—Phil Cousineau in Stoking the Creative Fires

The Phil Cousineau quote above ought to be for all of us a stirring call to continue—or to begin if that is where we are at—the writing we may have procrastinated about for so long. We fill our days with lesser tasks when we know that what we ought to be doing is writing a memoir.

It is later than you think. In the twenty-five plus years I have been doing this work, I have seen people die without writing their memoir and I have seen people grow old and lose the energy to write their memoir.

In both cases, a lifestory has been lost.

We go through our days as if there were an endless flow of tomorrows, but there simply aren’t. What if you ran out of tomorrows before you had written your memoir? How would your children and grandchildren know about you and the people who were important to you? How would your community know? And…

Perhaps you have something to share with the larger world. Perhaps you need to witness a certain experience, and like an endangered plant or animal, the memory of that experience has to be saved for future generations. But…

You are not writing. What to do?

Here are three choices you can decide on today to help you to get continue to write your memoir.

1. Set a writing schedule for yourself and mark it on a calendar or appointment book. Be sure you sit to write at least three times per week. Today, sit down and write at least
   

   Don’t Let Writer’s Block Stop You

   three pages before you stop. If you are thinking of writing but find it difficult to star or continue, you might benefit from my ebook Don’t Let Writer’s Block Stop You / Push Beyond Stuck.

2. If you lack sufficient skills to write (and writing is certainly a skill that has to be developed!) and would like to improve your skills, consider signing up for an instructional program in your community. By next year at this time, you may have the skills you need to succeed. Alternately, sign up for coaching.
3. If you doubt that you will ever write or if you feel the learning curve is to steep but you still want to leave a memoir legacy, why not work with a co-author? A co-author organizes your memories into a well-written, interesting-to-read book. Call me for a free consultation on co-authoring (ghostwriting). Working closely with you, I will help you to create your written legacy faster than you may now think it possible.

Your memoir will not write itself. Continue—or start—to write today.