True Life Story Workshops

Many of the people who seek to gain the most from sharing their true life story may require support to do so.

We would like to encourage you to run a workshop to enable others to access the benefits of writing their own true life stories.

In particular, we feel that storytelling could be a valuable resource for members of our community in prisons, care homes, community centres, hostels, schools and more.

We recommend that you print this webpage as an itinerary for any workshops you decide to run.

How to run a true life story workshop

This is an outline of a workshop that can be delivered to any group of people. If computers are available, they could be used to help participants put the workshop into practice. If there are no computers available, it is suggested that each participant has paper and pen so they can have a go at writing their story.

It is important to “seize the opportunity” and get as many stories as possible committed to paper or computer document. Leaving people to complete it later usually doesn’t work if they are unsure of their ability.

It may be necessary to assist with the uploading of completed stories to Stozzys.com by copy and pasting or by typing a story for someone who can’t use a computer. It is possible for those who find writing difficult to use a dictaphone, if available. Dictaphones can be particularly helpful for elderly people and the recording could be transcribed for them. What arrangements you use will be determined by your resources and the experience of the participants. There are points in the workshop which will need adjusting depending on the circumstances.
1. Explain Stozzys.com
  1. Explain that Stozzys.com is a website.
  2. That it hosts true-life stories.
  3. It’s a place to tell one’s story.
  4. A place to read the stories of others.
  5. A repository or library of true-life experience.
2. Why tell your story?
  1. Our Health Benefits webpage summarises the benefits of reading and sharing true life stories. We suggest you familiarise yourself with it and print it for use with this webpage as part of the workshop.
  2. Explain the research, which can be found on our Health Benefits webpage.
  3. A sense of empowerment.
  4. For pleasure.
  5. To help others – a problem shared is a problem halved.
3. Key points
  1. It’s free of charge to tell your story.
  2. It’s free of charge to read stories.
  3. It’s safe.
    1. Story tellers can remain anonymous on the website.
    2. We don’t allow anyone to comment on a story, so there are no nasty comments to worry about.
  4. Sending the story to Stozzys is simple – just use our upload page and complete the form.
  5. Once uploaded the story will be checked (moderated) for bad language, libel and identifying others – otherwise we prefer not to edit.
4. What counts as a story?
  1. Writing about your whole life might be a daunting task.
  2. Choose an episode or event.
  3. Aim for an uplifting or helpful experience for others. However, this is not essential.
  4. You can write more than one story.
5. What shouldn't be included
  1. Swearing;
  2. Naming others/libel;
  3. Anything obscene.
6. How to get the story to Stozzys (Adjust according to circumstances)
  1. There’s help for you in and after this workshop.
  2. The three ways to share your story are:
    1. You can type it in a word document on a computer and upload via the website;
    2. Write it on paper, send it to us and we’ll type it up;
    3. Use a Dictaphone to speak your story and we’ll type it up.
  3. Explain the Terms & Conditions.
  4. Explain what will happen next. Stozzys.com staff will do an editing check, then publish the story. An email will be sent to you with a link to your story so you can share it with others if you would like to.
7. A beginner’s guide to writing a story

Here is a step-by-step beginner’s guide to writing a story. You can use this even if you’ve never written a story before.

As an example, we will walk you through how to write about your favourite place or a time when you were really happy. You can use this as guidance to write about anything.

Example 1: Your favourite place
  • Write a sentence to say what is your favourite place.
  • Write a sentence to say where it is.
  • Write a sentence to say why you like it.
  • Write a sentence to describe your feelings when you’re there.
  • Write a sentence to describe how you feel when you think about it.
  • For each of those 5 sentences, try to write another one saying more about it. For instance, what colours are there? What sounds? What scents? How did you first come across it? Do you go there with others or alone? Have you only been a few times, or do you go there often? What makes it special for you?
  • You’ve now got 10 sentences!
  • Are there any that you could expand by writing another sentence?
Example 2: A time when you were really happy
  • Write a sentence to say where you were.
  • Write a sentence to say when that was.
  • Write a sentence to say what made you happy.
  • Write a sentence to say what other feelings you had.
  • Write a sentence to describe how you feel when you think back to that time.
  • For each of those 5 sentences try to write another saying more about it. For instance, what was happening in the world around you? Who else was involved? What did you do? Does that time remind you of other times?
  • You’ve now got 10 sentences!
  • Are there any that you could expand by writing another sentence?

You can apply that way of working to any idea for a story.
8. Demonstration
  1. Would anyone like to volunteer and speak out their story so I can write it on the board?
  2. If not, we’ll use my story.
  3. Work through either Favourite Place or Really Happy writing down, on a whiteboard or flip chart, each sentence with spaces between for the additions.
9. Questions
10. Encourage participants to write their story.
Be sure to follow through and collect handwritten stories/ recorded stories for later processing; and ensure any computer written stories are uploaded to Stozzys.com.

© Stozzys True Life Stories Ltd. 2020