4 Ways to Write about Your Life
I was home from college for Thanksgiving when I started interviewing my grandmother. I wanted her oral history, and I wanted to transcribe it. She had lost most of her eyesight to macular degeneration and couldn’t write much anymore. So I did it for her. I first had the idea earlier in the semester when I started an internship transcribing oral histories from World War II naval veterans. I spent hours listening to these veterans’ experiences, transcribing and editing their accounts for the university’s records.
My family needed this. My grandpa had already compiled his personal history, but my grandma had lost most of her sight to macular degeneration. I’d grown up with my grandparents in the same town, and they were an active part of my childhood. Every time I came back from school, they seemed to age faster and faster. I wanted those stories, and I didn’t have time to waste.
In my grandparents’ living room, Grandma and I sat on the couch together. Once I pressed record on the cassette recorder, I’d sit back and ask my grandma questions. We started at the beginning, and I let her go from there. We collected around eight hours of audio in one week. Less than six months later, my grandma had a massive stroke and died, and the cassette tapes were still in my apartment bedroom. Though her death wasn’t unexpected given her age, I still grieved over the reality that for the bulk of my life, my grandma wouldn’t be there. I turned to those cassette tapes.
I don’t remember how long it took me to transcribe them, but I transcribed, edited, and compiled her own words into a book that I printed through an online service. (Looking back, the print design leaves much to be desired, but what matters is that we had it.) You may be wondering how you can preserve your memories (or even the memories of loved ones). I have some ideas.
Personal history
I had a strategy call last month with a retired pastor who wondered where to go next in his personal history. He’d spent the past few years writing chapters of his history and distributing them to interested friends, family, and neighbors. If you want to simply preserve your stories, compiling a personal history is a great option. Personal histories are typically chronological and give the facts of remembered experiences. They contain few flourishes and narrative devices, and when it comes to life preservation, personal histories will do the job.
Oral history
Oral histories can go hand in hand with personal histories. These are ideal for people who are vision impaired, or for elderly family members or friends who need some help collecting their stories. If you are vision impaired, recording your life will be invaluable and, like what I did for my grandma, can be transcribed, edited, and printed. With today’s remarkable technology, you can skip the bulky cassette player I had to use and press play on a voice recording app instead.
Blog
Remember back in the aughts when everyone and their dog had a blog? I loved those easy days of the internet. I posted regularly on my own blog for the better part of ten years, recording my in-the-moment thoughts and feelings about being a newlywed, my first pregnancy, and the births of two of my three children. (I pulled down that blog, so it’s not worth trying to find it. I do have the posts still, though, and those are an invaluable record for me.) Search “free blog platforms,” and you’ll have your pick. Blogging, while not as in vogue as it used to be, is a simple, easy, and accessible way to record your life, even if you don’t write for others to read.
Memoir (of course)
Memoir is a unique way to record your life. What makes memoir different from a personal history or blog, however, is focus and narrative. Your memoir, should you choose to write one, will read closer to a novel than to a history book. Writing a memoir requires you to look at your life with new eyes, with a perspective focused on story rather than a straightforward account of events. Many of the skills and techniques novelists use to craft their stories are borrowed by memoir writers. In memoir, you get to hone in on a specific event or theme and dig deep into your life and your heart.
How to know which medium is right for you
You likely will dabble with various record-keeping methods throughout your life. For instance, while I have ten years’ worth of blog posts and am so glad I have them, I’m also collecting my thoughts, insights, and experiences for my own memoir. If memoir is what you’re called to write, you’ll know. You’ll have had a specific experience that needs writing and sharing, or experiences that all line up with a specific theme. Memoir is depth, and the other methods are more breadth. If you want to write a memoir but don’t know what your focus would be, play with it. Try out different experiences, different themes, and see which might lend themselves to memoir. And remember, you can always schedule a free strategy call with me to help you sort through your ideas!
Remember, our lives matter. Our stories matter. We connect through those stories, however you choose to share them.
