Gather ye stories while ye may

Dec 30, 2013 | Better Writing

This morning I read Michael Wade’s excellent post, “Memories.” After listing many one or two line memories, Michael closes with: “And lots of quickly fading stories that I should write down.”

Oh yes!!! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Capture them or they will drift off like butterflies on the wind. Record them or sketch them out or write them out in full, but capture them.

If you capture them you can do something with them. You can turn them into a book or use them in speeches. You can pass them on to your children, stuffed into bulging file folders.

If you don’t capture them, they are lost forever. They are lost to you and those you love and the rest of us. The world will be poorer if that happens.