Write a Memoir While on Vacation?

Picture it now: you, lounging on a striped deck chair, your new straw hat shielding you from the sun glinting off the soft ocean waves. You’ve left your cell phone in the cabin and your worries on the shore. In one hand you hold a pina colada (okay, make mine virgin) and in the other hand—a digital voice recorder?

Vacation travel isn’t what it used to be. Many people in this day and age, especially seniors, want to do more than just snooze, booze, and cruise on their weeks off—they want their precious leisure days to mean something. Educational and philanthropic travel experiences have taken off in a big way in recent years, and those who choose to participate in meaningful travel come home with more than just a sunburn and an empty wallet. Doing something that feels meaningful to you, whether for yourself or for others, can recharge your batteries far more effectively than a “float and bloat” on a beach somewhere. After all, my grandmother (or maybe it was Mary Poppins?) used to say, “A change is as good as a rest.”

This year, maybe it’s time to do something different.

If you are reading this blog, chances are that you already understand to some degree the importance of recording your life experiences and values for posterity. In our years of experience in teaching people how to do just that, we often suggest that you take on such a project in small doses, chewing that proverbial elephant one bite at a time. Generally it is good, sound advice (or we wouldn’t be giving it!)

On the other hand.

There is also merit to the idea of throwing yourself at a project with gusto, casting aside all other concerns, and not letting up until it’s done. My husband Tom, who speaks Navajo, likes to use a word that has no exact English equivalent: iimááł, which roughly means “to bolt.” It’s how coyotes eat—gulping their food in one large bite.

If you have thought about preserving your history for years, maybe made some small progress in fits and starts, but it’s not really going anywhere—you might want to reconsider your methods. Sometimes, our friends and clients are forced by external realities—terminal illness, approaching dementia, or the funeral of a loved one—into completing a history quickly. How much better would it be to have a pleasant, self-imposed external deadline as your guide?

Which brings me back to the coyote idea. Sometimes giving a project a short, concentrated, uninterrupted burst of time and energy can be much more effective than stringing it out indefinitely, especially if you are the type that always has too many things going on in your life.

A vacation could be the ideal time to tackle a personal history or other writing project. You are (ideally) away from the minutia and interruptions of your regular life; a change of scenery can refresh your brain and get your creative juices flowing. And having a finite time in which to meet your goals can sharpen and focus your efforts. You can do it yourself with a list of memory-jogging questions and a notebook or digital voice recorder,  Or you might want to consider a guided life history workshop, with help from an expert. (Marketing alert—we offer a variety of personal history workshops here.) You can even purchase a vacation package that includes a finished book and video. Either way, whether  you go it alone or get help from a professional, make your vacation mean something—to yourself, and to your posterity. And have fun while you’re at it!

If you are in Salt Lake City, stop by the 2012 Travel Expo in Sandy this weekend and see us! We are in Booth #503.

Helping Your Parents Tell Their Life Stories

OnMy parents, looking uncharacteristically serious on their wedding day.e Thanksgiving, a few years after my mother died, my father regaled us at the dinner table with the hilarious and slightly unbelievable story of how he and my mother got married, complete with sweeping gesticulations, sound effects, and dance moves. I didn’t carry around a recorder at all times back then, as I do now, and I’m hating myself for that. Because no matter how many times I have begged him since to write it down for me, he’s just been too busy. (Or maybe he just needs an audience again to really get it right.)

Pictures and Stories Gift Certificates – Give the gift of story

Lessons learned:

1. Carry a digital voice recorder everywhere you go, so if the conditions are right for storytelling, you are prepared. (We have pocket-sized Olympus digital voice recorders that record professional-quality sound; they run about $300. But you can get a decent one for as little as $30. Or, you can use your iPhone.)
2. Don’t wait for your parents to write something down, because you may never get it.
3. Get your parents to tell their stories now, while they can still remember them.
4. Come up with a plan.  We can’t stress enough the importance of this one. Even though you now have your ever-ready recorder with you at all times, if you wait for spontaneous storytelling, it might not happen--or worse, you may get the same story several times!  Before visiting with your relatives, write down some questions you have for them. Make an appointment with them, go to the quietest place in the house, and ask them your questions. You can do this several times, and before you know it, you will have some  building blocks for a great family history.
5. Distribute the results to your siblings and other family members. Sharing is not only nice, but having more copies of your family’s audio recordings or books or videos spread around means that they are less likely to disappear forever.
6. Consider hiring a professional. If the thought of trying to come up with questions, schedule interviews, gather photos, write, transcribe and edit your parents’ stories and then put them into a usable form that can be printed/mastered/duped and distributed to your family overwhelms you, you’re probably pretty smart. Because it is overwhelming. A professional personal historian can help you come up with a plan and guide you in following through to its completion, whether you just need a little guidance or a masterpiece.

(Marketing alert: you could of course hire Pictures and Stories, because that’s what we do—help people create great personal and family histories in books and video. But even if you don’t hire us, ask yourself which parts of the process are most difficult for you (writing? scanning photos? printing a book?) and get help with those bits. You will save yourself a lot of grief.

See our Personal History Products here.

Here is one of our clients, Allison Dayton, talking about why her parents' stories are important to her:

Pictures and Stories in the News

It was so fun to see this in the Salt Lake Tribune. Margarete (Maggie) Hicken, at 104, has a sharper memory than most of our middle-aged friends! She is a delightful lady with a positive attitude, and it was an honor for us to work with her on her book. "I May Be Old...Someday" was such a hit with her friends and family (and apparently, Governor Herbert) that it's now in a second printing. "It's not so easy to be famous," she says with a wink. You can see some pages from the book on our "Samples" page.

Margarete Hicken, who was born in Pforzheim, Germany in 1906, looks over her book "I May be Old Some Day" with Utah Gov. Herbert at the 25th Annual Centenarians Day celebration. Margarete wrote the book with the help of Pictures and Stories, who edited and designed the book. Photo Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune