Breathe Lif into Your Life Story: How to Write a Story People Will Want to Read

This review was written by Tom Baxter.

Authors: Dawn and Morris Thurston

Publisher: Signature Books - Salt Lake City- 2007

For those of you who have thought about writing your life history, but don't know where or how to start or really don't see yourself as a writer, this book is designed to give you many helpful tips. The authors are a husband/wife team that have presented writing courses at several universities and at BYU Education Week. As noted in the subtitle, their goal is to help you produce something that your posterity will want to read. They cite a number of examples and excerpts from Pulitzer Prize writers that include autobiographical works as well as works of fiction. They clearly outline how professional writers go about the creative process of expressing themselves in print. They suggest ways of breathing life into the characters by using first person dialogue and descriptive adjectives to depict the scene or interaction. They argue that too many life histories are simply a compilation of facts lacking in personality and real life experiences that the reader can relate to. One of the things that I had never thought about before reading their book is that professional writers take a lot of license in getting inside the minds of their characters by assuming thoughts and verbal and nonverbal cues to describe what is going on. The Thurstons argue that your life story is yours to interpret and convey in a way that has meaning to you. They suggest linking your life events to the historical events of the times. One chapter entitled, The Hitchcock Factor, provides ideas on how to rivet your readers with conflict and suspense. When sharing difficult and even controversial times in ones life, the authors suggest the writer be honest, but balanced in what they say about themselves. I recall someone saying that funeral eulogies tend to be whitewashed idealized characterizations of a person's life that often fail to really depict who the person really was and what life was like for them. Accounts of ones life, includes what challenges they had, i.e. self doubts, bouts with depression, periods of insecurity and frustration, periods of rebellion, etc. and how the person overcame them to achieve some private victories in their lives brings authenticity to their story. I have always liked Spencer Kimball's biography that shared his real feelings of insecurity and inadequacy about his role as a leader and servant in the church. I think his openness endeared many people to him. The authors offer ideas on how to sort out what is essential and what is not when sharing one's life view.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is seriously contemplating putting their life story to print.