Turning Points: Deciding Moments From Your Life

Additional sources for Turning Points
" An event: childhood activities, learning to drive, graduation, marriage, birth of a child, first job
" A circumstance: sharing a household with a grandparent, growing up in a foster home, accepting a physical impairment, new sibling
" Change in environment: move, travel, new church or elementary school, going away to college
" Specific decision: becoming an entrepreneur, joining the military; changing jobs or industries, buying a home
" A conversation: respected mentor, favorite high school counselor, relative, significant other
" Some advice or saying: Mother's words, Uncle Frank's advice, favorite quote

Benefits of Recalling Turning Points
" Time to ponder your life; retrospect gives permission to laugh, cry, and make sense of odd things, or not.
" Communication through illustration of values, commitments, hopes, dreams, levity, feelings, and understanding.
" Documentation as a gift to family, friends, community and future generations.
" Importance of being remembered; Turning Points demonstrate your connections to your roots and family history.
" Collection of favorite pictures and memorabilia: identifying, organizing

Writing Process
" An interview for one Turning Point story lasts about one hour.
" For each interview, it takes about two hours to write the story.
" One Turning Point story is approximately 250-300 words or about one page.
" Another hour is spent reviewing, discussing and editing the story with the storyteller.
" Next, the storyteller decides how many stories to include in the collection; a title, Table of Contents and Dedication or Prologue are written.
" The final step is to print a paper copy and imprint the work on a CD in MS Word format.
" Total time per story is approximately four hours; client time is 1.5-2 hours.

Turning Points FAQ