Father’s Day is less than two weeks away. If you want to give a gift of writing, like I described in my post for Mother’s Day, now is the time to start working on it
One thing I didn’t include in my Mother’s Day post was writing down humorous stories involving the person you want to give the story to. In my post on Christmas disasters, I described writing down holiday mishaps that have passed into family legend. I was reminded how meaningful these stories are when my sister, our kids, and my parents got together for an early Father’s Day party.
We asked the kids to think of stories involving their grandfather or just what they liked about him. Two of the grandkids actually took the trouble to write down what they thought. The sharing of a few stories led to other stories, which entertained the kids as much as my dad, and the kids weren’t even alive to participate in most of them.
So if you lived through a humorous incident or a comic adventure with a particular male relative, write it down. Not only will the person you give it to appreciate it, but it preserves family history for the next generation.
Don’t forget to edit!
I wrote this in my Mother’s Dat post, but it bears repeating: never give a first-draft as a gift. Always edit it. Write your piece and then got back over it. If no changes come to mind, leave it a day or two. I am often surprised how many ways I can improve a piece if I take a break from working with it.
