I'm dedicating this episode to Sue.

She wasn't a close friend, but she was one of those people you knew well enough to know how special she was. She lit up every room she walked into. She was glamorous, funny, full of energy. Her brain never stopped and neither did she. I always thought of her as a butterfly, always beautiful, always moving.

Her funeral was this week. She was four years older than me. Just one year into her retirement.

I remember saying to her once that she should write a book. She had the most extraordinary life. It would have been wonderful.

She never did.

This episode is for everyone who has been putting it off. Because your story deserves to be written, and one day isn't a date in the diary. It doesn't arrive on its own. You have to choose it.

I talk about memoir writing today, and I want to make it as easy and un-scary as possible. Because memoir isn't a CV with feelings. It isn't chronological. It isn't starting at birth and working forwards. It's about what your life means. It's about sitting around a campfire with friends and leaning in to say "right, so there I was, and everything was about to change..."

I share five different ways to structure your memoir, none of them starting at the beginning, and three things that will make your story genuinely captivating to read. Your memories don't have to be perfect. The dates don't have to be exact. It just has to be true to you.

We don't get to choose when our time runs out. But we do get to choose whether we write our story before it does.

So write one memory this week. One moment. One page. Just start somewhere.

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You're not too late. You're right on time.

QUOTES

🗣 From this episode:
"We don't get to choose when our time runs out. But we do get to choose whether we write our story before it does." — Wendy Williams, Episode 5

✍️ This week's writing inspiration:
"Start before you're ready." — Steven Pressfield