Who is The Story Guide?

I’m Lily, founder, CEO, writer, author, instructor, and personal cheerleader to help you write your memoir. I’m the person most passionate about helping you write your book and empowering your creative self.

I believe that everyone’s life is a story worth telling. I also believe that helping you tell yours in a way that honors and encourages you today will create a legacy that inspires others for generations.

Since childhood, I have sat at the breakfast table and listened to the stories of my extended family and of our history and migration across three continents. First from India to Guyana as indentured workers, then to the United States. Over the last decade, I have been on a path to listening to and preserving these stories, recipes and culture here for my family and the next generation. I was destined to be the family historian and storyteller. I have listened to the stories at the feet of my elders. And I started my career as a Journalist working for a newspaper and radio station. I made a living as a CEO for a technology company and am now helping others explore their creative selves and bring their stories to life. On any given day, you can find me listening to people’s stories everywhere from the playground, to the football stadium, to the local craft distillery or attending or perusing the creative works of others through the Maryland State Arts Council.

Our team at The Story Guide includes two journalists, a graphic designer, technologists, CEO and life coach. We have been helping people tell their stories for more than 27 years as reporters in both radio and television, as mothers and grandmothers. We have been privileged to hear and share many important narratives. Our passion is about bringing stories to life and we’ve found the most important narratives to be the truth.

As certified teachers of Guided Autobiography from The Birren Institute for Autobiographical Studies in California,  we can share helpful writing tips with you, provide helpful tools for you to use as you organize and tell your life stories, and improve your writing along the way.  With Guided Autobiography (memoir), you will create, in one book, a detailed account of your Life’s most significant passages, for yourself and for those who come after you.

How Can We help you?

The Guided Memoir offers memoir/ or autobiography services to meet you right where you are. From your first story to holding your printed book in your hand, we help take the anxiety and hassle out of writing and publishing. Whether you come to us having never written a word before, or with a partially completed manuscript, we’re ready to guide you every step of the way.

Why do we do what we do?

The mission of Guided Life Story is to honor, encourage, and enrich the lives of individuals and families through writing, telling and preserving their life stories/memoirs. By doing so, we leave a legacy and connect our lives through generations.

We accomplish our mission through Live virtual and in-person writing courses, workshops, and retreats. Our writing sessions include one hour guided flash writing sessions, 6-week guided memoir sessions, Full Day guided workshops and weekend retreats.  Services also include guidance on publishing that can deliver your books for private family libraries and guidance for those who wish to make a profit by selling their books online and locally.

Guided Memoir writing is a powerful way to write and preserve your life stories and simultaneously gain profound personal insight. It provides many benefits for individual growth and I’ve been facilitating memoir-writing workshops focusing on writing to preserve a legacy and writing to .

I’m the author of one full-length memoir and many short personal essays. People sometimes ask me why people write memoirs. What I usually tell them is that there are a multitude of reasons.

The memoirists whose writing I facilitate believe they have a story to tell and felt they were the only ones who could tell it. Others wanted to study or understand certain situations. Additional reasons to write a memoir include preserving a family’s legacy, learning more about one’s ancestors, a search for personal identity, gaining insight into the past, or healing from a traumatic experience.

My inspiration for writing my life story stemmed from my reflection about what had happened historically to my family as immigrants/indentured workers from India, and about the ghosts from my Indo Guyanese/Indo Caribbean past—particularly regarding my mother’s family’s loss of hard earned “wealth”, my late paternal grandmother’s alcoholism, and the secrets kept throughout my life. The fact that my great grandmother emigrated pregnant without a husband, subsequently had two children by two other fathers were secrets to never speak of. My cousin Gaiutra Bahadur wrote her own part memoir, part history book, Coolie Woman about our shared great-grandmother. Although my mother and aunts wanted her to share my great-grandmother’s story with the world, they did not want to speak of the continuing impact on her descendants. My current memoir is a way to gain insight into the past and my personal identity.

Writer Bahadur says in The Writer Magazine that her inspiration for writing Coolie Woman, stemmed from her immigration as a child and it was a way to try to make sense of that process of change. It was a way she brought order to the chaos of immigration. “To write it down. It has been my instinct from the beginning. You can call it a missionary impulse if you like.”

Writer André Aciman believes that people write memoirs because they want a second chance to create another version of their lives.

When you write a memoir, you are writing your version of what you think happened from your own perspective. Someone else might have another version, and years and years later your perception of an incident might eventually change.

Join us and begin your guided writing journey now.

Just today I was talking to members of The Birren Center for Autobiographical Studies teaching group,  during a call to discuss helping homebound active seniors and others connect and find community through this crisis. Shortly after, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was addressing New Yorkers and the nation on how to make use of the time and be supported. He suggested at 41:51 during his speech that writing your life story is a good thing to do while you have the advantage of time.

I have been teaching, writing and sharing my life stories through two hours of LIVE connection for a while now: Our virtual guided memoir/life story writings where anyone like you can write and talk about their journey was invaluable before the crisis and even more during this extraordinary time.

Immersing yourself in books? Movies? Writing? This is the time when writing and sharing our stories can lift us up from the struggles and anxieties. It’s also a special time to join in community where we find inspiration and meet and join hands and hearts.

Through Guided Memoirs, we have been offering programs about writing to heal, and inner listening and supporting you in your quest to have a voice, to draw upon your wisdom and persistence to write your stories.

We want to offer connection and inspiration during this challenging time, so we’re inviting you to join us for a Free guided 1 hour flash writing class or a free 4 Week Guided Memoir Workshop based on Guided Autobiography.

Visit this link to sign up and to learn more here.

“I believe that the memoir is the novel of the 21st century; it’s an amazing form that we haven’t even begun to tap” said Susan Cheever.

Memoirs are not just for celebrities, they are for everyday people too. Sure Michelle Obama’s Becoming is inspiring and Dani Shapiro’s Inheritance reminds us that we have roots and a legacy that is more than our DNA. We can suddenly become Jewish or otherwise.

We all have untold stories and life lessons to share. Memoirs serve as inspiration to family members who will want to have copies. Our friends will learn about how and where we grew up. New generations will want to know their family roots. Adding up one’s life is a great experience.

Every life is unique, and there has never been another you. Sharing your story reminds you of many things in your life. Your life story includes the things you have lived through. Looking back at your life leads to good feelings about moving ahead.

There has never been another person like you. Many of us want to share our life stories but it can seem too burdensome. So we decide that perhaps talking about our life is enough. Now that we have unprecedented time on our hands, there is not a better time to do it.

Sharing your story with other people in a small group workshop leads to new friendships. Sign up now for a class in Guided Memoir. Sharpen your memories, get them organized, enjoy sharing your life story, and have your memoir to give to family and friends.