Before you read any of my thoughts, know that you can go HERE to the source to read all the details and the intended purpose and proposed process for documenting personal stories in 2017. 

Now, If you know me at all, then you know I am instinctively drawn to all things color, so this image is just about killing me right now. It makes me so HAPPY! I'm printing one for myself to keep on a clipboard in my kitchen. You can download your own PDF when you click HERE. Each square on this poster is a story-writing prompt. If you're into something a bit less bold, then this version may be for you! I haven't counted them, but I'm rather certain there are 52 total prompts on either poster, and this is because they are part of the #52Stories project being sponsored by Family Search in 2017.

So, the idea is obviously to write ONE personal story a week for 52 weeks. Sounds doable, right? But I know my record for these sorts of ongoing challenges—I'm not very consistent past about week two. So, what am I going do? Good question, I've been pondering this for 48 hours straight and I finally think I have my answer... 

I'm a scrapbooker. I've created many, many, many scrapbook pages. As I've reviewed the 52 prompts on this cute, colorful tracking tool, I've realized that I have already answered or at least partially answered a LOT of these questions on a scrapbook page, but here's the deal: My scrapbook pages are not archived anywhere. Let's be honest, my pages are either tucked neatly away in an album, on shelves, in a room that barely anyone uses, or they are in the middle of a GIANT pile of un-filed scrapbook pages that is currently downstairs in my studio. I AM GOING TO WRITE 52 STORIES THIS YEAR, but ... sometimes, I'm simply going to archive something I've already written. Like this: I will find a scrapbook page, photograph it—if I haven't already—and then share it here on my blog with the journaling typed below the page, with (perhaps) a few additional thoughts or details if they are needed. I will definitely be writing new stories, but I won't have the expectation of doing that every single week. Life can be both hectic and unpredictable. With this approach I've got an out, or at least an easier option, but one that will still accomplish the same, worthy goal. 

There is one more aspect of my plan that is important. The word count. My stories will be 200 words or less. I'm envisioning, not committing to, but hoping to compile these stories in a Chatbook. If you haven't heard about Chatbooks, please click HERE or visit chatbooks.com for more information. I've praised this company and their super-affordable, custom-printed memory books multiple times, and what I think would be crazy awesome would be a sort of "special issue" Chatbook just for my 52 stories. More on this potential end-product later and back to my word count—200 words just happens to be the exact right amount of words for one Chatbook page. 200 words is NOT hard to write. Anyone can easily write 200 words in response to one of these story-prompts and there's a flip side to this too ... 200 words is VERY readable, so it's an almost guarantee that someone will read these stories. 

That's my plan. 
I like it. 

p.s. In the spirit of simplifying, I decided this post is my first story. My second story is HERE.