Your family is unique in all the world, but how do you best tell its story? Whether you’re starting with boxes (or electronic folders) of photos, diaries, news clippings, recipes, and other mementos or whether memories themselves are your main material, documenting a family history can be daunting. But it can be done well and meaningfully and shared with the people you love for decades to come.
Mathina Calliope, a writer, editor, teacher, and writing coach, shares the tools and guidance you need to move from daunted through motivated and on to accomplished.
February 3 Nostalgia and Brainstorming
What are your family’s defining characteristics? What stories get told and retold? What are your traditions, your unique turns of phrase? Brainstorm on several topics to help determine your focus and select the stories and mementos that will best shape and enhance it.
February 10 Genre and Structure
How will you assemble and present your story? A photo album with captions? Something heavy on text and light on images? An electronic portfolio? A mixed-media piece of art? Discuss the pros and cons of various possibilities to select the best format given your creative impulse and strengths, source material, timeline, and how you’ll share your story.
February 24 Nuts and Bolts
Process, process, process. Documenting your family’s past is no small feat, no matter how you plan to present it. Map out steps to take, identify common obstacles and strategies to surmount them, and consider examples from other family storytellers.
March 3 Impact
Depending on your story’s emotional impact, what happens while you work on and when you finish your project might be unexpected. How will you react to unearthing and examining material that others might prefer to stay secret? How might your family react to reading it? Learn to navigate the tricky terrain of these sometimes-difficult feelings.
4 sessions (no class Feb. 17)
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