Everyone has a story

In 1991, my maternal grandmother was 80 and her oldest sister was turning 100. I had the idea to bring them together and film them telling the stories of their lives. I especially wanted to hear my 100-year-old aunt talk about my grandmother's childhood.

On a cold February morning, near my grandmother's birthday, the three of us gathered in my aunt's apartment at a Georgia assisted living facility. These two ladies - my Mema and her "Big Sister" - sat in comfortable recliners. I sat on a stool with my old VHS video camera on a tripod. I turned it on and started asking questions. It was a little awkward at first, but soon they forgot all about me and the camera. They just started telling stories - wonderful, fantastic stories - about family, first loves and marriage, parenting, school, and heartache. I've since had that recording saved to several DVD copies and stored away.

I was reminded then and reminded again when I wrote my first book, Brookwood Road, in 2014 that everyone has a story to tell - and everyone has a story worth telling. In fact, within those four hours of taped conversation, my grandmother told a brief little story of a first love. It struck me then as a great story to flush out one day as a short novella (about 40,000 words), and I do plan to write it. I had never heard her tell this particular story, and later when I told her that it was worth telling to a larger audience she kind of dismissed it.

Don't dismiss your stories.

If you aren't a writer, you probably shouldn't write a commercial book. If you publish independently, as I do, the process of writing, editing, and marketing your commercial product is a full-time job. I've learned things in the past three years that I never imagined when I set out to write Brookwood Road in 2014. The writing was the easy part. Pushing that book to sell 10 times the average sales of an independent book has been a non-stop project now in its third non-stop year.

I am suggesting, however, that you get your story on paper or on tape - record it somehow or some way even if you have to get a friend or a hired gun to help you. I wrote a long short story (7,500 words) a few years ago for an audience of One (me) to get it written for future expansion, maybe. The boys can read it one day. Even if your story never becomes a commercial product, your family deserves to hear and know your story (or stories). I can't imagine living this life, being a part of the human experience, and not making that story known for my boys and for any family that might follow after me. I think you and I owe it to our families to make our stories known.

People love to hear the stories of other people.

One more thing: Earlier this year I attended a book fair for independent authors. During the fair, I walked around and looked at all the books. More than 75 percent of the people had tried to replicate The Hunger Games, The Notebook, or Harry Potter. My faith was redeemed when I stumbled upon an elderly man, who had written a short novella about one particular incident during his career as a missionary. He had a story and he told it.

Tell your story. You've got one. Tell it. Don't worry about it being a commercial success - get it on paper or get it on tape. Do it now. If it's commercial cream, it will rise to the top. If not, you've still got a great story to pass down to your family.