Writing Your Life Story

The Life Story Challenge

Getting Started

This step-by-step guide will walk you through the life story writing process. Watch the following video to get started.

Preparing to Write

Before you start putting pen to paper, there are a few things that you may want to decide. The following instructions will help you prepare to write your life story. 

1. Design your life writing experience. 

Decide when and where you would like to write your life story. Try to design something that will make the actual experience of writing your life story meaningful to you.

2. Review your notes from the 12 discussions and make a list of everything you want to include in your story.  

Be sure you include important people and experiences from your past, knowledge about your current values, strengths, and passions from your present, and your goals for the future. 

3. Decide which themes you want to incorporate into your story. 

Redemption, personal agency, and interpersonal connections have all been proven to be powerful themes in life stories. You may want to consider these themes when writing your own life story, so you can better welcome their benefits into your own life writing experience. 

To explore themes more in-depth, you may want to review “Discussion 3: Themes.” 

4. Decide the best format for your story.

There are many different approaches to formatting and structuring your life story, but one of the most important elements highlighted by the research is the benefits of actually writing down your life story rather than expressing it verbally. 

In addition to writing down life stories, some may want to embellish their stories with drawings or photographs. Others may wish to create an audio of their story by reading their story aloud and recording it. Whichever way you choose to format your life story, try to make it authentic to you and your story. 

5. Decide the best organization for your story.

Another important element to think about when writing your life story is the structure and organization of it. Here are a few possible options you may want to consider: 

  • Chronological: Telling a story chronologically can help you better understand the cause and effect of certain events on your life. You may even want to break up your story by time periods such as childhood, adolescence, young adult, adulthood, and retirement.

  • Geospatial: Organizing your story geospatially is about focusing on the places you have lived and the important experiences you had in each place. For example, one city may have been a place of personal exploration and self-discovery; another city may be remembered for its adversity and pain.

  • Theme: You can also organize your story around a theme. You may craft your story as if it were a rags-to-riches story, a quest, or comeback story. Some themes, such as redemption and personal agency, can also be incorporated into any story structure, including chronological and geospatial.

Writing Your Life Story

As you write your life story, remember that it belongs to you and you have the power to make it an elevating force in your life.

Here are some simple ideas to help you get started.

Refreshing Your Life Story

Once you have written your story, revisit it from time to time, and update it to be truer to who you are becoming and the life you are creating.