Everyone has a story worth telling, not just the rich and famous. Your experiences, impressions, values, and memories are a unique, priceless part of your family’s heritage and twentieth-century history, but they will disappear forever if you do not write them down.

As an old Chinese proverb says, "Each time an older man or woman dies, a whole library is lost."

In a new book by biographer and teacher Robert E. Wood, called Life’s Footprints, the author presents a detailed, step-by-step methodology for writing a memoir. By reading the book and working through the ingenious exercises and worksheets, any ordinary person can create a 300-page autobiography complete with numerous pages of pictures. 

Best of all, you do not have to be a gifted writer. With Wood’s program, all you have to do is create a Life’s Footprints outline, talk into a tape-recorder, and transcribe onto paper. Wood offers dozens of tips, special techniques, and hints to make the process easy and rewarding. Through his workshops and now his book, he has helped hundreds of ordinary people create astounding works of personal history with the process he shares in Life’s Footprints.

Wood has transformed a normally daunting task into a fun and painless process that takes as little as two months. His workbook includes: 
* Easy-to-follow instructions on how to write an outline and create a lifeline 
* Guidance on using clippings, photos, and mementos to spark memories 
* Life-chapter worksheets arranged chronologically in manageable time segments 
* Fill-in-the-blank family trees; document and photo recording logs; and blank pages for notes, doodles, and random thoughts 
* Key questions, strategically placed, to help spark emotional content 
Design, layout, and printing advice and how-to instructions 
* Comprehensive appendix with cultural reference dates and key historical data from the past century 
* Clear and thorough steps for putting it all together 

Why write an autobiography or family history? Wood says there are many reasons. Of the utmost importance, contemplating your life has tremendous therapeutic value. Typically, people discover a renewal of pride and satisfaction in their lives as they write their story. Often, they also find greater understanding and resolution to past events that are painful. 

The resulting memoir becomes a priceless heirloom that your children and children’s children will hand down for generations. Eventually, says Wood, these autobiographies become valuable primary sources in the history of the twentieth century, an era of enormous change, growth, and cultural evolution unlike any other. 

The most common reason people are glad they have written down their own history, however, is one of the simplest: to avoid regret. Ask yourself, says Wood, if you have ever made any of these wishes: 
* I wish I would have had Grandmother write down her cookie recipes. 
* I wish I would have had Mother write the names of everyone in these old family pictures. 
* I wish I would have recorded Grandfather’s funny stories and philosophies. 
* I wish I could remember when Father came to the United States as a boy and whom he stayed with before he was adopted. 

These wishes go on until it is too late. By penning your own history, including all of the small things that make up daily life, you will satisfy your own need to remember and that of your children as well. Unfortunately, most of these memories go to the grave. The goal of Wood’s program is not to write a best-seller, but to preserve history and to provide other family members with your medical history. Life’s Footprints is the first guide for non-writers that holds your hand through the entire process so you can end up with a book that you will be proud of, and that your loved ones will cherish.

Robert E. Wood grew up in the isolated Black Hills of South Dakota with nine brothers and sisters. He dropped out of school after eighth grade and was married at eighteen. Thus began a rich and varied life. Eventually he earned a Master’s Degree in Education and has since worn many hats, including that of Los Angeles City fireman, heavy-equipment operator, high school teacher, and elected official. Currently, Wood is founder and president of Life’s Footprints, Inc., a publishing/mentoring organization that helps people write and publish their autobiographies. He has written the biographies of many CEOs and owners of major nationally recognized companies over the last twenty-two years, and wrote his own memoir in 1980. He speaks and lectures frequently about the importance of preserving twentieth- century history by means of recorded personal history.