To ask if your life story would make a good book?

[HoneyandSpice]

Just that really. They say we all have at least one book in us. And I've often wondered about writing one. Not many people are going to be interested in reading an autobiography of an unknown person. But a novel that drew from your own life experience. Possibly something that could help others. As in, experiences / trauma you have been through but lived to tell the tale. I feel it's worth thinking about.

Do you think people would be interested in your life? What would be the theme? And would there be a happy ending?

And no, I'm not a journo, or looking for ideas or a title. Just a genuine human interest. We all have lives / pasts that shape us.

My own life is pretty dull (in a good way). One friend has a life which would make a good soap story line (it includes a forced marriage to an abusive man, time in a refuge, difficult relationships with other family members which blow up periodically, financial struggles, social services interventions etc.). I'm very grateful to have been spared much of what she's been through.

OMG. I actually wish I could change the title of this thread to 'reasons to be kind to others, as you have no idea what they have been through'
Thank you for your honesty, everyone.

If I did no one would believe it.
It would make a great fiction with some embellishment

Not my life. I am very boring.
But my foster sister, what happened to her as a kid...

Just one part: when she lived with us, her much older brother was trying hard to find her. But he was barred from any info b/c she had gone into care. We lived in a city that was 1600 miles away from where they had last seen each other.

For 2 years while he was searching hard for her, he was stationed in the Navy... 5 miles away from where she lived with my family.

He sprung her from prison about 10 yrs later, b/c of a shared genetic disease they had (not known about before she became an adult).

Could you start a blog instead?

BananaPeach I started a blog, which was about being single. But it seemed to me that it was easier to talk about things anectodally, than to write it. If that makes sense.
I've been genuinely touched by the replies on here though. Just makes me think how much we all have stories to tell.

People would think it was made up as surely one person can't have that much "stuff" happen in (hopefully) less than half a life time.

@tigger001 that seems to be a theme I'm seeing which has made me think.
Many decades ago, when life was truly tough. People had nothing (during and after the 2nd world war for example) it all made for good reading in the Catherine Cookson style.
Now we live in fairly different times. Yet hardship and struggles still exist. We just wear different clothes.
No wonder so many people struggle with mental health. I feel people years ago appreciated others. Their shared problems. Community spirit was there. Whereas now, we are expected to be happy. And get on with it.
Social media has a lot to answer for here.

Mental health check
Dead kid check
Psychiatric hospital check
Dying twice in a year check

No one but believe mine.

Mine would be second rate 90s chick lit. Unoriginal, single girl in London, lots of laughs, no plot, happy ending.

My Mum's, on the other hand, would be a "sweeping family saga" (starting with her mother dying in childbirth when she was born), spanning three continents, incorporating WW2, marrying the boy next door, life on the stage etc etc...

Although my decade running a village shop might work in a "A Year in Provence" style. Would have made a good blog if they'd been around when we started.

Every one of you have interesting lives.
Demonstrates my original question. And why I was interested in the human element.

I would genuinely ask you all to post more about your life.
And I do not give permission for any journalist to reproduce anything that is discussed here. It may be an open forum, but you have no right to this content.

No it would be dull AF, for which I am thankful.

OP, I can't see anyone lifting the thread, but unfortunately they wouldn't need your permission.

You'd think I was making it up for attention.

Just this year I have;

• pursued a complaint against a police officer who deliberately lost a load of forensic evidence so the perpetrator of a serious assault against my neighbour walked free.
• discovered that my medical records have been tampered with ''lost and destroyed, so sorry'' so I now have no hard evidence if I want to make a complaint about historic CSA.

There's a lot of humour in my life story too though, not least because my family are fucking bonkers but also because my ex is unbelievably thick!

I was talking to mum the other day and a few things I hadn't realised I'd not previously told her, anecdotes that illustrated well how stupid he is, and she was in stitches!

I've told a few of the funnier anecdotes on here so if I did publish it'd be really outing.

Very working class properly poor background my grandparents and parents had (mum didn't live somewhere with indoor plumbing till she was 5, she's now in her 70's and has NEVER had a bed that was just hers as she shared a bed with her sisters then only left home when she married, but then dad similar age has never had a bedroom of his own either. But dad was army and mum told how the first time he was deployed she found it REALLY hard sleeping alone for the first time in her life, she'd wait to go to bed when she was really shattered so she wasn't lying awake and alone for too long)

My life is gratifying dull ATM, but I've often considered using one episode in my teens as the basis for a Jacqueline Wlison-style story.

My late DF's early life, however, was very exciting - refugee from Poland aged 5 in 1939 and a long journey across occupied Europe and North Africa to end up in England four years later. I'd love to write a book about that but the imaginative stretch required is kinda scary...

My partner often says mine /y families life is like eastenders :)

So maybe 🤪😂

I would love to write it, but frankly i can't believe it at times and i fucking live it. I keep waiting for the Eastenders 'Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun' to happen any moment!

Been told it would Many times but personally I’m Not sure I would be arsed to read it meself!

My first thought was, nah, too boring. Then I read some replies and thought, well, maybe some kind of getting through abusive childhood, MH crisis, chronic illness but still manage some kind of life thing would work. But then I thought still too boring. Even my struggles are dull. Like now, painful to walk, tired all the time, pathologically shy and have no friends, not quite managing to do what an adult should while squeaking by with job and kid and ill OH. It’s just not interesting reading. No adventure, not even scary ones. Just dull not doing well. People would moan it was both depressing and lacked any sense of movement. Definitely not a page-turner.

I’d like to write a book but done feel I’ve got the skill. I should have been a looked after child, my brother is a cat 1 offender and I spoke out to protect my sister, became black sheep and still am to this day... left home to train as a nurse worked in palliaitve care for 8 yrs, midwife and now work in a children’s hospice, not sure it would make good reading but I feel it would really help me but don’t know where to start with it all, I’ve just started getting some support again for the abuse I suffered as a child

Mine would just be very very random.....

A few years back I did it. I collapsed into a bout of depression (lasted a few years) that was related to a buried past and I'd always carried it in the back of my mind. It was sparked by a collapsing box full of photographs that I then sorted through. Brought it all back, the happiness that turned to sorrow...i didn't want to go on meds, tried counselling which was OK but decided, as I knew where it all stemmed from, to write it out of me. So I bought a notebook, wrote snippets as I remembered them, covering a five year period. And a second notebook. Then I sat and put them in order, the notes and my thoughts and memories. Then edited them. Contacted many of the people from that time and I added bits in they recalled but I'd forgotten. I ended up with 65000 words, novel length, all pulled together into something really good. It helps that I can think, recall, write and tell a tale. Then I had it printed up on lulu, a few copies were printed and my friends who featured were given copies too. A select few outsiders also got a look. It's actually a decent read and one I'm really very proud of... I read it a few times but have stopped now as it reopens things temporarily when I do. We all have a story to tell, a story that can easily be made fascinating and one that sometimes needs to be dragged out - it ended my depression by the way and I'm convinced it was the only thing that could have. I put the past firmly in its rightful place and I'm really glad I did. I treasure it.

Mine would be a very boring book, which I know is the mark of a very lucky life.

I remember as a (fairly small) child telling my mum - and I was genuinely upset about this - that it wasn't fair that I couldn't ever be a famous author because they all have sad childhoods and nothing sad had happened to me. My mum was pretty and had to try and explain the concept of a 'privileged problem' to me, some time before that term was invented...