Explore questions designed to ask your parents or grandparents, and consider incorporating questions about specific themes such as Thanksgiving or Christmas. While most oral history questions are designed to be asked of a family member as part of an interview, they can also be used effectively as prompts for your own story sharing. A personal historian who specializes in audio histories could also be hired to break the audio into narrative chapters and edit the whole story into something much more palatable for the next generation to listen to. Other people choose to merely safeguard the voice recordings for the next generation (in which case I would recommend making digital copies of them that can be stored in multiple places for redundancy). Most people who choose voice recording eventually have those recordings transcribed so that they have a written record of their memories in this case, you may choose to simply save the typewritten document as is, or you may opt to add photographs and have it designed into a more professional, archival book. Someone who feels more comfortable speaking than writing and/or who wants to preserve their voice as part of their family archive. Instead of staring at a blank piece of paper or laptop screen indefinitely, take an entirely different approach: Tell your stories out loud.Īll it takes is a handheld recorder or a recording app on your smart phone or tablet, and a willingness to set aside some time to get lost in your memories. Maybe writing feels too much like homework, or the pressure you feel to be “writerly” overwhelms you. The point is, it doesn’t matter how it looks or feels, but that it exists-that it is accessible to the next generation. Alternatively, you may have 100 typewritten pages fastened with a binder clip. Your stories might live in a store-bought journal where you’ve answered just half the questions, but that’s okay: It’s not about how the journal looks, but that your descendants will be able to flip to those pages that are complete and “listen in” on your memories. Writing prompts, autobiographical journals, and reminiscence groups will motivate reluctant writers and provide inspiration for telling your stories. If the fact of telling your story trumps the way your story is told, then there are plenty of resources to help you move forward. Someone who feels a sense of urgency to tell their story and/or who doesn’t put a premium on presentation If you can get past the fear of putting pen to paper and find a way to “just do it,” then this option might be for you.
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