voice as a writer, your voice as a narrator and also the voice you want to use. Even going back to that who from the beginning, if is this going to be more formal? Are you writing to a more formal audience? Is your who? Some bigger group? Is your who? Someone very close to you? What's the language you would use for them? So, coming up with your voice here, connecting and grounding to that. So that is number two connect and ground to your past, your creativity and your voice. Number three is brainstorm. And so, once you've set the stage, you're grounding, you're getting ready, you're feeling your who and why, you kind of know your purpose for your writing. This is the time when you're going to start brainstorming, you're going to let the ideas flow and I want you to start brainstorming story ideas, topics, themes that meet your current purpose. So once you know that purpose for that session of writing, begin letting the ideas flow and brainstorm.

Speaker 1: 14:36

There's another separate podcast episode on mind mapping that I will link to in the show notes for this, and I was also had a great request from someone to be able to do the YouTube visual of that. So be on the lookout. I'll link both to the notes on this one so that you can have a better idea of mind mapping. You can go to the podcast original podcast and then I will make a note to the visual video tutorial of it on my YouTube channel also. But brainstorming means getting all those ideas down on paper somehow. Just to review mind mapping, the idea is you're you're drawing a circle, putting that main topic theme idea in the middle and you're branching out and you're writing circles of topics that branch off of that and then the next topics that branched off of that you can then write more branches off of and continue to brainstorm details until you're going out further and further. So it ends up looking like and then it could be a tree looking like a tree. It could be looking like an atom where it has all the protons and newtons, but it's definitely goes out from that center topic. So that's the next step.

Speaker 1: 16:01

Three is to brainstorm without any kind of filter, just getting the ideas down, not right or wrong, not good or bad, just getting them all down. Number four is the actual story map. So I talk about mind mapping, but there's also a separate map that you can use that's appropriate to your story to plot out the elements and the structure. So that could be writing your main ideas and then the items you want to include under those, and then you can. You're going to be using those in your draft, so that helps you write it more in summary form than maybe in the visual form.

Speaker 1: 16:50

Story mapping might be an introductory sentence and then you're writing the descriptive sentences underneath it. It could be more like the summary that we've traditionally used in school, where you have that topic sentence. That might be number one and then your A and B, kind of like what you're seeing so many of you who are here on the actual video and YouTube video. You're seeing my slide with the number four and then the A, b, c. You know those. That could be more how you use your map, but somehow now you're taking maybe your mind map and you're creating it more in a sequential story map, plotting out the story you're going to write. It might be as simple as beginning, middle and end. It might be a question and an answer. There's so many ways that we can do this. It could be conflict and resolution.

Speaker 1: 17:45

So, thinking about your story, plotting so that you're able to then take that, which that was number four, the story map and take it to number five, which is your writing time, and this is where you're going to write your messy first draft. Now, this is not a step you can miss. You can't skip your messy first draft. If you do, you're doing it in your head, the anyways and you might be missing something that's really important in the meaning of your story if you're trying to create a final first draft the first time around. So you're going to be out using that map, right, you're plotting, you're going to use that map that you did of A, b, c, d, however you formatted it, your notes, and now you're taking that and you're writing into narrative form and you're writing your messy first draft. This is where I want you to get it all down. Just write out the story, let it all flow. No filter, no stopping. Don't edit for spelling, don't edit for anything. Just get the ideas out of you and let them flow. That is your writing time, your messy first draft time, because you will then go back and do refining of it and editing and making sure the spelling and everything is correct. But the first step of the writing is going to be that messy first draft and this is the fifth step of the powerful personal story pillars.

Speaker 1: 19:27

The next step, number six, is to then go back and edit and revise. So you're going to be looking first at your rough draft and you're going to be looking to revision. So you're going to be thinking description. You're going to be looking for things like how can I show this without just telling it? You're looking for clarity, for meaning. You might be looking at the order that you told the story. Maybe you want to shift something and maybe you're going to start with the ending and then go back to the beginning and tell the story. There's so many formats authors use. So while you're playing with your revision, you might be moving things around. It might not just be about making the wording clearer or more descriptive. So revision and then editing for punctuation, for spelling, for grammar, that will come also in this step six of editing and revising.

Speaker 1: 20:26

The next step is the final piece of the process, and that is publishing and sharing, and for this, I want you to think about how do you want to publish your story? Because we talked about how. At the very beginning, we had a who and we had a how. So we had or the why. We had who in the why, the purpose and the person right. So I want you to think about how this is going to be published. Is it going to be a single story by itself? Is it going to be a collection of stories? Are you going to be typing this out and formatting it in a certain way? Is it going to get published formally into a booklet or is it going to be just an online piece? Are you sharing it in a blog? Is it going to be handwritten and shared with the person? Are there going to be photos or illustrations that go along with it? So, thinking about how you want to publish. And then, when I say publish, I don't mean you need a publisher, I just mean how are you going to be making it real and making your final copy so that you can share it? Which brings you to part B of seven, which is how will you share?

Speaker 1: 21:45

So, in your publish and share, are you going to thinking back to step one of your who are you going to be sharing this in person with someone? Are you going to be reading it aloud to them when you share it with them? Are you going to be sending it in the mail? If so, how are you going to? You know that helps you with how you're going to publish it. So these work very much in together. Are you going to set up time to share this in a meaningful way? Will it be something that you give someone and it's such a deep collection that you want to make sure you have quality time together so that you can share it and they can let it sink in? And maybe you read bits of it and maybe you've turned just the sharing of it into quality time with that person. Maybe you're going out for copy or you're going to invite them to a location that's maybe meaningful for both of you, just to have some quiet time where you can share this in a meaningful way. Also, I would say there's so many ways you can do this to get really creative with this and have fun with it. At Christmas time it could be a scroll that you share with each person in your family and you tie that with a ribbon, or you know. There's so many ways we can share our story.

Speaker 1: 23:03

So that's the final step is publish and share. So those are the seven powerful personal story pillars. So the first one is setting the stage. The second one is connecting and grounding. The third one is brainstorming. The next one was the story map. Five is writing time. Six is edit and revise and finally, seven was publish and share. And finally, I want to share with you an opportunity to take these to the next step. So I'm sharing the steps today again so that you can use them independently while you work on your stories, but also I want you to be on the lookout so you can get an idea of what's the process I use when I work with people in the writing, because there are going to be some live workshops coming up that will walk you through this process for specific types of stories, those I will be releasing shortly on my website and here. You can see it at MelissaAnneKitchencom.

Speaker 1: 24:16

If you're on YouTube and for those of you on the podcast listening, it's wwwMelissaAnneKitchencom and you are listening to this podcast. Then you are listening at the Preserve your Past podcast. But if you're not sure where my podcast is, you can listen to this on any of your podcast hosts, but we host the show notes and everything over at wwwThePreserveYourPastPodcastcom. There is a link to that also from the website. And finally, we're relaunching the YouTube channel at Preserve your Past on YouTube and you'll be able to begin to see videos of the podcast being recorded. Sometimes there'll be slides, sometimes you'll be able to just see my face, my guests face.

Speaker 1: 25:14

We do have some interviews that are being edited and will be coming shortly, so I'm excited to share those with you also. But, yes, please join any of those workshops that you see. I look forward to hearing back from you. If you get a chance to use those seven steps, if there's something that you use in your writing process, please reach out to me at MelissaAnneKitchencom, on my contact page, or you can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Melissa Loves History. Thank you so much for joining for another episode. Wasn't that a fun episode. I enjoyed our conversation so much and if you would like to continue our conversation, be sure to follow this podcast and share with friends. This helps share the mission of preserving the past with stories. Want more tips, tools and inspiration? Head over to MelissaAnneKitchencom and, as always, let's get writing your powerful personal stories.