I hate writing about myself. I'm much more interested in writing about fictional characters with all their crazy life adventures than I am in my own. But alas, I must write a 2-4 page autobiography. It's a requirement for the adoption profile my husband and I are putting together. This is the current writing project at the forefront of my mind, yet when I sit down to work on it I just stare at the blank screen. All words elude me. Why is writing about oneself so dang difficult?
For starters, there's thirty years of life to pick and choose from. What do I put in? What do I leave out? How do I make it interesting so a potential birth mother doesn't pass it over? Humor is not a talent of mine, so how do I be serious without being boring? Yeah, I have no answer to that.
Perhaps I'll begin in third person; maybe that will help me view myself as a fictional character. Except I'll have plenty of material to draw from and no need to create anything. I can see the choices now:
I was born on such and such day in 1982 at such and such P.M.
or:
Carey and his sister Dawn were preparing to celebrate their shared birthday when Carey's little girl decided she wanted to take part in the festivities. Charity came out into the world just in time to be the third member of the family with the same birthday.
Okay. Now I'm just amusing myself and procrastinating. But it would be much more fun to write in third person. Just saying. :)
I do not envy you one bit. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteYou could start it off by mimicking Charles Dickens character, David Copperfield, "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously."
ReplyDeleteJust fill in the correct day and time. :D
This, like everything, is all about proper marketing... and proper marketing is how your product (you) benefits the consumer (baby.)
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be an interesting exercise for someone who's never done it, but make it about what the baby will get from you vs. you yourself. Tell stories about how you've benefited the community by volunteering at a soup kitchen and how you've instilled the desire to help in others...anything you've done that benifits a community and can touch an individual on a micro level. Show, through your life, the things you've done that have touched others in a positive way. Best of luck!!
Very good advice from Randi Lee. Think of your audience and what they will want to know about what you can offer their child. It's difficult to talk about all the good things you do because you're not doing them to brag or be noticed, but it's important to impress upon the reader what you value and what values will be passed to the child. Don't avoid humor either or a clever way of stating your story. How you say it says something about you too.
ReplyDelete