Up until my thirties, I struggled to reconcile my identity as a writer with the fact that I had never actually written anything.

My wife settled that quietly one evening: "That's funny — I never see you write." Hard to argue with someone who lives with you.

What finally got me moving wasn't inspiration. It was my daughter. When she was born, it hit me that if something happened to me, she'd have nothing of mine to hold onto. That fear did what decades of wanting to write never could.

I spent the next several years figuring out the system — performing at storytelling festivals, writing a newspaper column, building newsletters, and developing the structure that finally let me write consistently while working full-time and raising two kids.

The tools and frameworks in The Story Frame newsletter are the result of that journey. I share them because your family deserves a real record of who you are — written in your voice, before life moves any faster.

You can do this. You can probably do it better than you think.