Telling the Stories Closest to Your Heart
by Debra Stang

Long before my newest book, Hospice Tails, went to press, the stories existed in scribbled notes in my journals. In fact, when I reviewed my journals prior to writing Hospice Tails, I was surprised to unearth several stories that had slipped my mind.

I’ve kept a journal on and off for the last twenty years, because I know the passage of time and day-to-day events can obscure or twist even our most important memories. Sometimes especially our most important memories.

At the time I started keeping a journal, I was going through a series of deep depressive episodes that would eventually be diagnosed as bipolar disorder. The episodes robbed me of any joy or memories of joy I had ever experienced.

In self-defense, I started writing about the happy times in my life so that when the depression came again, I would have proof in my own handwriting that happiness was possible and that I had actually felt it on this date or that date. The idea worked, and my episodes of depression grew more manageable.

If you want to share the stories that are closest to your heart, keeping a journal is an excellent way to begin. How you feel about an incident now may be very different about how you feel from it five years from now, or ten. Your recollection for the details may also grow hazy or blurred, so if you want to write your true story, it’s good to be able to record your memories, thoughts, and feelings as close as possible to the time an incident happened.

When you keep a journal, you don’t have to focus on using perfect grammar or telling an awe-inspiring story. Tune out your inner editor, and don’t censor yourself. If you’re angry, let your anger escape onto the page. Nobody but you will ever see your journal, and it’s important to be honest.

If you’re having trouble getting started with journaling, try these journaling prompts that have helped me through the years. You don’t have to use all of them, just the ones that speak to your mind and heart:

• What made you smile today?
• What made you angry today?
• What happened today that gave you hope?
• What happened today that made you feel hopeless?
• What made you sat today?
• What made you feel gratitude today?
• Write about something or someone in your life that wish would go away.
• Write about something or someone in your life that you never want to forget.
• What was your very strongest feeling today? What caused it? How did you experience it in your body?

The more details you capture in your journal, the more access you’ll have to those important memories if and when you decide to begin sharing some of those stories with readers.

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About Debra Stang:

In addition to her parents and two sisters, Debra’s family includes four cats. The current crew includes a grouchy nine-year-old named Achilles; an orange tabby and alpha male named, appropriately enough, Alexander, and a black and white long-haired cat with attitude named Leroux. Then there’s the foster cat named Pumpkin. Of course it all started with a three-month-old brown-and-gray tabby named Calypso who had strong feeling about most people. And not warm fuzzy feelings. Calypso even had the dubious honor of being banned by not one, but two vets.

When not caring for cats or writing, Debra spent many years as a social worker. She worked with AIDS patients, emergency room patients, and those with Alzheimer’s. Her final years as a social worker were spent with hospice patients. Although some would view that as a depressing job Debra chose to view herself as a catalyst helping people make their final hopes and dreams come true. Sometimes it was making up with a family member after a decades long feud or leaving behind the stress of the office to reconnect with another aspect of their personality.

Debra took a clue from her patients and recently decided her writing – for years a part-time career – couldn’t wait any longer. Worried she would become one of those people who would one day say, “I wish I had…” she handed in her resignation and is now living her dream as a full time writer.

Visit her website http://www.debrastang.net and blog http://debrastangfreelancewriter.typepad.com/

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About Hospice Tails:

Hospice Tails shares the stories of those without voices. This books tells the stories of fourteen pets and the role they played when their loved one was ill or dying. The stories range from sad to touching to downright hysterical. There was King, who had the hospice nurses very nervous. Until they realized he was a lap dog in a pit bull’s body. Jasper and Jackie, Amazon parrots who put on a daily concert for their owner, even on the last day of his life. As an Alzheimer’s patient’s world shrunk Washington, a golden retriever, became the only “person” he recognized. This book is ideal for animal lovers as well as those who are caretakers—either as a profession or for a loved one.

Stop back tomorrow for my review!