Your Family Legacy

The importance of family legacy can never be over emphasized. Do your children know their heritage? Who are your ancestors? What were their traditions? What religion were they? What beliefs did they have? Did they fight for a cause and what was it about?

Each of us has a story from our ancestors or even our very own story to tell. If these stories are unwritten, then how are your children going to know of their ancestry, of their parentage, or even family traditions of the past? Are these stories and traditions going to be lost to your children simply because you failed to put them on paper? It’s up to us to write these experiences down.

You can turn your family history into a variety of interesting stories. Remember, conflict is part of our lives and makes for an interesting story. Don’t leave out what your ancestors suffered and for what cause. You want your children to be proud of who they are. We must share these stories with them.

First, collect your thoughts; write down any experiences that you remember. Talk to family members and discuss memories. Do research of that time period and find out what the country was going through, and insert it in the history of your ancestor. The turmoil of a country helps you to understand what your family went through and why they suffered. Did they live during the depression, and if so, how did it affect them?

After writing down all you collected, then organize it into a story. You can make several short stories, making the history into segments. Or you can write the whole history as a continuous flow. There are a few things to carefully avoid in writing. Also, there are always exceptions to every rule. Remember that it’s best to feel the “spirit of the law” rather than the “letter of the law.”

AVOID:
1. Opening a story with weather
2. Using a verb other than “said” for dialogue unless needed such as: “shouted,” “whispered,” or “whimpered”
3. Using too many adverbs - Show! Don’t tell!
4. Using detailed descriptions of people, places, and things—you don’t want to lose the reader

Happy writing and if you need any help just e-mail me and I’ll give suggestions if I can. Your children will be grateful once they’re grown. They’ll want to know their heritage, what their ancestors stood for, what they believed in. Make your family legacy something your children will remember, something they will be proud of.