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One of the more difficult things to do in life is to write a eulogy. Examples of eulogies may help a little. Basically what you have to do is speak before a crowd about the deceased. Sound terrifying? Especially since your emotions are stopping you from thinking straight. Now you are expected to get yourself together enough to embark on writing the eulogy. You might find yourself thinking examples of eulogies would help.

Now first things first – breath deep, stop panicking, and by following simple step-by-step guidelines, you can absolutely do this. You can do a good job for the person you have just lost. Let’s begin.

Such responsibility doesn’t come easy. It probably feels like the most difficult job in the world at the moment – and one you don’t want to do. But since the job is yours, and there will be others listening intently to every word you say, you don’t just want to rewrite something you have found from examples of eulogies – you want it to be personal.

The time required to prepare a eulogy and deliver it will vary from one person to the next. However as a general rule, it might take you hours and hours to research if necessary, depending on how well you knew the person, and how much more information you want or need from others. You may need to seek information from others about the following:

1. Stories from other family members

2. Friend’s memories

3. Stories from co-workers or employers

4. Memories and stories from neighbours

5. Memories and stories from other associates

Don’t be surprised if this part of the process provides some comfort – finding out things about your loved one that until now you had no idea about.

Do not give up now – just grabbing whatever you can find in examples of eulogies is not respectful to the deceased, nor is it fair to the others who will rely on you to say what they can’t. By following these easy steps, you can write a beautiful eulogy.

Aquiring such skill is not as hard as you think. It’s amazing what we can do when we put our heart and soul into it. So lets see how easy it can be once you actually get started.

After all your research is complete, either sit down at your computer, or get a pen and paper and lets get started on the next step. You need to note in point form only what you are planning to talk about. Your points should be very simple eg a town or suburb name, persons name, teenaged years, life accomplishment, social things, other memories and so on. Remember only a couple of word point form for now.

Next look back at your list, and place each point in order as you think they should go eg childhood events would come before adult accomplishments etc. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just a rough order. Remember at this point you are doing great to get this far. You are doing the right thing by doing this properly, rather than just copying examples of eulogies from other people.

Nearly there – keep going. The next thing to do is to expand on the points you have made. It does not have to be spectacular writing, just in your own words, and just what you need to say to explain the point or the story. You should read the sentences out loud as you write – pretend your cupboard is a person, and read it out loud to your cupboard. If it just didn’t sound right, say it again the right sounding way, and rewrite your sentence.

After you have done this with a couple of sentences you will get the hang of it, and it will get easier with each sentence. After writing all the sentences, go back, and ignoring the fact that you probably haven’t written an introduction or conclusion yet, read it through out loud again. You may find you want to make some further changes as you go. This will come quite naturally as you read along.

An introduction can be a tough one, but often a good way to start is by using the person’s name, and a short comment, statement, or very short story about him/her. Maybe even mention what you will miss the most about the person.

The final thing to add is the conclusion. You could include in this a blessing, a prayer, a nice poem, and other final thoughts you’d like share.

Then all that is left is to read the entire thing back to make sure it sounds like you want it to. A good idea is to either read it to someone else and ask them to help you with anything that doesn’t sound right, or get a tape recorder and record you reading it, and play it back. Then you can listen for yourself. Congratulations on making it to this point – you know you have done a good job no matter what you have written, simply because it is personal and came from you, and you didn’t take the easy way out and copy examples of eulogies.

This is a once in a lifetime thing, so a couple of final comments to keep in mind. A personalized message means so much more than whether or not you got the grammer right. You are expressing what is in your heart – say what you know to be important and express any emotion you need to. That is why you’re there – to pay respect for the person’s life.

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