Welcome to the Quirky Characters ‘Sunday Storytelling’ blog.
My name is Julie and this is the story of how Quirky Characters came to be and why I love to inspire the documenting of our lost loved one’s lives through the telling of stories on the ‘Sunday Storytelling’ blog page.
‘I have a dream’, said Martin Luther King. Well, my dream was not as noble as King’s but none-the-less, very important to me. I want to share the stories of my lost loved ones and help others do the same. For decades now I have been researching and documenting the lives of my ancestors, having been blessed with two wonderful grandmothers, Connie and Rene, who shared their family stories with me. The analytical side of me then got to work in the archives, to flesh out more detail on the fascinating characters I had been told about.
Having written and self-published a 400 page family history book in 2009, and not wanting to repeat that onerous task once more, I decided concentrating on one character at a time might be less stressful!
The idea to start a blog/business started back in 2014 when the concept was called The Curious Character. I noted down every idea I had, always intending to do something about it, but needing to continue full time work instead. It wasn’t until a dramatic life change in 2019 and subsequent awful career move, that I finally settled on a business name, registered it, planned my website and had it created. And boom, Quirky Characters was born in the third week of March 2020.
My timing could not have been less impeccable. Just as the website went live, COVID-19 lockdowns began. I watched all my business plans go down the drain when I wasn’t able to leave the house. So, I set about doing the only thing I could control; my writing.
My first ‘Sunday Storytelling’ blog piece was released on 28 March 2020, just a few days after the lockdown started and exactly a year after I had quit an awful job that changed the trajectory of my life.
During 2020 I published 25 blogs, finally completing the stories of characters I had been researching for years. The first one was the hardest. Imposter syndrome took hold and I agonised over every word, editing the piece over and over until I was satisfied it was good enough. It still wasn’t perfect but I had the website now, so I just had to hit publish and do it for me, and not worry what others thought.
As anyone who has done any writing will know, you are continually self-critical but I figured if I didn’t stop editing, nothing would ever be published and the stories would be forever lost to time.
Maybe this sounds like you too? Maybe you’ve collected a plethora of amazing documents or have memorable moments with your lost loved ones stored in your memory bank. You may want to have something that others can read to learn about a special person in your life. Or perhaps you just want to document your own story?
Whilst a blog is a very public way of sharing your stories, it also makes you accountable to just get it done. You can also publish in print, in a variety of ways, and privately if you so wish. It just needs to come out of your own mind and emerge from the stack of files to become a treasured written family heirloom.
So, welcome to my blog! I invite you to read on; pick a title from the Sunday Storytelling catalogue that appeals to you and delve into the fascinating past. I hope it inspires you to take some time out with your lost loved ones and distant ancestors. They are relying on you to remember them.
Julie xxx
