Retiree editor uses surefire way to record father’s life story
First published June 14, 2018: This article has been updated and improved.
Beginning a life-story project is often about timing.
Certainly this was the case for former editor Jan and her father when they sat down to compile his autobiography in Brisbane, Queensland.
Indeed both were retired and considered the idea unbeknown to each other!
“I had been thinking about some sort of record of his life story for a while but hadn’t got any further than thinking about it,” Jan said.
“Once dad retired it seemed the time was right.
“While he now has spare time he seems to be really enjoying being retired but he enjoyed his life-story project and put a lot of effort into it.”
Jan started the life story with help from the Your Family Stories System and today gives us the lowdown on how the project unfolded plus what she found most rewarding …
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Dad makes enthusiastic start
My stepmother was the first person I ran the idea past.
I thought she would be keen on it, however, I didn’t know one of her sons had recently done her bio.
Indeed she was very positive and it turned out so was my dad.
He got back to me immediately to say he’d like to go ahead.
Meanwhile my brothers kept asking me when it would be finished so they could read it.
And my stepbrothers were also keen to read it as they are close to Dad.
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Stories start to flow
Firstly I put together some questions for the first session.
I thought it would be a good idea to start at the beginning so there were topics like when and where dad’s parents were born, where he lived as a child and where he went to school.
Next I suggested we do the interviews at his home so it was easy for him. At 85 it was a little difficult for him to get around.
So we made a cuppa and had a chat, then got started.
Certainly he was happy to talk and had been searching for photos and documents.
I did three initial sessions, each about three hours – he’s a hard taskmaster.
Most importantly, I recorded the sessions and later transcribed them.
At first I also took notes but after the first session I relied on the recording and only made notes for things I wanted to follow up or other comments to help later.
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Pulling it all together
Transcribing is a time-consuming process.
Indeed it takes longer to transcribe than to actually have the conversation but it’s the best way to be accurate. (Ed’s note: You might like to try transcribing with free oTranscribe.)
Next I made basic adjustments.
For example, conversations weave around, so I re-pieced them in a logical sequence before I emailed the transcripts to dad to look at.
Because the sessions were long I transcribed in sections.
Initially I used my father’s natural speech, as per the transcripts, with questions by me.
However, he didn’t like this, although I told him it let his personality show through.
In time dad managed to change all the natural speech into correct English, so I continued with that.
Most importantly I was happy to go along with what he wanted because it was his story.
Certainly there were many revisions as he remembered more things he wanted to talk about and forgot some things we had talked about.
Therefore whole new sections appeared and many emails arrived in my inbox!
Indeed often he wrote long sections and emailed them with instructions as to where they went in the larger story.
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Looking back on the project
The hardest part was probably the constant revisions.
However I reminded myself it was dad’s story and neither of us were in a hurry.
Also there were things I would have liked him to talk about and I emailed these questions, some a couple of times, but they were either ignored or forgotten.
So I decided he would talk about what he wanted to talk about, and left it at that.
But the most rewarding part was the pleasure he gained from telling his story.
Of course my stepmother was also very involved and it became a lovely project we were all working on together.
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Final say: Dad and his life story
Jan is now excited to be able to read, hold, and share her father’s life-story with her family.
“My favourite part of the process was hearing stories from his childhood that I had never heard before, seeing pictures of Dad at school and photos of his parents,” she said.
Indeed Jan encouraged others to interview loved ones and capture their memories for future generations.
“My top tip would be, if you can, don’t hurry,” she said.
“Every bit of information you unearth leads to another bit and another bit.
“Let it unfold. Put all the bits together – whether you choose a chronological order or another way of grouping parts of the story – and take as much time as you can.”
Happy writing!
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This article first appeared on the website Forever Young Autobiographies.com.