Background Knowledge

Posted by Gary Greenfield at 2/24/2009 10:49 AM
Categories: Knowledge or Skills
          BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE



Writing the story of your future can be significantly enhanced through the story of your past. Now, there's a thought...and one that is incredibly strengthened through acknowledging the truth in the following quote. "The past is valuable as a guidepost but dangerous if used as a hitchingpost."

So what am I saying? It's as simple as this. If you want to write the best story of your future do deep research of your past, through taking the time to write your life's story up to this point. The background knowledge you will gain through threads of consistency you will find by paying the price of writing your story will give you the foundation on which to build the story of your future. The point is not to dwell on your past but to record it as a point of reference.

I encourage you not to be overwhelmed with the idea of writing your life's story.  Here's a process that can put it into bite-sized pieces that might help you in getting started.  AND, getting started is the key!  But, finishing the story is the true reward.

  1. Write down the single most compelling event/story that has occurred in your life so far.  Just capture the essence...don't feel an obligation to write a whole chapter at this point.
  2. Build on that first step by segmenting your life into two year blocks of time and pulling from your memory one or two events/stories that stand out in each of those time periods.
  3. Study all of the events/stories for patterns or threads of consistency.
  4. Determine if the final version of your story is going to be chronological or arranged in some other pattern as suggested by the results of step three.
  5. Develop chapter titles from all of the information you have accumulated to this point.
  6. Outline each chapter's key points.
  7. Begin writing the chapter's in sequence.
  8. Just write don't stop to edit until you have written the entire first draft.  Make note of any changes that come to mind as you are writing but don't stop to make the changes at this juncture in the writing process.
  9. Read the entire manuscript without editorializing...just read it.
  10. Read it again but this time making appropriate notes in the margins of the document as to typos, content changes, etc.
  11. Write the final version.
So what's the major benefit of going through the above steps and writing your autobiography...your story to date. That benefit is you will absolutely affirm the miracle of who you are. When you have the clear background knowledge to really, truly know who you are, the story of your future will ultimately have a happy ending.
 

 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this post
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Leave a comment

Submitted comments are subject to moderation before being displayed.

 Enter the above security code (required)

 Name

 Email (will not be published)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.