Nica Waters is a teacher and sailor, and started writing memoir through a class. She uses writing to work her way through issues that she is dealing with, but she used her memoir writing class to compile stories about her grandmother. Motivated to share these stories with her grandmother while she was still alive, Nica compiled and polished a trove of stories that were like love letters to her grandmother.

Nica still writes, mostly about sailing these days and has a blog at https://www.fit2sail.com, and listen to her podcast about sailing, The Boat Galley.

Keith Larson is a freelance cartoonist/illustrator. He started in school, and has been drawing ever since. Inspired by cartoons, he was also encouraged by his teacher to learn to draw.

Being a cartoonist means Keith needed to be aware of the issues that readers were dealing with. Being attuned to people’s emotions at a different level of consciousness is important in pointing out humor. Keith was used to cartooning but he used his illustration skills on the book Life in Pacific Grove. His involvement with the project was unplanned, but he illustrated stories with special black and white ink with gradations of grey, and designed a colorful front and back cover. His family has been in Pacific Grove for more than 100 years, so he was happy to be involved for his family.

He enjoyed being out and about in Pacific Grove sketching from the physical environment because of the interactions with people who would stop and talk to him. Keith encourages upcoming artists to reach out for work if they are interested in illustrating which is a great way to give depth to life stories.

Visit LifeStoryProfessionals.com to find out more

As a writing coach, Patricia Charpentier has experience in helping people write their memoirs. She talks about goal-setting and timelines and historical timelines as a way to getting people to look at the span of their entire life to choose writing about a portion of it. Then she talks about keeping people motivated, and setting goals. The middle of the writing experience is like walking through mud, and then there is the anxiety in finishing. With humor, Patricia shares anecdotes about how she helps her writing clients reach that goal of printing a book, despite 95% of them never having written before. Through the book, family know get to know them in a way that is different to how they know them now, and get to experience a special opportunity of talking about their life.  

Patricia is out of Orlando, and her website www.writingyourlife.org.

Video courses are available at www.finishmybookin90 days.com

And editing can be seen at website www.Editlikeanexpert.com

Visit Storyical at http://lifestoryprofessionals.com

Part 3 is about what it was like for Kjathy Watson to be a participant in a Guided Autobiography class. She not only loved the class, and found the experience to be wonderful, but she has signed up for the 2nd and 3rd classes in the series with Heidi Thorsen, the instructor interviewed last week in Episode 21.

Kathy became interested in Guided Autobiography because there is no one to tell her side of the family story, and wants her son and grandchildren to know how their family came to be where they are and the broader family history. She was attracted t the structure that the course offered and the deadlines of weekly meetings. Although it was intimidating initially, Kathy found that her writing style of being more analytical changed, and wanted to not just write her life stories but wanted to help the reader experience what happened.

Listen to Kathy’s advice for people starting out on their journey to record their life story. Kathy says that sharing is important for others to understand the history of your family and understand why people are the way they are.

The book of stories that inspires Kathy is by Mathilda Butler called Tales of our lives, Fork in the Road 

Episode 21 explores the hidden magic of storycatching with Guided Autobiographer instructor Heidi Thorsen. What happens when you don’t have a computer, have never written before, and join Heidi’s class on guided autobiography? A lot of joy, reflection and acknowledgment from strangers that will keep you excited to write and share stories for 2 months. And Heidi has advice for those who haven’t started writing yet but find it all a bit daunting – start small.

Connect with us at http://lifestoryprofessionals.com

Connect with Heidi Thorsen at www.tyememoirs.com

Dr Cheryl Svensson introduces us to Guided Autobiography (GAB) a process of writing your life story that is built on life themes and group interaction. GAB was created by Dr James Birren (now deceased). Its not a how to write class. Nobody gives you critical reviews, or suggestions because your story and your voice is what you need to get out.

GAB is a journey which is a surprising one for those who take it. Its more memoir because its snippets of life, and its not Autobiographical because people don’t write about the beginning of their life all the way to where they are now. The stories in GAB almost always surprise the students themselves.

As Jim Birren used to say “There has never been another you” so everyone has a story to tell. Despite there being people who came to the class thinking they don’t have a story to tell. Your story is your own unique voice and you use your own unique words.

Cheryl says that Personal Historians get the stories from the outside in, but is all about getting the stories from the inside out.

Cheryl now focuses on teaching other people to do GAB, taking GAB out to the world. She can be reached through the website http://guidedautobiography.com which also has a feature where you can search for GAB instructors by geographical location.

Her book co-written with Richard Campbell is available on Amazon “Writing Your Legacy: The Step-By-Step Guide To Crafting Your Life Story”.

Please visit us at http://storyical.com to read more about this interview and about Personal History.

Peta Roberts talks about digitizing photos, and tips on how to get the best image possible. The topics covered include 1. Analyzing photos 2. Organizing photos – assembling and a naming convention 3. Scanning – file types and quality and metadata 4. Storing digitized photos and the 3-2-1- rule.

Go to http://lifestoryprofessionals.com to download a copy of the National Archives and Records Administration sheet on how to “Analyze a Photograph”.

Today we talk digitizing and organizing images, and why and how to share our special photos. Special guest Cathi Nelson is the founder and CEO of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers which has 1,000 members worldwide to help people with their photo collections. And their home movies. And how to share them for those special anniversaries, wedding, births and any occasions. As a lifelong scrapbooker, Cathi found herself helping friends organize their photo collections who were willing to pay her. We talk about how technology has helped us take more photos, but often contributes to our growing problem of organizing and sharing.

Cathi’s first book is available on Amazon entitled “Photo Organizing Made Easy: Going from Overwhelmed to Overjoyed” and was published December 2017. Come visit us at http://storyical.com to find out more.

Find Cathi’s websites here

http://cathinelson.com

www.appo.org

www.saveyourphotos.org

Libby Atwater started out as a journalist, although her childhood was full of memories listening to family stories. She started out as a Personal Historian when asked to record a friend’s life story. Her clients were people who were from all walks of life, and achieved different things through their careers, but all who wanted to tell their stories. For those who did not have a budget to print a book, she recorded audio histories.

Libby encourages people to talk about their life stories through questions, photo albums, pivotal points in their life, favorite music, most exciting experience, lessons learned and memory joggers such as their favorite car, their career, favorite pet or sport, children, home and family.

Libby uses Print on Demand (POD) to self publish. She recognizing the importance of ensuring a book is readable so Libby hires graphic designers and book layout experts. For writing her own memoirs "What Lies Within", Libby talks about her own challenges, including dealing with her feelings.

Visit Libby at www.LibbyAtwaterBooks.com

Come visit us at www.Storyical.com to find out more about how you can get started writing your memoirs.

Marcia is in her nineties and honestly dishes on what it was like to tell her life story and have it set out in a book. A big beautiful book. She spent two days with Ellie Kahn Personal Historian, who was featured in Episode 15. Ellie videotaped her, then had the audio transcribed, and then ingeniously put together Marcia’s book about her life in a way that Marcia never thought possible for a stranger to do. Listen to Marcia give advice about what to expect and how the memoir process worked for her. Visit us at storyical.com to learn more about life story.