How PT is like Writing

Recently I was minding my own business and walkin' down the stairs in my own home and fell.... yes I fell down the stairs. Over the next couple days and weeks I felt terrible and the doctor sent me over to physical therapy. Where I was told that my fall down the stairs caused whiplash in my neck. So the best ever Face Book post would be ... "you know your old when you fall down the stairs and give yourself whiplash" Ha! right. While I was at PT I was thinkin' about how I needed to write a post and I started thinkin' that PT is like writing. We have this pain (you know the voices in your head) that we just want to get rid of. We want to get it all out there so that we can go back to life or publish again or move on to the next project. But like PT it takes work and time. We can't always get everything out and perfect in a few days or even the first time. Writing takes work! It takes time, typing skills... you know so you can type or write as fast as the stuff is coming into the brain. It takes research, lots of research and rewriting. It sometimes takes others helping you, like a friend reading it and givin' their impressions and edits. And then it sometimes takes rewriting again! So as y'all sit sometimes in frustration remember that writing takes time, it doesn't come all at once and sometimes we need help from others (like friends and family) to encourage, to give us space, and to give us tools that will make us better. Take your time ... write and rewrite when you can. Get yourself the tools you need to write and tell your stories. Don't get down on yourself if you think its not going as fast as someone else or as fast as you want it to. You are you and your stories are your own and they will come out in time as you work!

Holy Journaling--

by Tiffany Pankau

When I think of writing a family history book I have to look for sources. Those sources can come from many different places but the best place is if someone, like one of great-grandmothers, left journals....tons of journals. Journals give us loads of information. In my great-grandmothers case she started journaling when she was young, about 15 years old, and they continued until she died when she was 92. Sometimes her journal entries were long and detailed, always including the weather and other times short and sweet... you know just tellin' what the weather was. She included when people were born,  her testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the weather (as I mentioned before), her troubles with the wash, when the kids were sick, when family members were quarreling and many more things. All these entries give me a sense of her life and make it easier to write a book about her if I so desired. Do they tell the whole story of her life? No, since its all in her point of view but it can help me get a clearer picture of all that is happening in the time she lived and of those around her. As I piece together her life and those around her I can write a wonderful life history of her. 

Spencer W. Kimball said, "I promise that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others on through the generations. Each of us is important to those who are near and dear to us and as our posterity reads of our life's experiences, they too, will come to know and love us. And in that glorious day when our families are together in the eternities, we will already be acquainted." 

As I said before most of us are already writing our family journals in our blog posts and facebook status', but what a wonderful treasure journals, and blog posts and facebook status' are. Did my great-grandmother know how awesome her journals would be to our family? Did she realize that by reading her journal someone could learn to know her and love her even without knowing her in this life? Do YOU realize that your posterity will treasure the things you write... even if we are just writing journals, or if we are self published writers, or published by a large or small publishing house, or even if we are never published? 

Part of the reason we write books, whether they are fiction or non-fiction, is that we can give something great and positive to  the world. That we can have a positive influence in the world and those around us. Writing in a journal can help with writers block, it can increase your understanding of the things in your life, and it can give you peace as we work toward writing other things, and it gives us time to step back and enjoy writing the things of our souls. 

So if you keep a journal keep it up... if you don't start now and then enjoy the blessings that can come from it. 

Preserve A History--Your Families

I'm really sad to announce that Gina has stepped down from writing with MMW for now. We will definitely miss her on MMW! But to fill in for a bit, I've convinced my wonderful little sister, Tiffany, to do a series of posts about writing family histories, which is her specialty! So give Tiffany a nice warm welcome to MMW!! 

Thanks!

Nikki

Hi y'all! I wrote before about writing your own personal history, but I rather enjoy writing my immediate family history. I am not one to write about myself (although I still need to write it). I feel like there isn't much exciting about my stay-at-home mom life. I have only one child so we aren't as busy as some families so I tend to think that me, just me, is kinda boring. But the things I do with my husband and daughter are fun and exciting. I love that we love family movie nights, family home evening, our sledding adventures & snow shoeing (we live in Alaska), our family time with General Conference, and many, many more things that we do together. We have a great time as a family, and like most of you do too. I don't know about most of you but I still blog and I use Face Book. I know that most of us just think sure but that it is just quick and easy to post a few pictures or something funny our child said in a quick post on Face Book; but you are writing down your families history! Our friends laugh and our families add their two cents to these quick posts... this is part of your family histories. There are ways that we can preserve our blog posts and our Face Book posts. 

One of my favorite places to turn my blog into a book is at blurb.com. I have made several of these books over the years and love them. As I am turning my blog into a book I constantly ask myself the questions in the picture above, so that I can have a clearer picture of the events that I posted about. My daughter just loves going through our past years and reliving the events and fun that we have had. 

There is also a site that I like for Face Book is called My Social Book. This one makes your Face Book into a book. It also adds all the comments and likes. It is fun. Of course you have to pay for these books to be made but not for the software to make the books.But why not save all those posts and blog entries! 

Start out easy, and remember your all ready writing your family history. Every time you take a picture your writing your family history! So have fun, take a little time and preserve all those precious memories you have with your family. 

Writing Family Histories: Writing Your Own Story

 

I’m back…. I know y’all are so excited that you can’t even say my name…. right?! Wait what?... you don’t remember me? So that’s why you don’t know my name??? How did this happen…. Was it because I haven’t guest blogged here in so long… or was it because I was so boring? Well I guess we’ll never know (unless you leave a comment stating otherwise) cuz you get me today! I am Tiffany – the mommy and Nikki is my sister. I write family histories and love it. I know that a lot of you out there are busy working on projects that are already started and maybe don’t have the time or the energy to research, interview and then write a family history! So today I want to talk to you about writing your own life history. It doesn’t have to be fancy and it doesn’t have to be done in a month. But if you don’t write it who will? I know I spend a lot of time with older members of my family interviewing them so that I can write their life story and there is so much that they can’t remember. But what if they were the one who wrote their life story? Almost all of their memories would be written down, grandchildren and great-grandchildren could learn and grow from the things that were written.  

So that being said you’re still thinking I just don’t have the time, my life isn’t really that interesting, what the heck am I supposed to write about and where the heck should I start! Well I suggest that you get yourself a notebook, a journal, or open a word document. Label it life stories pull it out every Sunday or whenever you need a break from your WIP (work in progress) and do what you do best write! Your writers so y'all just write.

 So where do you start? What do you write about? You can start anywhere and you write about anything! …. Where did you meet your husband? Tell the story. Who are your parents? Tell your children and grandchildren about them (come back to this question often).  What is your favorite food and why? I LOVE this question over the years of asking yourself this one it will change I promise!  Do you know how your parents choose your name? This one is one of my favorite questions because I have a funny story about how I got my name…. Should I share it?? Okay since y’all twisted my arm I’ll tell ya! My parents were told that I was gonna be a boy due to my heart rate so they picked out a boy’s name. Then I got here and I was a girl… they never even thought of girl names so here they were and my Daddy says “Why don’t we name her after our mothers? Jeanie June.” To which my Mama says “What about Tiffany… (her best friends sister named her daughter Tiffany a year before). As she let it hang in the air she thought Suzanne for a middle name and said “How about Tiffany Suzanne?”  I then became Tiffany Suzanne and my Mama always says that I must have been in Heaven saying “Tiffany Suzanne please not Jeanie June anything but Jeanie June” I guess if I got Jeanie June they could have called me JJ instead my Mama called me her Tiffy Sue.  So write about anything:

• Places you’ve lived   *Influential individuals from your childhood  *Favorite vacations
• Jobs you’ve had  *Thoughts on politics  *Political views  *Religious views  *Top 5 favorite movies
• Civic and community service rendered  *Things you like to collect  *Write about your spouse
• Your hopes and dreams and how they have changed over the years  *The automobiles you’ve had or transportation you’ve used.  *Create a list of places that you’ve visited and when visited.  *Your favorite hobbies  *What do you like to shop for  *Your impressions of the times, wars, developments, etc.
• Collections of writings or poems that you’ve created  *Listing of certificates and accomplishments
• Favorite restaurants  *Favorite music  *Operations you’ve had (not the most fun, but interesting)
• The top 3 most difficult things you’ve ever done or had to go through  *Memberships in clubs or churches
• Write about your siblings and other relatives, (they’re children may not be as lucky as yours. They may not have written memories of their parents’ youth)
• Gardens you’ve grown  *Favorite foods  *Games you like to play and why they’re fun
• Favorite recipes (some families like to hand down recipes). Wouldn’t it be fun if your descendants knew which ones were your favorite and you left the recipes for them?  *Your favorite time of year
• Sports that you’ve played throughout your life  *Pets you’ve had  *Weather phenomenon you’ve seen or experienced.  *Technological advances you’ve seen in your day  *Spiritual experiences you’ve had
• Favorite toys you’ve had  *Thoughts on raising children  *Education achieved  *Activities you’ve participated in  *Favorite books

Anyway let's write our stories! Attached you will find a google document of interview questions. Use them, adapt them to you and your family, and share them with others so that they can write their stories! This will be a book of a lifetime and you will write it and it will be your greatest contribution to others on this Earth! YOU ARE WORTH WRITING ABOUT! 

there are software programs that you can use too HERE, I like this one I own it....

~Tiffany -- the mommy