List of Autobiographical Crib Sheet

Welcome! If you come here first – do please read, but it’s better to read the post first (link below).

Autobiographical Story – What’s behind your Business?

But if you can’t resist, here is the personal list I made during the Autobiographical Story telling Course at Emerson College – it’s my real life crib sheet.

Archetypal themes as a motivation for telling personal stories, in the following list, by asking the following questions.

Q: WHAT MAY BE THE REASON / MOTIVATION FOR TELLING OUR STORIES?
Q: WHAT OR WHOM DO WE SERVE?

To inspire, to connect,
self process and heal, find meaning (once speaking arrange the ingredients of a story),
help a circle make meaning, to serve truth
to emphasise, give voice to intangible things
to manipulate (in relation to flexing the memory into a well-crafted story)
raise questions
to create, preserve, destroy (taboos, old myths, ways of thinking)
to get attention, be noticed, seen and acknowledged, receive affirmation
open a different space, another way of seeing things
to change a mood, entertain
reduce tension, invite joy
enthrall, to challenge
love and give hope
to honour individual heritage, history
honour spoken language
to educate, invite tolerance, give permission
transitions, rites of passage, create shared experience, allow expansion or go into
places we haven’t been to…
This list is not exhaustive but gives you the idea that story and autobiographical story in
particular covers the whole spectrum of life.

© Jacqueline Redmond – Your Story Works – March 2020