“I matter; this life I have lived has meaning!

And because I tell it from my perspective, because I frame it, it has the meaning I give it.”

“Your Life as Story”

Tristine Rainer

Great book that covers a new kind of writing called New Autobiography. In a very real sense, this is very similar to writing a letter to your grandchildren. In brief, old school autobiography was more about chronological retelling of the major events in a person’s life. New Autobiography is more about revealing a person’s thoughts, feeling and motivations during moments in their life. 

One of the most interesting ideas in this new form of writing and autobiography is to use novelistic devices to reach inner truths, not just the truth of the facts. Which is not to say that the author write falsehoods, but rather by using techniques most often used in novels a writer can express deeper truths than just listing factual incidents. 

One other very interesting idea is to write your letter to your grandchildren as a story. Human beings love stories. We have been telling them for hundreds of thousands of years. We are wired for stories. Rainer suggests using your desire line to shape your story. What has been the great desire of your life? What have you tried to find or do all your life? Using that desire line forms the backbone of your life story.