Bringing your story to life

Want a Life Writing tip to get you started with writing a piece of your own history? Life Writing is a style of writing that draws out your unique story and preserves it for you or whoever you choose to share it with. It’s a wonderful way to honour your life and anyone, regardless of their writing skills, can start today.

Every Sunday night we all tuned in to see Molly and his guests

A few weeks ago, I sat down on my couch with a cup of chai tea and flicked on the TV. On came a TV show that immediately flooded me with memories. It only took a few minutes of Classic Countdown for my mind, and my body, to be transported back 34 years to 1984 and my Year 8 classroom at high school.

Flock of Seagulls

Classic 80s pop band Flock of Seagulls

I could taste the cherry lip balm we all carried in the side zip pockets of our striped cotton school dresses. I could smell the cheap supermarket hairspray that all the girls used to slick the sides of their hair back and sculpt their fringes into gravity-defying sweeps. I could even hear the Flock of Seagulls song that inspired such monumental hair dos! On my weekends, dressed in corrugated, overdyed, acid wash denim jeans (with zip ankles!) and a ‘Choose Life’ Tshirt, I felt like I knew all there was to know about life at our

Choose life tee

Classic 80s apparel – Choose Life T-shirt thanks to Wham

local Blue Light Disco in Belmont, Geelong (would you believe we had Cold Chisel and Pseudo Echo play gigs there!). With a studded double wrap around belt, a love for music and a career goal to be the first female synthesiser player in a band (unfortunately I was beaten to that honour by The Eurogliders a loss I may never get over), I was an 80s teenager in every sense of the word.

Why do I share this story? Does it spark memories of your own teenage years? Life Writing provides us with a wonderful way to capture the stories of our life, often with the goal of sharing and connecting with others. Even when we think we don’t remember much of our own lives, or we don’t think our lives have been particularly interesting, there are many ways to fire up the memory bank in our brains and recreate all the moments that make our lives unique.

Just like a TV show that transports us back in time, there are many ways we can trigger the stories that live within us. And that is Life Writing. If you’d like to get started and you’re keen to learn a few tips and techniques to make your writing process easier, in flow and even a little bit fun, take a look at my upcoming 4 week program starting next month at Cire Community House.

I promise I won’t play any 80s music, and there won’t be any hairspray or purple eyeshadow, just some great insights into what I wish I had known when I started to write, a supportive environment of like-minded people, and a touch of inspiration to get your Life Writing ALL FIRED UP! (Whoops, wasn’t that a Pat Benatar song?)

If you would like to know more about this course or wish to enrol call Simone on 5967 1776 or email simonewhitehead@testsite.cire.org.au. Life Writing with Lindy Schneider commences Tuesday 15th May at 6.30pm to 9.00pm (4 sessions).