Are you ever tempted to split infinitives? If so you’re in good company. They did it in Star Trek, as demonstrated by the title of this post,  and it’s since become an often quoted example.

A split infinitive occurs when an adverb or adverbial phrase is placed between the word to and the relevant verb. In this case the adverb boldly comes between the words to go, and this construction really gives emphasis to the boldness of the enterprise (pun intended). Somehow To go boldly where no man has gone before doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Although there has been quite a lot of controversy over the practice of splitting infinitives, these days it’s generally acceptable, provided of course the sentence is not weakened or made to sound clumsy.

More than a few writers have found ways to send up the use of split infinitives. Wikipedia gives us this example:

The split infinitive, specifically its famous use in the Star Trek opening sequence, is the basis of a joke from Douglas Adams‘ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

In those days men were real men, women were real women, small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before – and thus was the Empire forged.

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Do you believe in reincarnation? Perhaps not. After all, there’s no real evidence that once we leave this life we’ll be reborn into another, either for better or for worse, depending on what we do here and now.

But whether you believe in reincarnation or not the following exercise can be used to throw some light onwho you are in this very life.

Write about your previous life

The story can be any length. Just let your mind ‘remember’ who you were before your present existence.

Who were you, for example in 1805? Depending on the history you know of your country and culture you will probably identify with a character you may have read about.

I once knew a man who was sure he had been Ramses II. All well and good (and who could dispute the claim?) but consider the implications of placing yourself in a particularly exalted incarnation. The Karmic fallout from the actions of most of our more illustrious historical figures really doesn’t bear thinking about.

Some writers play it safer by choosing significant but ordinary characters, such as governesses or clergymen. Whatever direction you decide to take with this exercise, remember it is just that – an exercise. The character and situation you choose will be revealing. Writing in the first person will help to stimulate your imagination. For example:

I am a nineteenth century archaeologist. I have a great ambition to travel to parts of the world that are just blank places on the map. I want to explore the Silk Road and to look for the buried cities of lost civilizations. I need to gather an expedition together for this purpose, but I have little money and I haven’t managed to convince the Geographical Society that they should fund my research. I’m hoping to find a rich sponsor, someone who believes as I do, that the past has great secrets still to be uncovered. There is a wealth of knowledge buried deep beneath the sands. If I can get there I’ll show the world what it has lost.

This ‘earlier incarnation’ of the writer shows a great desire for knowledge and a need to explore the hidden mysteries of life. There are also links here to the ‘hero’ archetype, about to embark on a quest. The need to find a sponsor might indicate the hopes for new connections with power and influence.

Writing in this way provides us with a valuable insight into our hidden desires, concerns and hopes forthe future. By recreating ourselves as characters in a fantasy we also have the opportunity to recognise our true goals and to work towards achieving them.

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Tokoni believes everyone has a story to tell.

If you can’t get your message across in 140 characters on Twitter, join the community on Tokoni and tell your story to an audience that appreciates what you have to say.

It’s an easy tool to use. Set up your profile and start sharing your stories.  You can even start to record your autobiography or memoir one story at a time. When finished adding a story, choose a category and add tags (keywords) so your story can be easily found through search.

Create a Hub

A hub is a place for Tokoni members (Tokos) to collaborate, share and discuss stories around a topic. Hubs can be created from any number of places, like your profile page, a story page, and from the hubs link on the navigation bar on the top of every page.  When you create a hub you can name it, give it a description, add images or even video, and categories.

Let me tell you a story…

There was once a family of immigrants who decided to flee their country after a world-wide conflict left many people without homes and little hope for the future. The family first arrived in the Far North where they had no experience of the weather, the culture and the way of life in general.

They found it hard to relate to a new land and hoped to return home one day, but gradually, without even realising it was happening, they adapted to the new way of life.

When finally they had worked hard enough to save the money for the journey home, much to their surprise they realised that they didn’t want to go. The land they had fled to was their new home and that’s where they decided to stay.

Stories change the way we relate to each other

If I tell you this is my family story and show you photos from my family album you will probably now have a very different impression of me from when you first began this article.

Perhaps your background is similar. Somewhere in your history are people who faced the same challenges. If this is so, then we share parts of the story, and in this way we have established common ground on which to relate to each other. Even if your life experience bears no resemblance to mine, you have shared some of my experiences through my story.

If you don’t have a personal blog, telling your story on Tokoni is a great way to get published and share your story with others.

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Before you begin to write your life story, you need to ask yourself a simple question. Who am I writing for?

• Are you writing for your family and those who come after you?
• Are you writing for yourself alone, to satisfy a creative need?
• Do you write to find meaning in the disjointed events that make up your life?
• Are you hoping for publication because you think your life story has relevance to people you are never likely to meet?

The answer to this question will help you find your starting point.

For example, if you decide to write an autobiography and include your family history you will need to make lists, record dates, and write down areas for research that answer questions such as:

What year did my grandfather arrive in this country?
Was that 1972 or 1975 when I won the trophy?
Who attended our first reunion?

Autobiography or memoir?

This chronological account of your life would technically be classed as autobiography. Autobiography in the classical sense was once only the territory of the rich and famous. Soldiers, statesmen and high achievers in various fields of life were either encouraged or inspired to record the exceptional events of their lives for posterity.
Memoirs, however, are usually based on selections of significant events in the author’s life. These may be related to a specific theme such as coming of age, a particular achievement, an occupation, travel experiences and so on. Some examples of memoir writing to a travel theme are:
Isak Dineson – Out of Africa
Peter Mayle – A Year in Provence
Ernest Hemingway – A Moveable Feast
George Orwell – Down and Out in Paris and London

Now we have the ‘new autobiography’

In the late twentieth-century something interesting happened to the autobiography genre – it broke free from its traditional moorings among the famous and the elite and became available to all who cared to attempt the uncharted waters of what has been described as a ‘new literary form’. This new form combines the techniques of both autobiography and memoir, and draws on the fictional tools of character, scene and plot to create stories that add meaning and value to relatively insignificant events.

And we also have the ‘digital’ memoir

Yet a new form of personal narrative has recently emerged driven by the development of new media. Writers who are not inspired to create lengthy texts can now take advantage of digital storytelling techniques to create both textual and visual records of their memoirs. Photographs, video, audio and text can be assembled using simple and freely accessible blogging tools and social media sites.

You may want to explore all of these options

When creating your life story, either as a chronological narrative, a story with a theme or a digital record of events, you will need to learn the techniques of storytelling. There are hard and fast rules around the use of grammar, point of view, voice and structure that must be learned if your writing is to be coherent and readable. Some might object that rules were made to be broken and that writing is a fluid form to be explored from many different angles. This is true, but my advice is to learn the rules first and then, when you are confident that you have mastered them, go right ahead and test the boundaries of writing. It’s you story after all.

Whether your life story is to be a gift to your family and friends or self-published to the wider public in print or on the Internet, it will also be a gift to yourself and a permanent record of your life’s goals and achievements.
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