The Key Ingredients Of A Good Product Review

"If you're looking for information on the key ingredients of a Good Product Review then, grab a chair & buckle down, because this is the article that you've been looking for."
So what are the essential items of a good product review?

• Product Research
• Demand
• Target Audience
• Affiliate Program

The most important requirement of any product you wish to write about or promote is research. Most of the essential details can be found online & by using the correct keywords with the search engines to find your desired research materials. If you start writing about a subject that you don't know much about or haven't got a passion for then, that will usually come across the same to the reader & it is a waste of your time & the reader.
If you are involved in product review then, picking a product which you not only have a knowledge of, but something that is new to the marketplace or is in demand is beneficial, as there will probably be buyers at the ready & if you write good articles & point your links in the right direction then, you will be increasing your chances of sales.
Knowing your target audience is another helpful tool, as it gives you an indication of other areas that you wish to talk about or promote as specific product. Having an email form also helps as it not only builds a list for future potential sales, but it can get to know your audience better & what age group they are.
There are quite a few companies who offer generous commissions with their affiliate programs & you can either promote psychical or digital products or both. If you are comfortable in any affiliate arena then, that will open up more potential income streams for you.

Texting Kills Communication

You may think "txtin is gr8 & quik & easy 2 rite" but I think it's one of the chief factors contributing to the decline of the English language and of good written communication.
Not everyone agrees. Some people believe texting has no real impact on language and communication skills. (You can read a defense of that position in a recent Globe and Mail article called Dictionary Thumpers, a word, pls.) They believe people are able to effortlessly switch between texting and the more formal language required for reports, essays, or business communications. I think they're wrong.
As a teacher of college students I've noticed text shorthand slipping into their work. At best it obscures the meaning of what they are writing about; at worst, if the reader isn't familiar with the shorthand it's simply nonsensical.
Texting is what I think of as "sloppy, lazy communication." What I mean by that is the constant use of abbreviations is really a way out of having to write proper sentences and spell correctly.
Writing is a skill developed through regular effort and careful attention to detail. If someone habitually writes with attention to grammar, sentence structure, and ultimately to clearly communicating ideas, that person's ability to write well will steadily improve.
Texting, on the other hand, is about memorizing abbreviations and teaching your thumbs to toil over a tiny keypad. It's a crude form of expression, and it won't improve your ability to communicate, beyond, perhaps, your closest circle of friends. (And it certainly won't improve your writing abilities.)
It's true that many people text messages primarily in their personal lives, not at work. But if you encourage sloppiness in one form of writing, it can lead to sloppiness in others. It's a slippery slope. If you text your friends, it's easy to fall into the habit of texting your clients, or work colleagues. Shoddy workplace communication doesn't do anyone any favours.
That's how texting is killing communication, in a nutshell. And there are three other reasons to avoid texting, imho.

1. Someone reading your message may not understand the shorthand you are using. For example, the abbreviation I just used, "imho." In my humble opinion anything that confuses communication is to be avoided.
2. A sentence like "txtin is gr8 & quik & easy 2 rite" looks terrible, and insults our intelligence as literate people.
3. Texting is a fad, a fashion, and the problem with anything faddish is that it is also usually conformist. If you write in "text" language you are limiting your own individuality and strengths as a communicator.

People often defend texting by saying it's just a quick method of communicating basic information. The ironic thing is that texting isn't necessarily faster than writing something out in full. (You will know this if you've ever tried to compose a text message!). It can be ponderously slow. It can also be dangerous, and I don't just mean dangerous to language and communication.
We've all seen people crossing a busy intersection, thumbs busily working, as they try and text while walking. Some people even text while driving! No wonder you sometimes see electronic highway signs saying, "there is a severe fine for texting while driving." And yet people still do it. Texting when you should be paying attention to traffic is downright foolish, or, to put it in text language (courtesy of the text message translator at Lingo2 Word: "txtN yl walkin n drvN S dum."
And remember, "txtN kills Coms." Agree? Disagree?

Teleseminars - Benefits of Repurposing Your Content

Teleseminars are one of the best foundational tools to get products to market quickly. Not only that, but they are ideal for repurposing.  Repurposing is a simple process virtually anyone can implement.
Simply put, repurposing means to create a main product once and use it multiple times for multiple purposes. In other words, re-use what you've originally developed to save time and effort.
Benefits of repurposing
Traffic- Repurposing allows you to create more traffic to your blog and/or website. Turn your teleseminar content into articles, podcasts, videos, tweets and social media marketing content to accomplish the goal of generating traffic.
Always keep in mind "keyword optimization" with what you are doing.
Revenues- There are endless possibilities on how you can generate revenue.
SEO - Search engine optimization
Visibility- The more products you have the more visibility you are likely to get. That is, if you do your job in marketing.
Credibility- The more quality products you have, in various formats, the more credibility you are creating for you and your business.
Expert status- This is similar to credibility. The fact is, someone with products is considered more of an expert than someone who does not have products.
Countless ways
There are many ways to repurpose your teleseminar content. The most common are transcripts, reports, eBooks and podcasts. Start from the beginning to record your sessions regardless of when you plan to begin repurposing.
By recording the teleseminars you have great material for other products you want to take to market.

How Can You Become a Good Technical Writer?

Are you planning to start a career in Technical writing? This is an emerging field that has a lot of opportunities. With a skill in writing and the subject knowledge you can become a good technical writer. With practice and consistency you can become an excellent writer. Here are some tips that will make your journey easier to become a successful technical writer.
Before starting you need to understand the nature of this job. It is not like writing essays or news. The article you write should be precise, it should have a proper structuring and detailed information to the topic you are writing about. The style of writing the article is very important. Don't think that you will have a good style for writing from the very first article you write. Style is something which needs to be developed in you with experience. The style of writing the articles depends entirely on your skills in the language. The beginners can take the help of a dictionary when they write. They can also refer the synonyms to improve the quality of their article. The synonyms will suggest other words having the similar meaning, and these can be included in the articles they write. Always keep an eye on the grammar and spellings. Spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes are not tolerated in technical writing.
You can just start writing general articles initially and then move into technical writing. Start with a nice blog. Blogging will help you to have good writing skills. People who like your blog will generally contact you for writing their articles. You can also earn a good amount of money from Technical writing. Your articles will be priced heavily if you have many number of viewers. There are many article sites that will help you to publish your articles.

How to Write a Film Script?

This is how I write my scripts so I believe that everyone has to find his own way of working that suits his/her the most.
I don't follow any rules of script writing when it comes to telling the story, such as: at this point in a script that ought to happen. I don't believe in this but many do and maybe that is why so many bad scripts are coming out of Hollywood.
I do follow rules when it comes to the structure since it's just easier for the entire crew and cast to follow the script and that is clearer to read. It also looks much more professional when you get the structure right and you want to look professional in front of your cast and crew.
I usually start with writing an idea for a script, which is just a simple description of the whole story. When this is ready, I move on to working on the main characters. Of course it doesn't mean that I am going to stick to the description I have already done. To me it just works as more of a guideline.
After that I sit down and start coming up with the scenes, which at first are just descriptions of what might happen in the scene.
When the skeleton of the script is ready I work from that point re-writing the script, each time around making it better and fuller by adding or taking away certain actions, dialogues or scenes.
In the finished script I try to describe the scenes as little as possible, extra words are really not necessary and often confusing for the actors. I usually try to work on dialogues and the overall atmosphere of the story.
I know that there are many rules when it comes to writing different genres, which for some people are good and they need to have it to be able to write anything. Find a system that suits you best and stick to it.
The more scripts you write, the better you become. Even if the scripts don't turn up to be a movie this is the experience that is vital for you.
I know that writing can be hard but once you start, it gets easier and easier every time. The beginning point is the most important, after that it's all just discipline. From my experience I can tell you that writing for longer than five hours a day is difficult, this is a creative work so it has to flow.
If you don't feel confident enough to write your scrip yet, take a script writing workshops; some of them are really good. Try looking for the workshops in your area online.
As far as I am aware there are quite a few websites that deal with script writing/workshops online. However I don't know how secure that kind of work is. You know, copyrights in writing and filmmaking are huge issues so always remember to be covered on that subject.
Remember, find whatever suits you the most and copyright all your work. There are many people willing to steal others ideas.
Notes on script writing
Below is the list of my notes on script writing based on some of the workshops I've done in the past. You might find it useful:
1. Dramatic - sequence leading to change; strong moral element; one character influences the other one.
2. Moral vision.
3. What is the moral line of the story?
4. What defines the storyline?
5. What is the moral change in the character?
6. PLOT - what the main character does in the story; fundamental change in action. Character is defined through the plot.
7. Dialogue is seen as the quickest window to the character. The dialogue expresses the volume of the character.
8. Drama - it is a conflict between what the character stands for and the world surrounding the character.
9. Structure - is a development of the character.
10. The hero never knows what he wants and needs at the beginning of the film.
11. To grow and develop the hero has to fight opponents and obstacles on his way. To make the script more interesting, get into the deepest level of conflict.
12. Whatever the hero comes up with at the start of the film it almost never works out. So he has to adjust to changing circumstances.
13. Before the hero can change, he/she has to figure out what he/she wants or is running away from, why he/she is holding back from taking an action.
14. In the script it's also important to introduce the hero's internal life, his/her natural space.
15. The hero before facing his/her fear or opponent will usually have to go through some kind of change to become stronger.
16. People who have been in filmmaking longer than me say that for the middle of the structure the stories obsessive desire is needed. The character will do almost anything to get what she/he wants.
17. You have probably noticed that almost every film has a point when the hero is just about to lose. It is called the lower point.
18. To make the story more powerful usually the hero learns something from the opponent and grows.
19. If you want to reveal something, make a decision and change an action. This way you give new information to the audience.
20. The hero needs to desire something in each scene.
Story structures
They say that there are only three basic story structures:
* Myth
* Fairy tale
* Drama
By taking bits and pieces from each structure and using it in a different way, other stories emerge.

The Ins and Outs of Self Publishing Your Book

For writers, being able to write without restrictions and editors cutting what they have written is a great concept. Getting your message across is very important for a writer, but it could be very difficult if the publisher and the editors are breathing behind your neck.
Some writers who have no experience with self-publishing often think twice because of the cost. In traditional publishing, the publisher would shoulder the costs and the author would not have to worry about it. But with self-publishing, the author would to shoulder the expenses. Currently, a book can be produced with as much as $5000.
When self-publishing, you can be the author who is doing the hiring for editors, cover artists, publishers or printers and distributors. On the other hand there are self-publishing businesses or companies that are dedicated to produce or sell your book or CD. There are three main stages when self-publishing:
To be an effective writer, you would have to touch the heart of the audience. That means in the start of the writing process, you would need to identify your target audience and write for them. Although, self-publishers are not that too concerned with the profits, it would still be worth it if you have a really good book on your hands.
If you would have to go for a self-publishing company, then most of them would do the entire thing. Once you are done with your book and your manuscript, then you would have to just give it to the company and they would choose the publishing needs based on your requirements. Everything, of course, would be for your approval.
But the author needs to submit everything or things in order for the publisher. Once you have submitted the specifications, but later decided to change something, it can cost you additional fees. So you would have to be sure that what you have submitted is the final stuff.
Everything goes back to the author. Once the book is done, the author will have to approve the layout and design of what is inside and outside the book. This would allow the author to have the final decisions over the book. If it gets approved then the printing will start. Again, the printed copies will go back to the author for a nod of approval. When it is done, it would be distributed.
Self-publishing companies would also include, sometimes in their packages, other kind of services. Sometimes self-publishing companies would take care of getting copyright for the book, ensure that it would comply international standards, promotional materials, and other necessities that would give the self-published and edge.
Self-publishing could sound full of tasks or tiring, but if you would like to be successful then it would require a lot of patience and at the same time hard work. But it would sure be worth something in the end.

As a writer, sometimes the hardest part is letting go of your manuscript to let the publisher, editor, designers, and printers make the changes they think will improve your book. While all of that is okay for some writers, others prefer to go it alone and to use online printing services, print on demand software, self editing, and all of the many tools that are now available for authors just about everywhere in the world. Before you make this decision, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the dynamics of self publishing and make sure that you have a firm grasp on the entire process of writing, designing, and taking your book to the press.

Why Speak?

Survey after survey has consistently listed 'Public Speaking' as most people's greatest fears - even more than death!
Jerry Seinfeld once said, "Given the option at a funeral, many people would opt for the box rather than give the eulogy!"
However, if you are going to advance in your job or, if in business for yourself and want to grow it, the odds are you'll be asked, and should accept, opportunities to speak. You'll actually want to seek out and find those opportunities.
One of the qualities we look for in our leaders is the ability to speak, and speak well, in front of an audience. Some do, many do not.  you don't have to look any further than President Obama or Sarah Palin to see the power of being a great speaker.
If you speak and make presentations, the perception is that you are an expert.
Perception is reality.
All things being equal, people would rather hire and deal with experts.  I feel that way and am sure you do, also.
Also, if you never speak in front of groups, the skills and ability to do so are very much worth having.
For one thing, your one-on-one communication, and speaking in small groups, will greatly improve.  I know you do that.
Also, because making presentations takes most of us out of our comfort zone, having this skill makes our comfort zone larger. Improving self-confidence is always a good thing and will give an individual the impetus to go after other goals.
So.... Speak!

Top 10 Ways to Become a Writer

The Top 10 Ways to Become a Writer have been composed from many interviews of successful authors.
1. Read & Write a Lot
This was the most popular answer given by the authors interviewed. In order to become a writer you need to read a lot of different books and practice your writing. By reading and writing you open up the door to becoming a better writer. You're learning and opening your mind up to new ideas.
2. Set Daily Goals
Daily goals are important to become a writer because it helps keep you motivated and gives you a purpose to your writing. If you don't have goals, you'll put your writing on the backburner and won't write regularly the way you would with goals.
3. Study and Practice your Craft
It's important to practice writing to become a writer, because with every story you write you get a bit better each time. I agree. The very first story I wrote was horrible and I am glad that publishers rejected it. Because slowly over time by reading more, and writing more, my writing is being to improve. If you're not writing, how are you ever going to become a writer?
4. Find a Mentor and Work Hard
Some writer's claim a mentor really helped them become a writer. It depends on what's best for you and how you learn. If you're better off by yourself, great. If not, perhaps a mentor or teacher might help you get closer to learning to become a writer. I know when I was considering whether or not I was good at writing, an English teacher really inspired me by giving my special assignments and encouraging me to write outside my comfort zone. If he hadn't gone above and beyond, I might not have taken up writing.
5. Believe in yourself and learn to write from the Heart
This is important because only you know what you want. I've always wanted to become a writer, so regardless of what my family and friends have thought, I have never given up on this idea. I think it's important to soul search and find out what you really want, and if it's writing what's you want, go for it.
6. Find Support
Having some kind of support system is important to help you become a writer. Support could come from family, friends, other writers, or just someone to bounce ideas off of. Support can also be financially like it was for Piers Anthony, Dean Koontz and many other popular authors. Either way support is great when you're down and you need someone to help inspire you or lift you up.
7. Feedback & Rewriting your Work
Editing and feedback are an important part to become a writer. Once you get your first manuscript done, you need to edit, rewrite and rewrite again until it's perfect. Often feedback is an important part to learning what works for you and what doesn't. Just remember it's only someone else's opinion. Take from it what you need to learn and move on. Don't harp on it or over-analyze. Get back to writing which is more important.
8. Always be Professional
Like any career, if you want to become a writer you need to always be professional. Keep your cool, try to remember this is a job. By being professional you're learning to become a writer. Remember that whatever you write on the internet is there to stay and might be copied to other websites. Don't be negative and always put your best foot forward.
9. Self Publishing Advice
When you become a writer, an important step is publishing your work. There is a lot of debate about self publishing versus using a publishing house. Before you make a decision, make sure you have all the facts. Self publishing might work for you if you have a lot of time and money to spend on marketing yourself. But if you don't than don't accept packages that you have to pay to get yourself published. Remember the goal is to be writing not marketing yourself.
10. Never Give Up
The last piece of advice is to never give up. Don't let anyone kill the dream if writing is what you really want to do.
To read the full article, check out my website.

SEO Content Writing - 3 Ways Great Content Will Explode Your Online Business

If you don't even know what the meaning of SEO content writing is, your business is probably not experiencing the success that it is capable of. In order to attract the attention of both the search engines and targeted traffic, it is essential that you offer content that is well optimized for your keywords and written in a way that compels your visitor to stay on your site.
SEO content writing doesn't apply only to your website. Here are 5 ways that well-written content will sky rocket the results you see with your online business:
1. Articles - For several years now, articles have been one of if not THE best free methods for increasing search engine ranking and driving traffic. A well-written and optimized article can send droves of interested people to your website; when you submit your articles to other websites and article directories, you have the potential to create hundreds of quality one-way backlinks in no time.
2. Blogs - Search engines have a love affair with blogs, mostly due to the fact that blogs are updated with fresh content frequently. Write blog posts that offer value and are optimized for your key terms and phrases, and watch the traffic roll in!
3. Your web pages - Amazingly, some people build a website and have no idea they should optimize their content with keywords and phrases that people actually use when searching for information! Your page titles and meta tags should be optimized, but proper optimization of your pages - and not only your home page - is essential if you want to attract tons of targeted traffic.
Think about it; content is what drives the internet! This is why SEO content writing is so important and vital to your business. If your articles, blog posts and web pages are not targeted toward keywords and phrases that people actually use when searching for what you have to offer, they will never find it.
Hopefully it's clear now that SEO content writing is an essential aspect of any online business! Don't have time to write great content for yourself - or just don't want to? Leave the writing to us. You'll have perfectly optimized content that snaps, crackles and pops!

Need help with your SEO content writing? Let a skilled wordsmith craft exceptional content for you! Tess Tackett invites you to visit Get Great Articles for all your content writing needs.

Do You Need a Press Kit?

As an author, do you really need a press kit?
It's great to have a website and to utilize the social media networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn, but what happens once you draw the press to your website? Sure, they'll read all about you in your bio and maybe see some photos of you on your website. They'll read about your books and reviews and various writing accomplishments, but how will this assist them in writing up a glowing feature article on you?
It won't help them and it might even frustrate the press and cause them to move on to another author who has a striking press kit that captivates their attention and forces them to want to find out more details on you and your work.
Now, it's great to have a press kit that you can hand deliver, send out through snail mail or fax and even email. However, wouldn't it also be just as great to have an online press kit? You bet it would. When the media visits your website, for example after they read your catchy press release about your book just being released, don't you want to make it really easy for them so they find your attention to detail delightful and will want to publish that feature article about you and your work?
There are so many authors out there and many of us, me included, are mid-list or even newbies. What does the press care about us? We are not NY Times Bestsellers...yet! You need to make them want to care about you and your work. How do you do that? You create a professional press kit and in this technologically advanced age we live in, you make it readily available in an embedded PDF file on your website. It's great to post your press kit information on a page on your site, but when you have an embedded file that they can download, it makes it even better for them. And the easier you make it for the media, the more they'll like you and want to write about you and your work. Also, a PDF file is not editable by them.
So, what do you include in this press kit and how long should it be? My press kit is 7 pages and it will most likely expand as time goes on, but I will also then edit and cut the current content because you don't want your press kit to be too long. I have my photo and contact info as the header on a nice letterhead that speaks to the theme of my writing style and current works. But, make sure to not go over the top here with a theme and always keep it professional in its design.
Number each page and include your contact info (name, tagline, like mystery & romance author, email, website addy, and ph and fax numbers) on every page. You should start out with a short bio that fits on the first page, with a statement at the end that you welcome interviews and that they should contact you for more info. You want to set the stage that you are friendly and want them to contact you.
You should list some reviews for your books and then give a short listing of each book, the ISBN and where they can readily get a copy of each book, and you can include photos of the books. Be sure to also include info on your upcoming releases, even though you don't have an ISBN yet etc.
At the end, you should write up an author interview. Play the part of a journalist and list questions he or she would want to ask you as an author and then answer those questions. Now, the media can have a readily available interview to be posted online in blogs and other print media, if so desired. However, it's also a jumping off point for them to quickly learn about you, your books and your writing style and they'll not only have some quotes they can print from your interview, but you've done a lot of the legwork for them already. They'll be more eager to dig deeper and then ask you questions of their own.

7 Tips on Search Engine Optimization Strategies

The following search engine strategies are consistently employed by SEO experts; it would be advisable to follow the tactics carefully.
Even though grasping the strategies of that SEO utilizes can be confusing, certain basic search engine optimization practice are essential before you attempt to start your personal SEO-related activity.
1. Include metatags.
Simple lines of code at the top of your page are called metatags. Metatags relay information about your web page to the search engine. The following metatags need to be included:
Title (make your title 7 words or less and be sure to create a unique name)
Keywords/words that appear repeatedly on your page
Description/summary of your article
Author
Robots tag (a tag that instructs search engines to read all, or certain parts, of your website.
2. Create, or update, your sitemap.
A site map will effectively give search engines the information it needs to crawl through your entire website. The key to improving search engine results is to make it easy for your website pages to be located and crawled. There is free software on the web (like xml-sitemaps.com) that helps you generate a sitemap. After that, you can submit your website to Google and Yahoo. Don't forget to place a link to the site map on your home page.
3. Make sure that all navigation is in HTML format.
Too often I see navigation in the form of java script or images. Even though the navigation technically still works in the form of java script or images, it's not optimized. HTML will consistently build internal links throughout your website by keeping the navigation constant and easily identified by search engines.
4. Check that all images include ALT text.
Your image alt text is spidered by search engines. If you're not including your keywords in your alt text, you are missing out on opportunities for optimal search engine placement. Be sure to label your images appropriately--they may even show up as the number one result on Google! If you need help finding images, Google has a database of images (Google Image Search) that indexes pictures.
5. Use Flash content in a discriminating manner.
Some webmasters like to use flash because of the dynamic presentation. It's okay to use sparingly, but only after your site has been properly optimized with basic SEO.
6. Make sure that important page elements are in HTML format.
Web page crawlers only look at your source code. Anything you've put together using an image or other multimedia component is likely to be invisible to search engines. Therefore, the most important elements of your page, where the heart of your content is presented, should be presented in W3C optimized HTML source code.
7. Place keywords in your page content in the correct manner.
It is imperative to place the correct keywords/keyword phrases of your subject matter throughout your web page. Make sure you repeat these keywords/keyword phrases several times throughout your content. Additionally, include your keywords/keyword phrases in headers and sub-heads. Or, to put it another way, your keywords/keyword phrases should be contained in an h1, h2, or h3 tag.
If you adhere to the above-mentioned principles outlined above, you are off to a great start to optimizing your website for search engines. Don't forget to prioritize the pages that are the most crucial to optimize-you don't have to do all your pages at one time. Start with the most important pages and do secondary content after that. Good luck!
To Your Success

The Power of Recording Your Life Stories

Life stories. Have you ever stopped to reflect on your life experiences, how they have shaped you, and all the lessons you have learned from them? Or, going beyond that, have you proactively done something to record your life stories so others can benefit (and especially your family)?
As we get older, some of us are just accumulating a bigger and bigger pile of undigested experiences. I love the African proverb that says "When an old person dies, it is as if a whole library burned down." In our busy life style, we often don't take time to stop and reflect on our life stories and how they have made us who we are.
Our life stories are significant and there is power in recording them. One of the amazing gifts that God has given us is the gift of memory, but He knew that it would not be an easy task to remember well the significant things that happen in our lives. After all, we don't exactly hear a trumpet sound right before a meaningful event occurs.  It just happens.
In Numbers 6, after the Israelites had crossed the Jordan River, God told them to go back into the dried up river bed and collect twelve large stones -- one for each of the tribes. Then He said to pile up those stones to make a memorial so that it would be a sign for them throughout the years. When their children asked them what the stones were for, they would tell them that it was because the Lord had cut off the water of the Jordan to enable them to cross over. The stones were physical things to help them remember.  Light bulb moment! We need a physical thing to help us remember significant happenings.
With this inspiration from Numbers, I wanted to write down some of my life stories to pass on to my grandchildren and future great-grandchildren, so I started a scrapbook. I made a list of different life stories I wanted to include and then would add to it as I remembered more stories. I gathered up a few photos to include with the stories, and then I began to compile them. Some I wrote by hand and some I typed on the computer and printed out. Each story has a lesson to it, so my grandchildren can learn from them.
Photos are a great addition to the story, but it is important not to let the gathering of the photos or the lack of appropriate photos be an obstacle to getting the story written.  I wrote a story about asking each of my kids the question: "If you could change your life to be just perfect, what would you change?" (I asked them in private so their answers wouldn't be influenced by the others.) It was an awesome learning time for me about each of my precious kids. Now, of course, I didn't have a photo with them answering the question, so I just included photos of what they looked like at that time.
One of the life stories is about how one winter my mother used to warm up our shoes with the oven door open because our heat had been cut off. My dad had deserted our family and the heating bill was unpaid. But, I remember that my mom was praising God that we had an oven to heat up the kitchen. Of course, I didn't have a photo of that, but I just recreated the scene with lining up some of our shoes on an open oven door and then I took a photo of it.
There is one surprise benefactor from writing down your life stories. Not only do your kids, grandkids, and others who read your stories benefit, but you benefit too.  In Launching  a Leadership Revolution, Brady and Woodward state: "It is not enough to just 'experience' experiences. Wisdom is not the by-product of the passage of time. Evaluated experience is where true education occurs." As we write down our stories, we reflect, we ruminate, we evaluate, and we learn. Perhaps that is the greatest benefit of recording your life stories.
If you like this idea but don't know where to start, start with one story. Write it down. Discover the lesson in it. Then share it with someone. If there was any doubt in your mind to the value of doing this, that doubt will be cleared up.
Your life stories are powerful and can help create good emotional health in those you love.  Recording your life stories capture their power for others and for you.