MARCH 14 - NATIONAL "WRITE YOUR STORY" DAY
Everyone has a story.
On March 14, National Write Your Story Day, challenges us to put our story into written form. Does it need to be an entire book? Not necessarily, but if you begin the writing process, you may find that your story is full of richness and you have a lot to tell. Today, stories are everywhere - they fill blogs, magazine articles and yes, even books. More importantly, they capture your history, your legacy!
I did it! I wrote part of my story: "If You Really Knew Me: The Life, The Lessons and The Legacy". I wrote this book to capture some of the stories that made a difference in my life - no matter how insignificant the situation may have seemed at the time, the lessons that came from that situation have carried me through life into the person that I have become. This book was published in 2019 but the stories are still relevant, still have lessons and the stories are still leaving a legacy.
Here is an excerpt from "If You Really Knew Me: The Life, The Lessons and The Legacy" - a chapter on "Becoming an Author".
CHAPTER 22
BECOMING AN AUTHOR
I didn’t set out to be an author. I guess you would say that being an author found me. How?
Let me tell you….
As I developed my business and began to not only prepare workshops for my clients, I also actually began to deliver workshops for my clients. I am a true believer in the power of “stories” as a way to not only teach a lesson but to reinforce a lesson. So, as I conducted my workshops, I would tell stories. Stories from my life. Stories that taught me lessons. Stories that reinforced the concepts that I was teaching.
I’m sure that my girls would roll over if they realized how many stories had been shared about them in my workshops! But stories make the speaker more believable, more credible, more human. Participants feel like they can relate to your stories and begin to compare them to situations that they have had where they then can learn the lesson that is being taught.
The more that I told stories in my workshops, the more that I realized that I needed to write those stories down (my memory isn’t what it used to be!). As I wrote the stories down, I began to realize that not only were the stories relevant and could teach a lesson, they were my autobiography of sorts! THAT is when I realized that these stories could become a book.
Would it be a best seller? Maybe not. Would it be sold world-wide? Maybe not. My goal was not for fame or fortune, but to share the stories, help someone else learn a lesson and hopefully make a difference in someone’s life.
Interestingly enough, the “author” bug bit me and now I am hooked. I want to learn everything there is to know about writing about being an author and even about publishing. I want to make a difference in other prospective author’s lives. I have come across so many people who have told me that they either wrote a book, are writing a book or want to write a book, but they don’t know where to start. I want help them. They have value inside of them that needs to be shared with others.
So, on to the next chapter – stay tuned for more books from me and more books published by me and my company, Enhanced DNA: Develop Nurture Achieve, LLC.
Denola M. Burton is the Founder and CEO of Enhanced DNA: Develop Nurture Achieve, LLC. Through Enhanced DNA, Denola develops and nurtures individuals and organizations to achieve their Leadership, Communication and Performance goals and objectives. Denola is also an author and publisher and created the Enhanced DNA Publishing Division of her company where they assist new and newer authors in publishing their books according to the Independent Book Publishing Association (IBPA) standards. Denola retired from Eli Lilly and Company after 27 years where the majority of her career was focused on Employee Relations/Human Resources. You can connect with Denola on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIN and Twitter at Enhanced DNA Develop Nurture Achieve or on her website at www.DevelopNurtureAchieve.com or www.EnhancedDNAPublishing.com.