Personal History Biography: Written, Audio or Video Memoirs?
There’s something about the biography, isn’t there? Our fascination with our own lives is probably quite understandable. But we are also curious about the lives of others. More than curious, biography is one of the publication’s largest categories, consuming endless hours of television and cable streaming. From A&E to the History Channel, we can’t seem to get enough of biographies. And, with the new technological tools available to us, personal and family history biographies are becoming more popular.
Our curiosity about the lives of others is not something that People magazine, cable TV, and the paparazzi have recently invented. Plutarch, writing around 100 years after Christ, wrote over 50 personal history biographies, comparing the lives of famous Greek and Roman identities. of Plutarch Parallel lives it still qualifies as one of the greatest feats of biographical writing of all time; and in addition to being studied in ancient history courses it is still sold by the thousands in general bookstores.
Although Plutarch wrote mainly about the rich and famous of the Ancient World, he knew that the measure of a life was not the size of deeds and achievements, but the moral value of that life. And the value of that life would likely be revealed by the personal details:
“It is not stories I write, but lives; and in the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice, in fact, a little thing like a phrase or a joke often makes a greater reveal of a character than the others. battles where a thousand die”. Plutarch Life of Alexander/Life of Julius Caesar
So congratulations on taking the first step in creating your own personal story biography and joining a tradition that goes back thousands of years. The good news is that the preservation of his life story has come a long way since Plutarch and the scroll. The main options these days include written memories, audio memories, and video memories.
write your memories
You can start handwriting your memoirs right away with a pen and exercise book. It helps chart some themes: a chronological approach (eg, “grandparents,” “parents,” “growing up,” “school,” etc.) is often (but not always) better than a theme-based approach ( eg “family”, “friends”, “challenges”, etc. Ask friends and family for suggestions on topics or stories, children in particular often have favorite stories that they want to preserve for their own children.
Some people start with a printed scrapbook that sets out questions and provides spaces for an answer. The challenge for an aspiring writer is simply to start with something. Because the writing is self-directed, procrastination is the biggest danger in creating a personal story biography in words. Writing can benefit you and is a great way to collect your thoughts on complex topics (as Samuel Johnson said, “I don’t know what I’m thinking until I write it”). But you should also find motivation in the eager eyes of your future readers. You are doing it more for them than for yourself.
Once written, it’s a good idea to have a handwritten memo. (You can hire a typist for as little as $1.00 per page.) And, once written, you can think about publishing your biography. (“Blurb” and “Lulu” are two reputable online book publishers that allow you to upload your material from a computer and print books for as little as $10.00 for a 5″x8″ paperback – with one book at full color cover). Once published, be sure to keep your handwritten copy; your descendants will value it too, trust me.
Advantages of written memories: simple, immediate and timeless; the minimum of equipment, the maximum of information; can be printed
Disadvantages of written memories: delay; handwriting can be difficult to read; it can be designed; not all subjects are sufficiently literate.
Record your life story
Some people audio record their personal history biographies. More often, however, life stories are collected by a relative or friend or even a professional over several sessions using questions thought out well in advance. The old method was to use dictaphones with those mini cassettes, or an old cassette player one of the kids used to play music back in the day. Now you can buy digital voice recorders that do the same job. Often these recordings are transcribed and, with a little editing, can be turned into a written memory (see above).
The appeal of voice recording over a written memoir is that it captures something “live” about the person: their voice, their accent, their laugh. Listening, you can feel as if you are in the same room. Having listened to an audio recording, you get to know the person in a way that a written memory does not allow. The appeal to the subject may be that it is less work to answer questions on audio than it is to spend time writing written memoirs.
But the audio recordings themselves have a number of problems. First, they are opaque. You can’t flip through an audio recording to find the part you like. As a result, they tend to sit in a drawer or old shoebox. Second, the machines that play most of the old audio recordings are disappearing or simply stop working. So for these reasons, audiotapes may not be the best home for your personal history biography.
However, life histories recorded on tape can be edited and converted to CD with very good results. First, the audio on the tape must be digitized (basically, you connect a cable from the recorder’s headphone jack to your computer, then open your audio editing software to record it to your computer’s hard drive). You should then listen to all of the audio, and in your audio editing software you can split it into separate segments. The idea is to form clues for each of the separate stories. Then it brings all those tracks into iTunes and creates a set of audio CDs that can be played in the car or passed around to load onto iPods (and all the other modern gizmos the younger generation is so dazzled with). You can even program iTunes so that no matter what computer you load the audio tracks onto, the track names will appear in the person’s playlist.
Advantages of audio memories: Reveals personality; easier for the subject; can be converted to tracks for iTunes.
Disadvantages of audio memories: Requires some experience getting on a computer for editing; audio is often “locked” on legacy recording devices.
video memories
The most recent trend in personal history biography is video memory. Only in the last few years has technology reached a point where video biography is practical and affordable. And it is the most attractive form of bio of all the options.
Video memories are the closest thing we have to immortality. On video, you can capture stories as well as the subject’s personality. You can bring photographs and music and all kinds of material to show life in all its facets. We’ve all seen “A&E” biographies; well, you can create them for yourself or a loved one.
You will need a video camera and a lavalier microphone and a tripod is a good idea. Also, you need a computer and some simple (and free) video editing software to get everything in order. There are many websites that give advice on how to put all of that together. There is certainly a steeper learning curve for the video biography. You need to know something about video and video editing, which older people can learn, but it tends to come almost second nature to the younger generation! Once mastered, the video memoir is the true home of the personal story biography.
Once made, a memory video can be embedded on a family website or blog or posted on a video hosting service like YouTube and viewed across the country and around the world. Families looking to capture the interest of their youngest members find the video bio to be a more accessible way to expose children to a personal history biography and introduce them to the history of the family, remembering grandparents once they have passed away. deceased.
Video memoirs are one area where professional help can make a big difference if you’re not willing to take on the project yourself.
Advantages of a video memory: Capture the personality; the closest thing to immortality; it can be published on the web and appreciated by family members around the world.
Disadvantages of a video memory: Technically the most challenging of all the biography options; professional help costs money.
Whichever option you choose, know that a personal history biography project will be one of the most important tasks you’ll ever take on. And, depending on which option you choose, you will achieve the closest thing we have to immortality. Many of Plutarch’s lives we only know about from his biographies. With some planning and a little determination, any one of us can be the Plutarch of our families.