Passing a Living Legacy

Your Indelible Footprint on Your Family

Tom Belisle

How Do You Want to Be Remembered?

Your Legacy

• A Great Husband, Wife, Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Cousin, Friend, Business Acquaintance, Other
• Friendly, Kind, Charitable, Religious
• Smart, Dedicated, Committed, Reliable, Honest
• Successful, Inventive, Creative
• Funny, Serious
• Patriotic Veteran

How Will You Be Remembered

Your Legacy Evidence

• Photos, Videos, Recordings of You
• Awards, Certificates, Diplomas, Testimonials
• Fond Remembrances by Family and Friends
• Things You Created, Built, Developed
• The Cash/Stocks/Gold You Left Your Heirs
• Other

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• But………………………………………….

How You Will Be Remembered

Your Legacy Evidence

• What Lasts Over the Passage of Time?
• What Endures, What is Sustained for Current and Future Generations?
• What Leaves a Permanent Imprint of Your Time on This Planet—Beyond the Growth of Your Family Tree?
• Did Your Family, Friends Really Know What You Really Did Over Your Military Career?
• Did They Ever Ask You for Details?
• Could You Tell Them?
• Did You Ever Want to Help Them Understand Your Commitment to Your Country—and What it Really Involved?

How You Will Be Remembered

A Memoir Is Born!

• But………………………………………..

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• Maybe It’s Too Hard to Do

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• It’s Not!

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• Can I Write Something that Will Be Worthwhile and Appreciated?

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• It Will Be

My Approach

• Prioritize What You Believe is Important
• After a Career in the Air Force, there Were Many Blanks to Fill
• What Did You Really Do?
• While at Work
• While on Deployment
• When You Disappeared with Little Notice After Receiving the Late Night Recall Order
• On the Isolated Assignment Away from Your Family for Days/Months/Years
• When You Were Sent into a Combat Zone
• What Can You Really Tell Them?

Reflect on Life

My Memoir

My Career

• Commit to Telling Your Story the Way You Talk
• Decide How You Want to Approach the Task
• Think Through the Elements You Want to Address
• What Do You Remember about What You Did?
• Who Do You Remember Doing it With?
• When Did You Do It?
• Where Did You Do It?
• Where Did You Do It?
• This is Important to Keep Your Frustration Level Under Control

My Memoir

Approaching the Task

• Determine How Much Detail You Might Want to Use
• Research as Much as Possible
• Keep it Accurate
• Make it Entertaining while Informative
• Get Help to Fill in the Blanks
• Dig Up the Old Photos
• Talk with Family and Friends for Sanity Check

My Memoir

• Began By Creating a Chronological Outline of My Assignments
• Dug Up Old Performance Reports for Job Titles, Locations, Dates
• Decided Early-on to Include Photos
• More Difficult in Building the Final Product—But Worth It
• Expanded Outline for Each Assignment
• Spent Plenty of Time Thinking About What was Notable about Each
• Focused on Both Serious and Funny Situations
• Writing the Way I had Conversations with Family and Friends Was Easy
• Wanted My Family to Be Able to Recognize Me in My Writing

Start Writing—How I Did It

My Memoir

• First Draft was Rough—But Helped Me See the Gaps of Information Needed
• Tried to Keep it From Being Too Technical—Didn’t Dumb it Down, But Explained in a Way that a Civilian Would Understand
• Didn’t Worry About Pictures Til Second Draft
• Where I Didn’t Have Any, I Searched for Free Photos
• Second and Third Drafts were Refining the Story
• Used Spouse for Sounding Board—After All, Years Can Take a Toll on Memory

Getting a First, Second, Third Draft

My Memoir

• When I Felt I had a Pristine Product, Sought Out a Local Editor
• Knew I Needed a Second Set of Eyes
• Also Knew That I Didn’t Have the Skills (or Patience) to Format the Book with Photos Inserted
• Submitted Final Product to Create Space (now Kindle Direct Publishing)
• Reviewed Proof and Then Gave Go-Ahead to Publish
• Decided to Limit Distribution—-Not Available to General Public
• Decision Based on Personal Nature of Memoir
• Did My Own Distribution to Family, Friends
• Will Eventually Update and Officially Publish for Wide Distribution

Getting Published

My Memoir

• Rave Reviews (What Did I Expect From Friends and Family)
• “Wow—I Never Knew You Did That!”
• “Unbelievable—Very Interesting.”
• “It’s Hilarious!”
• “I’m Glad I Didn’t Know You Were Doing Those Things—“I Would Have Worried About You.”
• “Thank You For Your Service.”

Results

Other Options

• Can Do a Similar Approach with Shutterfly
• Use Office Depot Services
• Go Minimalist by Printing Out Your Story and Having it Professionally Reproduced and Bound
• Record Yourself Telling Your Story via Video

What’s Next

New Writing Career

• Success of Memoir was a Challenge
• Could I Write Fiction
• Launched the New Career in 2019
• First Novel In May 2020
• Raptor Bloom
• Second Novel in April 2021
• Taking the Dream Spinner
• Third Novel in Work!

My Advice

• Get Busy Writing!