Everyday Storytellers: Everyday Storytellers, #1

By Laura Stroud

Your life is extra-ordinary. The things you see, the places you go, the people you meet are full of so many stories, adventures, tiny miracles and big moments. But are you capturing them? Are you savouring those images and experiences or are you letting them disappear?

 

You have an opportunity to remember all the details of your life.

• This book will show you how by turning your memories into stories. It will help you freeze frame the best moments of your life before they are lost forever. 
• With practical advice and activities, this book will take you through the stages of remembering, writing and capturing your stories and memories.

The consequence of not taking action is losing a life's worth of memories.

 

The benefit of seizing this opportunity is the joy of documenting your life. Noticing the stories that are happening all around you, so you always have something to write about.

 

Preserve the past. Live in the present. Plan future adventures.

 

This is what Everyday Storytellers do. 

You can be an Everyday Storyteller too. 

 

Even if you don't see yourself as a writer, this book will teach you how to explore those faded memories and long-lost tales. It will help you retrace your steps, reliving some of the fantastic narratives from your travels. It will help you document your life. It will show you how to savour the best moments and memories of your life by turning them into stories. 

 

Becoming an Everyday Storyteller helps you capture the past. It helps you live more fully in the present. What's more, it allows you to have greater experiences in the future, as you learn to live a life worth writing about.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Randan Press
• Release date: Sep 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781913911027

Book preview

Part One

One

This Will Change Your Life

In the end, we’ll all become stories.

– Margaret Atwood

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I remember my life in flashes.

Memories are tucked away in deep corners of my mind, unravelling themselves like old broken videotapes. Fizzing and wobbling and bouncing. Flickering into view then fading before the picture fully settles.

I remember my life in snippets.

Sometimes, when I’m quiet and still, or when I’m sitting on a train, I have flashbacks. A pop, a clink, a jolt. I drift into a moment falling backwards into a memory, clinging to the shape of it. Trying to see if the full story will emerge, bruised and covered in hindsight. I’m transported back to a place in time. A memory.

I remember my life in the start of a story.

The taste of the start of a story rolls around my mouth and I play with it, hoping the rest will come if I breathe life into it. If I put time into documenting it, else it’s often just the faint taste of smoke from the blown-out candle of a story that disappeared a lifetime ago. The light, the fire, the brightness gone forever.

I want to remember more of my life.

Yet most of these stories I remember are unfinished. Fragmented and broken. Lost over time and damaged by the lack of protection and conservation. I want to taste the days of summer and live all of the moments that made me – over and over again. I don’t want fizzy or broken or unfinished. I want vibrant and juicy and alive. I want to know all of my days and have them again. Greedily sucking the marrow, holding the moments and memories until they become a conscious part of me. This is not selfish. I have one life and I want to remember it.

This is where the storytelling came from.

The need for documentation. The need to create something tangible, the need for me to hold on to my stories. My life. A chance to capture fleeting moments which might have otherwise been forgotten. A chance to preserve the past, live in the present and plan adventure for the future.

That’s why I became an Everyday Storyteller.

Seven reasons why becoming an Everyday Storyteller will change your life:

You will learn to appreciate the details in your experiences.

You will start to seek out more stories and adventures, leading to a life filled with more fun.

You will learn to actively seek out opportunities and stories.

You will realise you are not passive, but the active decision and story maker in your life.

You will live in the present more as you search for stories in each day.

You will start to document your life, building a legacy to pass on.

You will see the value in your experiences and your view of the world.

You are the only one who can tell your stories.

It’s time to start documenting your life. This book will help you become the Everyday Storyteller you’re destined to be.

You have a world of stories within you and you owe it to the world to set them free. Everything that has happened to you is yours. You get to tell it your way.

You don’t have to share what you write. It doesn’t have to make sense.

It doesn’t have to be carefully scrawled in a brand-new notebook. It doesn’t have to be typed into a glowing screen. It can be furiously tapped on a phone, the light glowing under the covers as you remember a precious memory in the middle of the night. It can be scribbled on the back of scrap paper as you wait for the pasta to boil. You could even write a small story on a postcard.

But you should start.

Five reasons why you should start to document your life:

Writing about your life is good for your health, researchers have shown ¹.

Writing about your life helps you learn. You can review and reflect on the past by writing it down. Things always look different looking back.

Writing about your life can make you happier, increasing joy and gratitude as you notice the little things.

Writing about your life will help you understand who you are more fully.

Writing about your life helps you remember it. You’ll forget your life if you don’t.

How do you document your life?

You write it down.

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Writing it down, you become the Everyday Storyteller you were always meant to be. I believe everyone has a book in them, but more importantly, I believe everyone has stories in them. Little snippets of truth and hope. Lessons and ideas. Happiness and gratitude tied up in the day-to-day mundane magic of