Monthly Archives: June 2009

9 Essential Articles on The Art of Interviewing.

Posted on June 30, 2009 | 4 Comments

interview

One of the key aspects of recording someone’s life story is the need to be a good interviewer. That’s why I’ve written a number of articles on the art of interviewing over the past year. Here are nine posts on the subject from the archives.

Nine essential articles on the art of interviewing.

Nine secrets of a good interview.

You don’t have to be Oprah Winfrey to get a good interview.

How to interview someone who is terminally ill.

Do you make these interviewing mistakes?

How to listen with your third ear.

Four action steps to a good life story interview.

How to be an engaged listener.

How to interview a “challenging” subject.

Want to do a better job of listening?

Photo by Ross

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Posted in How to, Interviewing, Life stories, Personal historian, Questions, Resources, Tips

Tagged How to, Interviewing, listening, questions to ask, Tips

The Life Story Quote of The Week.

Posted on June 29, 2009 | Leave a comment

Memoir writing, gathering words onto pieces of paper, helps me shape my life to a manageable size. By discovering plot, arc, theme, and metaphor, I offer my life an organization, a frame, which would be otherwise unseen, unknown. Memoir creates a narrative, a life story. Writing my life is a gift I give to myself. To write is to be constantly reborn. On one page I understand this about myself. On the next page, I understand that.

~ from Sue William Silverman’s Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir (U of Georgia, 2009)

If you’ve been contemplating the writing of your own life story, this observation by Sue Silverman may convince you to start. The effort it takes to craft the work is more than amply rewarded by seeing your life, often for the first time, as a coherent and intricate pattern.

Photo by Colin Campbell

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Posted in Life stories, Memoirs, Quotes, Writing

Tagged benefits, life story, memoir, narrative, Sue William Silverman, Writing

How to Bring Your Digital Photos to Life.

Posted on June 26, 2009 | Leave a comment

photo story 3

I’m constantly on the outlook for innovative ways to record life stories. I recently came across Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows XP. It’s free but you must be running an “activated” version of either: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Media Center Edition, or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. You can download Photo Story 3 here.

I think this is a great program for honoring special events such as wedding anniversaries, graduation or retirement. Here’s a brief summary of what it can do:

Create slideshows using your digital photos. With a single click, you can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures. It’s that easy! Add stunning special effects, soundtracks, and your own voice narration to your photo stories. Then, personalize them with titles and captions. Small file sizes make it easy to send your photo stories in an e-mail. Watch them on your TV, a computer, or a Windows Mobile–based portable device. (source Microsoft)

For a Beginner’s Guide to Photo Story 3 click here.

If you’ve used Microsoft Photo Story 3 for capturing some aspect of a life story, I’d love to hear from you. Tell me how you used it and what you think of the the program.

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Posted in How to, Life stories, Photos, Resources, Tips

Tagged digital slide shows, How to, life story, Microsoft Photo Story 3, Photos, Resources, Tips

9 Editing Tips to Turn Your Transcripts Into Gold.

Posted on June 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

editing

In producing a book on someone’s life story, the work of recording the interviews is just the beginning of the creative process. You’ll need to make transcripts of the interviews and then edit them. Editing transcripts makes the story come alive. By removing the extraneous words and tangled syntax and structuring the transcript into a coherent and interesting narrative, you’ll strike gold. Here are nine tips that will help you with your editing.

Tone and style: Make sure to keep the “voice” of the person you’re editing. Don’t rewrite the interview to the point where it sounds like you!
Repeated words: Watch out for words and phrases that are repeated. Readers will become bored.
Sentence length: Vary the length of sentences. Alternating long with short sentences makes it easier and more natural to read the completed story. As a rule, the shorter the sentence, the more energy it gives the writing. Research shows that twenty-word sentences are fairly clear to most readers. Thirty-word sentences are not.
Adverbs: People tend to use adverbs to give emphasis. The result is the opposite. All words ending in “ly” should be used sparingly.
Commas: People don’t speak with commas in mind so you will have to place them in your edited transcript. Many phrases, compound sentences, and most modifying clauses call for commas. Commas make a sentence comprehensible to the reader.
Eliminate “just” and “so”: Whenever you encounter these words, drop them. They’re not needed.
Vary the first word: Try to make the first word of each paragraph as well as the first word of every sentence different.
Compress and clarify: Think hard about every word you use. Is it necessary? Is there a concise way to say this? Follow the rule of one idea per sentence.
Logical order: The story needs to be written so that the reader can easily follow the narrative. Where does the story begin? What’s in the main body? And how does it end?

I hope these tips are helpful. Do you have any other tips you’d like to suggest?

Photo by stephweiss

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Posted in Editing, How to, Life stories, Personal historian, Tips, Writing

Tagged Editing, How to, life story, life writing, personal histories, Tips, transcripts, Writing

The Life Story Quote of the Week.

Posted on June 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

supper table

It’s not about dinner but the kind of conversations you have with your family and the stories you tell.

Robyn Fivush ~ Professor of Psychology, Emory University

“The family is the first and most enduring group you belong to,” says Barbara Fiese, a psychology professor at Syracuse University. “It provides a sense of belonging for children, adolescents and adults so the individual doesn’t have to feel isolated.”

We help create this bond by sharing our family stories from the past and the present. Research conducted by Dr. Robyn Fivush shows that parents who take the time to tell their children about family events, inside jokes, nicknames and family successes and failures produce adolescents with higher self-esteem and self-confidence.

We owe it to our children not only to make dinner a time for the family to gather but also a time to share the richness of our family stories.

Photo by Kirsten Jennings

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Posted in Ancestors, Life stories, Quotes

Tagged benefits, children, family stories, life story, preserving, quote, wisdom

Want To Do A Better Job of Listening?

Posted on June 19, 2009 | 2 Comments

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

Jiddu Krishnamurti ~ (1895 – 1986) spiritual philosopher

At the heart of a good interview is your ability to be an active listener – to listen , as Krishnamurti notes, to the whole of what someone says, not to just the words. Here are seven things you can do that will help you do a better job of listening.

Acknowledging

Non-verbal – an open relaxed body position, facing the person squarely, eye contact, nodding and appropriate emotional response, i.e. smiling, sad, or curious. Use of silence to give your subject time to think and reflect.

Verbal – “I see.” “Uh, huh.” “Okay.” “Yeah.” “Oh, really.”

Questioning

Use open questions, How? What? Where? When? rather than closed questions that lead to yes or no responses. Example: closed – “Did that affect you?” Open – “How did that affect you?”

Stay away from “Why” questions which can make a person feel defensive.

Avoid an interrogating style and aim for a conversational tone that is calm and gentle.

Ask one question at a time and keep questions short and simple.

Suspending judgment

Refrain from verbal expressions of disapproval. Don’t use words such as “should”, “ought” or “must”.

Avoid non-verbal disapproval. Don’t grimace or shake your head or cast your eyes heavenward.

Don’t give opinions unless asked.

Concentrating

Leave your concerns outside the door and be fully present.

Focus on your subject and be alert to when your mind wanders. Gently bring it back to the “here and now”.

Supporting

Express warmth and caring in a personal and appropriate way.

Don’t interrupt.

Clarifying

When you’re not clear about what your subject said, ask for clarification or paraphrase what they’ve said to be certain you’ve understood the person correctly.

Summarizing

Pulling together feelings, experiences, ideas and facts without adding any new ideas helps provide a sense of movement to the interview. It also demonstrates to your subject your ability to listen attentively to what has been said and as a result builds trust.

Photo by Caleb

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Posted in How to, Interviewing, Life stories, Personal historian, Questions, Tips

Tagged How to, Interviewing, Jiddu Krishnamurti, life story, listening, Questions, Tips

Life Stories News Roundup: Student Filmmakers, African American History and Elvis.

Posted on June 17, 2009 | 4 Comments

news roundup

Something new. From time to time I’ll pull together and post some of the best news stories from the Internet that have a connection to life stories. Let me know if you find this worthwhile. To kick things off, here are three fascinating news items from this week.

Student Filmmakers & the Recession: Telling the “We Story” : “In New York City five students participating in the youth programs at the Tribeca Film Institute have created short films showing how the recession has impacted their parents, friends and sharing how the recession has affected their own lives.”

America I Am: Traveling Exhibit Celebrates African American History: “America I Am is a four year touring museum that features nearly 500 years of American history, and it celebrates the impact that African Americans have had on this country and the world. The exhibit stands at 15,000 square feet and features over 200 artifacts from every period of U.S. history that include media, music, objects, text and narration. What’s also different about this exhibit is that visitors can leave a “video imprint” that has the potential to become one of the largest recorded oral history projects in U.S. history.”

Sharing Memories Of “The King” – Memphis Elvis Presley: “Have a personal Elvis Presley story to tell – and no, we aren’t talking about recent sightings. If you do, the people at Graceland want to hear it. They are collecting stories of people who have had contact with Elvis over the years – and the results will be assembled into an oral history called the Elvis Presley Legacy Project.”

Photo by Will Lion

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Posted in Life stories, News

Tagged African American History, Elvis, News, oral history, storytelling, student filmmakers, Tribeca Film Institute

The Life Story Quote of The Week.

Posted on June 15, 2009 | 2 Comments

We see the world not as it is but as we are.

Anaïs Nin ~ (1903 – 1977) was a Cuban-Spanish-French author.

We all see the world differently because of our unique upbringing, values and beliefs. I’m sometimes asked if we should be aiming for the truth in telling someone’s life story. I believe that as much as possible we should get locations, dates and names down accurately. But how a person recollects the unfolding of events is not for us to question. People in the same family will often interpret things differently. And that’s okay. Our work in recording and preserving a life story is to do justice to the telling of one person’s life as he or she perceives it.

Photo by Bob Prosser

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Posted in Life stories, Quotes, Writing

Tagged Interviewing, life story, life writing, Personal historian, personal histories, quote, Writing

8 Reasons Why Personal Historians Should Use Twitter.

Posted on June 12, 2009 | 8 Comments

A tip of the hat to Diane Haddad at Genealogy Insider for giving me the idea for this article.

These days there’s a lot in the news about Twitter. Some of you might be tempted to dismiss it as a fad and of little value to you as a personal historian. I’ve been using Twitter for awhile and see its potential. Here are eight reasons why I think you should give it a try:

Expand your network. Open up to a whole new group of personal and family historians. Go to the search box on Twitter and enter “family stories” or “life stories”. All kinds of folks will pop up who have some connection to these topics. When you’ve found some people to follow, check out who they’re following. You might want to follow some of these people as well.
Drive traffic to your blog or website. The Google search engines like activity. The more they see, the more your site will rank higher on Google pages. You can feed your blog posts to your Twitter account and attract a whole new group of readers. I’ve noticed a definite increase in visitors to my blog since I started using Twitter.
Get great ideas. Many bloggers (including yours truly) find a wealth of ideas for material to write about in their blog. In addition, there are creative ways that people are preserving family stories – ways that you might never have considered.
Ask questions. Twitter is a good way to get some feedback. You can ask a question of all your followers or direct it to one person using @ and their user name like this: @dancurtis.
Find how-to advice. There are lots of great tips and links to useful online articles.
Be on top of the latest personal history news. Twitter is a huge interconnected web with millions of users picking up news and often “Retweeting” it before a story hits the newsstand or airwaves.
Find bargains. Whether it’s travel, supplies, or equipment there are great deals and giveaways often exclusive to Twitter users. You can go to Twitter search and type in #bargains where you’ll find a goldmine that would warm the heart of any “shopaholic”.
Your own “virtual”water cooler. If you work from home, it can sometimes be lonely. With Twitter you can jump in at any time of the day and follow the conversations or join in yourself. It can break the sense of isolation that can too easily be part of self-employment.

Okay, so have I convinced you to give it a try? If you’re already using Twitter, are there other benefits I forgot to mention? Drop me a comment and let me know.

Flickr upload by Rane

You can follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

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Posted in How to, Life stories, Personal historian, Resources, Tips

Tagged How to, life story, Personal historian, Tips, Twitter, Twitter and personal historians

Celebrate A Special Anniversary with A Photo History.

Posted on June 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

photo montage If you want photo tips, DIY photo projects or news on the latest camera gear, go to Photojojo. It’s a great site. One of their ideas, a photo history, is a novel approach for personal historians to consider. For a special anniversary or birthday, a photo history of the year the event occurred would be a wonderful gift.

Start by going to Google Image Search or Flickr and search for images from the year in question. Also look for events that happened in that year. Find out what cars people were driving. Who were the movie stars? What were the newest kitchen appliances? These will give you leads in your search for other photos.

After you have a good selection of pictures, you can organize them in any number of ways such as a Photo Book, Photo Blog, or Photo Collage.

Here’s a small sample of Flickr photos from 1939, the year my parents were married: