As Paul told us earlier, November is NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, the month to write a 175-page, 50,000-word novel. For those of us who prefer to write creative non-fiction, here’s another challenge. Thanks to Linda Austin, co-author with her mother, Yaeko Sugama Weldon, of Weldon’s memoir, Cherry Blossoms in Twilight: Memories of a Japanese Girl, I’ve learned that November is also National Life Writing Month and Family Stories Month.

According to the Scrap Your Stories web site (http://www.scrapyourstories.com/lifewritingmonth.htm), National Lifewriting Month is sponsored by the Soleil Lifestory Network, founded by Denis Ledoux and apparently engaged in teacher training. Ledoux is the author of Turning Memories into Memoirs, A Handbook for Writing Lifestories (Soleil Press, 1992). Ledoux says that with the holidays coming, November is “a great time to discover that the best gift you could possibly give is one that can’t be bought. To share a few stories of your life with those who mean the most to you is a very special present.”

I’ll be giving my relatives such a holiday gift this year, although it was finished in October rather than November. Remembering Violet is a little 56-page tribute to my late mother, who died earlier this year at age 95. It’s her life story as told by my mother herself in excerpts from her earlier memoir and by sixteen relatives and friends, including me, the editor. You can read about it in my blog, “Write your Life!” (http://seniormemoirs.blogspot.com/2007/10/tributes-and-memories-honoring...) and on eGenerations.

Family Story Month is apparently directed toward students from elementary to middle to high schools. The Story Arts organization site (http://www.storyarts.org/classroom/roots/family.html) proclaims, “The memorable stories of our lives and of others in our family take on special importance because they are true, even if everyone tells different versions of the same event. These tales are family heirlooms held in the heart not the head. They are a gift to each generation that preserves them by remembering them and passing them on.”

The Story Arts site suggests that students interview their elders to gather information for these family stories. It’s never too early or too late to write such stories, in school or out.

The author of the “Writing Grandma’s Book” blog (http://writinggrandmasbook.wordpress.com) suggests adding a National Memoir Writing month as a spin-off of NaNoWriMo for those of us who prefer to write creative non-fiction. But do we really need an official organization or an official week or a set of rules to prod us? How about just telling a family story or two right here in The Elders Tribune in November? That’s my challenge. It can be a lot shorter than 50,000 words, too.