by
Libby J. Atwater
Founder of Choose Your Words

Why I Love Personal History

I’ve always loved hearing people’s stories. Each is unique, but all share common themes and experiences. As a community newspaper reporter, I had the privilege of sharing people’s stories with our readers. Sometimes I wrote about famous people; other times I wrote about friends and neighbors engaged in interesting occupations. Each new tale presented a challenge. I felt a responsibility to tell my subject’s story accurately while capturing the person’s essence. I use this same technique in my work as a personal historian, personalizing life stories to make them entertaining and informative.

Writing the Personal Histories of Individuals and Families

In 1997 a couple asked me to capture the amazing tale of how their parents created a thriving business while in the United States Army during World War II. I felt privileged to weave their story into the book: If You Don’t Try, You Don’t Get, the history of the Lawrence Manche Goodman, Jr. family. In 1998, Willa DeLay, a retired nurse called me and said, “I’ve lived an interesting life, and I’d like you to write my story.” The book Still Serving came from that endeavor. An updated version was produced in 2007 for Willa’s family.

Writing the Histories of Businesses, Organizations, and the World

I broadened my experience as a historian when I profiled businesses for Oxnard: The Illustrated History of a Coastal SugarTown, a business history of the city of Oxnard published by Heritage Media Corporation. I wrote about an esteemed organization, the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, when I composed the viewbooks for the school’s MBA program in the late 1990s. And I was thrilled to write text and activities for a world history textbook published by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, entitled World History © 2003.

From Personal Histories to Life Story Writing

Once I entered the world of personal history, I realized that others had stories that needed capturing, and I searched for a way to help people record their own life stories using the techniques that I gleaned from my work. I began teaching life story writing classes.
Life story writing introduces people to a world centered on their lives and their stories. It gives individuals opportunities to share events, feelings, and milestones with loved ones. Thanks to my collaboration with FamilyLearn’s Memory Press, my students can now turn their stories into bound books, which make priceless gifts.

Editing Others’ Stories

Some of my clients feel compelled to write their own stories. They call on me to edit their work and produce it in book form. Using the editorial skills I’ve acquired over the past thirty-five years, I shape their manuscripts while retaining their unique writing styles. Because of my experience as an editor for nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and the corporate world, I am often asked to edit the work of other personal historians or ghostwrite their manuscripts. My memberships in several writers’ and editorial organizations attest to my professional skills.

My Stories

Through the years I’ve written many stories about my life that I placed in binders, not knowing what to do with them. They’re stories of my childhood, adolescence, and adult years. Until I became a personal historian, I thought they’d remain in these binders. Perhaps my grown children would find them one day and learn more about me.
Sorting through my own stories, I came across a memoir written by my uncle before he passed away more than thirty-five years ago. I had saved it when I closed his estate, knowing how much this story meant to him. It took me all these years to realize how much his story means to me.
By helping people tell their stories, I’ve discovered how to organize my own life stories into books for my family. I’d love to help you write yours.