More on Story Prompts

Posted on October 16, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Since I’ve been working on my story prompts project (I really am making progress and I should have something to share soon.) I’ve noticed story prompts in more places. In Your Story Coach‘s October newsletter besides listing her own “story sparks” Tami also shared a Tumblr site that shares daily writing prompts. Both of these resources are intriguing and I want to use them in future projects.

What have you used to help get your memory going?

Story Prompts: update (tellingfamilytales.com)

The Struggle is Part of the Story

Posted on October 9, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

by Whitney of blog.whitneyenglish.com

I came across this quote recently and it resonated with me on so many level. I love it for applying in my personal life and in telling the stories of my life and my family and my ancestors. Life isn’t meant to be smooth sailing, even thought we think it is. We learn and grow so much because of the struggles, be they small or monumental. I also love this quote on a visual level too. Great job all around Whitney!

In Whitney’s original post she listed six main points that help her keep a good attitude in the struggle:

you’ve got to find gratitude
stop searching for happiness
have faith, take heart, choose courage
let it go
don’t be afraid to hope for better
hope does not disappoint

You can find her entire post here.

Story Prompts: update

Posted on October 8, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Prototype for My Story Prompt Jar

I got some more work done on my story prompts jar idea today. I’m really excited how it is coming together. I used the great questions from StoryCorps.org. Instead of printing the questions on card stock I got some chipboard. My new printer can handle really thick paper so I thought I’d give it a try. I was inspired by tongue depressors and the idea that with the colored tips you can keep track of which questions you have done by flipping them over.

I still have some work to do to clean things up and tweak the pages some. I also what to design a simple journal to go with the jar as a gift. When I get the files finished I’ll share them here.

Story Prompts

Posted on September 24, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

I’ve been thinking for the last few weeks about coming up with a gift idea for weddings and showers etc. Something that would be meaningful and yet not take tons of time or tons of money to put together. My best idea to date is story prompt jars. I haven’t gotten very far on the idea but I thought I’d share what I have so far.

Using the great questions from StoryCorps.org, I’m working on laying them out in sheets that I’ll cut into little cards. Hopefully I can add some color and fun to the sheets. Then I’ll put the cards in to jars. Maybe just a simple canning jar or maybe something a bit fancier. I’ll have to experiment and see what works.

I think any family could benefit from asking each other questions at the dinner table or a more formal gathering. This maybe what I give for Christmas this year. I’ll keep you posted with photos etc. as I progress. I’m thinking I will share a pdf of the finished question cards so you could make your own story prompt jars.

Have you used story prompts? I’d love to hear your experiences.

My Grandfather’s Story: in parts

Posted on September 18, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

One of my regular readers, currentdescendent, is doing a great project that I wanted to share with you, a multi-part story about her grandfather. Luanne has been blessed with an interview with her grandfather that was done about five years before he passed away. She has taken this interview and broken it up into short parts and then expanded on the interview with stories, photos and memories of her own. Great job Luanne!

The Family Kalamazoo

In 1994, five and a half years before he passed away, my grandfather, Adrian Zuidweg, was interviewed by Connie Jo Bowman, the head of residents at Crossroads Village, a retirement community in Portage, Michigan. Connie was taking a course about the elderly at Western Michigan University and chose Grandpa as her subject. I’ve written about Grandpa in a post about our left-handed connection.

The entire interview is eight typed pages, so I’ll divide it among a few blog posts.

Connie begins by introducing my grandfather, Adrian Zuidweg. To read the excerpts of Connie’s report, you can click them for a better view (I hope):

Connie identifies my grandfather here as a “tall, gentle dutchman with a big friendly voice.” That would probably be how Grandpa thought of himself. He identified strongly with his Dutch heritage. He had a lot of jokes, but one of his favorites was to say, “If…

View original post 318 more words

StoryCorps: Listen

Posted on September 11, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Here is StoryCorps‘ purpose in their own words:

Our mission is to provide people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives.

Since 2003 they have recorded more than 45,000 stories. That is a lot of stories! Wow. Here is one that seems particularly appropriate today.

“He’s the reason I’m here. ”

Constance Labetti remembers her boss, Ron Fazio, who died in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001.

http://storycorps.org/listen/.

StoryCorps: How-To Video

Posted on September 10, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

StoryCorps sponsors a national day of listening each year. This year’s day is November 29th. They have put together a how-to video for a successful recording session. Here are the key points from the video.