Welcome

Hello.

Welcome to my blog. I hope this site will become the gathering place for lifestory writers the world over.

Before we proceed, allow me to introduce myself. I’ve become something of a nut about lifestory writing myself over the last decade. I began writing stories to share with my grandchildren, shortly after the first was born. By the time I’d written the story of my preschool years, I was hooked. I’ve continued writing stories, stories about family, about school, friends, experiences I’ve had. Some of the stories are funny, some are sad, some are adventures. Some have been shared with family, some with friends, and some not at all. Some may never be shared.

Six years ago, after I retired from gainful employment, I began teaching Lifestory Writing at our local Senior Citizen Center and Library. I taught many subjects in my patchwork career, and there was never another I enjoyed nearly as much as Lifestory writing. Few things are as gratifying as having a student proudly display a finished volume full of stories and pictures, knowing how hard they’ve worked to get it together.

Through the years I’ve written dozens of handouts to answer student questions. I’ve also written essays with my own thoughts about lifestory writing, and I shall continue to do both. I’m currently compiling the handouts into a single volume which, not surprisingly, is titled THE HEART AND CRAFT OF LIFESTORY WRITING. I’ll explain the title in my next post.

I’m looking forward to this blog as a place to share snippets from the book, and other material that may not fit anywhere else, but seems likely to be helpful to someone. If you have questions about lifestory writing, please post them in the comments box. I’ll try to answer as many as I can.

I won’t be posting every day, but I hope to have something for you at least once a week.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal