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

Publisher's Synopsis

Breathe Life into Your Life Story is an essential read for anyone who aspires to write a life story—but not just any story, one your family and others will actually WANT to read.

Written for both novices and experienced writers, this book presents techniques used by novelists to immerse readers into their fictional world—techniques like “showing” rather than just “telling”; creating interesting, believable characters and settings; writing at the gut level; alternating scene and narrative; beginning with a bang; generating tension, and more.

Excerpts from memoirs written by such pros as Maya Angelou, Frank McCourt, Russell Baker, and many others illustrate how best-selling authors have used these methods to hook their readers. Dozens of “Learn by Doing” exercises help readers practice and acquire the skills necessary to breathe life into their own stories.

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Reviews

The authors push the aspiring writer to achieve a victory over fear and uncertainty. Breathe Life is a great introduction to writing that even experienced authors will find helpful. It is highly recommended. ---Jeff Needle, AML Reviewer 

The authors know the pain of learning to write well and are beside you through the struggle. If you stick with them they will make you a better writer. ---Richard Bushman, Gouverneur Morris Professor of History Emeritus, Columbia University

The Thurstons are both experienced writers of family history. Dawn is a writing teacher and Morris a retired lawyer. As a result, this book is unusually creative in trying to teach readers how to write; they have some very good ideas. ---The Deseret News

This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in writing memoirs or personal histories. Every page is filled with useful tips, excellent samples, and easy exercises to stimulate a writer's (or non-writer's!) creativity. I found every page useful and interesting, and have been effective in putting the teachings to work immediately. Definitely a book I will refer to again and again! ---The Book Worm 

Co-Author's Notes

I published my first family history book in 1996. Not long after that, Dawn began teaching life story writing at Rancho Santiago College and we both began giving presentations at meetings of various genealogy societies and church groups. We had occasionally attended BYU Campus Education Week and been impressed with its enormity (more than 25,000 students) and with quality of most of the instructors (many of whom would be on a "who's who" list of well-known LDS authors and teachers).

It occurred to us that we might have something unique to offer on that stage. We noted that there were a number of courses on how to do genealogy, how to keep a journal, how to maintain and organize family photographs, and how to interview relatives, but very few on how to write your own story. Where classes touched on that subject, the focus tended to be on what to write (writing prompts), rather than on how to write.

While all of these courses were useful, we saw a need for a course that focused on learning to write a better, more interesting, memoir. So we prepared a course outline, videotaped ourselves lecturing to one of Dawn's classes, and sent in our application. We knew it would be difficult to crack the lineup of speakers, but, we thought, "nothing ventured, nothing gained." 

Much to our delight, we were accepted and have since presented on the beautiful Provo campus almost every summer. We were gratified that our classes seemed quite popular---we usually filled our 300-seat room and sometimes had to turn people away. That told us people wanted what we had to give.

After teaching for a couple of years, it occurred to us that the information we were conveying needed to be reinforced outside the confines of the one-week BYU program. What if we were to write a book incorporating our ideas on writing, containing lots of passages from great memoir writers to illustrate our points, and incorporating "Learn by Doing" exercises designed to keep people writing after they left our classes?

And that is how Breathe Life came about. The creative experience was usually fun, though sometimes exasperating. That Dawn and I were able to survive the hazardous waters of collaborative authorship is a testament to the strength of our marriage. Each of us wanted the book to reflect our best ideas, but as is inevitably the case, we sometimes disagreed on how best to express them. In the end, however, the book was better because two strong personalities carefully discussed and negotiated every chapter, every paragraph, and almost every word.

The book was published by Signature Books, the leading independent publisher of scholarly books relating to Mormonism. However, Dawn and I purposely refrained from making our book a "Mormon" book, because what we had to say pertained to anyone writing their life story, regardless of religion. I'm sure Signature had a few second thoughts about publishing our book, since it didn't fit neatly into their area of primary focus. They took a chance, however, and it paid off. Our book has been on their bestseller list every year and even now, seven years after publication, it continues to sell well.

After Breathe Life was published, the demand for our speaking time increased. Dawn has handled the great majority of those requests, although I dip an occasional oar in the water. Dawn went on to serve for several years as a member of the board of the Association of Personal Historians, the leading organization of people in the business of helping others write and publish their life stories.

What gratifies us most, however, is seeing the many books that have been published by those who have read Breathe Life and put its principles into practice. We're always thrilled to receive the news that yet another student has been "published." In that small way we see ourselves as facilitating a collection of personal stories that will be a treasure trove, not only for the descendants of these authors, but for future historians studying how ordinary people of this generation experienced their lives.

--- Morris Thurston