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C-BERSS EX-PRESS
June 2003
Issue 2, Vol 6
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All Newsletters : June 2003 : Writing Your Own Story...
Writing Your Own Story...
Many C-BERS clients have expressed an interest in writing their life story. In this issue, instead of featuring our regular personal story, we include guidelines to help those of you who may want to put your own life experiences down on paper!
The steps are easy to follow and reproduced, in a slightly amended form, with thanks to Frank Golding whose helpful article in CLAN’s December 2002 Newsletter inspired us to provide them here for you.
When you write your life story, you need to answer the questions your reader would ask.
Every well-told story has a clear structure. You build your story like you would a house, start with a strong foundation of the facts, and then maintain them with a solid framework and sturdy roof. In the interior you explain and evaluate the facts of your story. Readers want to know not only what happened but also why and how that affected your life or others connected to you then and now.
Below is one simple structure – start at the beginning and move through time to the end and then summarise your thoughts on what it meant to you. There are other structures you could choose – for example moving back and forward in time (flashbacks like a movie) or parallel narratives (your life on the inside/your parents’ or someone else’s life on the outside).
A. Start
¨ When and how did you come to be placed in an orphanage or child care institution? Why were you there?
¨ Did you know then or do you know now what happened to your parents?
¨ Who put you in an orphanage? Why? Did either of your parents have any say in the matter? Why not? Were any of your brothers/sisters placed there too?
¨ How did you find out about all this? When? What was your reaction when you found out?
B. The Middle (probably more than
one chapter depending on how much you remember or want to include)
¨ Did you stay in one orphanage or did you get moved around? (e.g. as you got older, got migrated, sent to foster parents etc). Why?
¨ Who were your carers? Who stands out? What did they do for you (or to you)?
¨ What events do you recall most vividly?
¨ What kept you going in the orphanage/institution emotionally?
¨ What happened to your brothers/sisters? Were they in the institutions or at home? Why?
¨ Which children stand out from your childhood in the institution? Why?
¨ What were the highlights of life in the orphanage/institution? (e.g. meals, clothes, sleeping arrange-ments, games, sports, jobs, toys, books, visitors, drama/singing, outings, holidays, church, school etc).
¨ What were the low points of life in the orphanage/institution (similar to list above plus discipline, how you were treated, abuse, emotional stress, etc.)
¨ Did you see or hear from any of your family? How often? What was that like?
¨ What was your schooling like? What benefits did it bring you? What should have been better?
¨ How did you spend an average day? What were the weekends like? What were holidays like? What happened? Why?
C. Life Outside the Institution
¨ When did you leave the institution? How did that come about?
¨ What was life like for you when you left? Did you feel prepared for what you encountered in the outside world? Why/Why not?
¨ What were the main challenges that you faced? Why?
¨ How did you cope? Who/what helped? (e.g. friends, family, church, employer, guardian, landlord, workmates, etc.)
¨ What were the things that brought you the most joy? Why?
¨ Describe the first few weeks/months followed by a briefer account of the next period in your life, linking it back to your childhood experiences.
¨ Were there any crises? How did you pull through them? What helped?
¨ Did you meet someone special? Explain how that was. Did you marry? Have a family of your own? How was that?
¨ What sort of person have you become? (or would like to become?) What makes you happy, angry, sad, frustrated, envious etc?
D. Afterwards and Now
The last few questions above make a good link to the final section.
¨ Add a short section to describe your life right now – your greatest achievements or problems and hopes for the future and then go to your childhood again.
¨ Reflect on your experiences of childhood. What strengths did it give you? Why? What do you wish had been different? Why?
¨ What do you think of the way children in institutional care are treated these days? Why? What would you want to happen to them that didn’t happen to you? What would you not want to happen to them that happened to you? Why?
A final brief section might draw a conclusion about how your childhood lingers on in your adult life or leave the reader with some thought-provoking question about how society deals with an issue in child-adult relationships. Not all books end with finality. There is nothing wrong in leaving readers with a sense of unfinished business when they turn the last page. There’s always the sequel!
C-BERS publishes personal stories (of no more than 800 words) in each edition of C-BERS Ex-Press. You might like to submit your own story for consideration.
The above format may also be useful if you wish to make a submission to the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care in Australia. Closing date for receipt of submissions to the Inquiry is 31 July 2003.
Frank’s guidelines are helpful too for a short or long story or you could even write a book!
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