How To Write Your Life Story

The book was recommended by my daughters teacher and it is very good- especially for budding writers.

I was told to purchase this book for an English Education class in "The Teaching of Writing" in college. I love this little book! It's very simple and would recommend my high school students to read it before any personal writing they complete. The book was shipped quickly and I was definitely pleased with the easy-to-understand format.

My son has some challenges getting his ideas on paper...he is being tutored by a retired teacher who is a reading specialist. She just loves this book for my son. They already completed the HEART project and it is coming along pretty well, can't wait to see the finished project.

"How to Write your Life Story," by Ralph Fletcher, presents an interesting and entertaining introduction to writing about the most important people in the world--yourself and your family. You can get additional ideas from larger books, but this little book, written for young people, covers the most important points about writing an autobiography. It debunks a few common lies that people use to convince themselves they don't have a story worth telling--that you have to be a famous celebrity, have an amazing life, or be old and gray. You already have everything you need to start writing: a character (yourself), a setting (places you have been), and a plot (the events that happened to you). Fletcher recommends making a list of memorable events and then writing about the ones that seem most interesting. These events will probably be the ones that are told and retold every time the family gets together. He suggests gathering up the artifacts that have soaked up your personal memories and holding them in your hands until the memory rises to the top. Drawing maps of important places in your life, and a heart map of the things that really matter to you, will help you uncover the treasured and terrible tales you want to tell. Whether you choose to write a group of vignettes, a chronology, or a multi-genre collection of short pieces, you can always switch to another form until it feels well-suited to the story you're trying to tell. The most important message in the book is that writing about your life will help you understand it better. So, read the book and start writing.

Excellent resource written for young students. I teach fifth graders and read to them regularly from Fletcher's other books... A Writer's Notebook in particular. How To Write Your Life Story brings the task of memoir to their fingertips -- makes it feel doable, important, and exciting. Fletcher cites two of my favorite authors of other resources: Katherine Bomer and Barry Lane, whom my students know well by the time we finish our inquiry into memoir. Many examples of writing from Fletcher, and other 4 - 7 grade students enrich this book and bring it home. Great for read aloud, introducing mini-lessons, or even as a class reading book if you can swing a whole set. Any teacher who investigates memoir or autobiography with young students should have this book in the classroom.