Tag Archives: family stories

More on Story Prompts

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Since I’ve been working on my story prompts project (I really am making progress and I should have something to share soon.) I’ve noticed story prompts in more places. In Your Story Coach‘s October newsletter besides listing her own “story sparks” Tami also shared a Tumblr site that shares daily writing prompts. Both of these resources are intriguing and I want to use them in future projects.

What have you used to help get your memory going?

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Big Things From a Tiny Kitchen

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Here is a fun way to share your passion about food with family and friends. The first part of the video talks about making the cook book and the last part how to make her signature dish. Below are previews of her two cookbooks. I love the idea of putting together your own beautiful cookbooks. Food is such an important part of families and our memories of childhood and good times together. These books are great inspiration.

The Struggle is Part of the Story

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by Whitney of blog.whitneyenglish.com

I came across this quote recently and it resonated with me on so many level. I love it for applying in my personal life and in telling the stories of my life and my family and my ancestors. Life isn’t meant to be smooth sailing, even thought we think it is. We learn and grow so much because of the struggles, be they small or monumental. I also love this quote on a visual level too. Great job all around Whitney!

In Whitney’s original post she listed six main points that help her keep a good attitude in the struggle:

  • you’ve got to find gratitude
  • stop searching for happiness
  • have faith, take heart, choose courage
  • let it go
  • don’t be afraid to hope for better
  • hope does not disappoint

You can find her entire post here.

Story Prompts: update

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Prototype for My Story Prompt Jar

I got some more work done on my story prompts jar idea today. I’m really excited how it is coming together. I used the great questions from StoryCorps.org. Instead of printing the questions on card stock I got some chipboard. My new printer can handle really thick paper so I thought I’d give it a try. I was inspired by tongue depressors and the idea that with the colored tips you can keep track of which questions you have done by flipping them over.

I still have some work to do to clean things up and tweak the pages some. I also what to design a simple journal to go with the jar as a gift. When I get the files finished I’ll share them here.

diaries & connections to the past

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This post has some great thoughts on the value of handwritten diaries and journals. Makes me want to increase my efforts to not just use technology to record my life but also do things the old-fashioned way too.

 

savaconta's avatarAccidental Pen

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I have been thinking a lot about diaries – especially the old, hand-written ones.  In our local news, there have been several recent articles about a Civil War diary that is being examined by local historians.  It chronicles the daily life and struggles of a young Union soldier as he passed through this area.  The story is fascinating, but for me it is even more remarkable to look at the images of those pages … his handwriting on the old paper, the scribbles in the margins, the entire personal image that is captured not only by his words transcribed, but by the physical pages themselves.

It made me contemplate my own journaling and diary-keeping.  The mark of my pen, the paper and the books I choose to write in, the ink, my penmanship.  While I know there are many distinct advantages to maintaining a digital record – and there are…

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Never Good Enough

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My niece, Kimberli shared this on Facebook and I thought it is very applicable to me and probably to most of us. It certainly applies to story projects and sharing them with family, friends and the world. It only takes two minutes to read just follow the link below.

Never Good Enough

I really like Noah’s attitude. Even though it isn’t perfect it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t share it or enjoy the process.

What makes a flash story?

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I love the idea of flash stories. It makes sense to me to work in small bites. Then we can actually get something done and we are more likely to do it again. Plus a story that only takes a few minutes to read is much more appeal to our family and friends.

 

Inside the Mind of a Child

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Nighttime adventures: Three tyrannosaurus rex heads tower over Nate, here in the foreground by David Niles

I love this idea for a story project! This dad not only listened to his son’s dreams but he took those stories and turned them into amazing photos. What a wonderful way to capture the imagination and personality of his son. The link below goes to the story and lots more amazing photos.

Loving Father Recreates His Son’s Dreams

A Letter From Fred

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A Letter From Fred from Green Shoe Studio on Vimeo.

I came across this story via the Your Story Coach and her monthly newsletter so I had to share it here. What a wonderful example of a meaningful story project and all the people who came together to make it happen.

Here is a link to entire story on kuriositas.com

 

Story Prompts

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I’ve been thinking for the last few weeks about coming up with a gift idea for weddings and showers etc. Something that would be meaningful and yet not take tons of time or tons of money to put together. My best idea to date is story prompt jars. I haven’t gotten very far on the idea but I thought I’d share what I have so far.

Using the great questions from StoryCorps.org, I’m working on laying them out in sheets that I’ll cut into little cards. Hopefully I can add some color and fun to the sheets. Then I’ll put the cards in to jars. Maybe just a simple canning jar or maybe something a bit fancier. I’ll have to experiment and see what works.

I think any family could benefit from asking each other questions at the dinner table or a more formal gathering. This maybe what I give for Christmas this year. I’ll keep you posted with photos etc. as I progress. I’m thinking I will share a pdf of the finished question cards so you could make your own story prompt jars.

Have you used story prompts? I’d love to hear your experiences.