Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. What is a personal history?
A personal history is a product that results from interviewing a person about his/her life. The history of a family, business, organization, or institution is another type of personal history product. The final product may be produced as a CD, DVD, or book.
2. Who is a personal historian?
A personal historian is a professional who elicits, records, and preserves an individual’s or family’s life story or the history of a business, institution, or organization.
3. What is an ethical will?
An ethical will is a way to convey one’s moral assets to descendents. Unlike a last will and testament, an ethical will is a legacy statement that allows one to clarify the meaning in life for family, friends, and the community. It may stand alone or serve as an introduction or conclusion to a personal history.
4. Describe the process of creating a personal history.
Choose Your Words uses a four-step process to create personal histories: research, transcription, product creation, and production.
a. Research
- An initial interview to determine the purpose, scope, and product
- Review of subject’s materials to develop interview questions
- Interviews with subject(s)
b. Transcription: the interviews are sent to a professional transcription service for verbatim transcripts of the interview sessions.
c. Product Creation
- Writing
- Editing
- Revising
- Photograph and document selection and scanning
- Graphic design
d. Production
5. How much does a personal history cost?
Prices vary, depending upon the scope of the project and the finished product. A book-length history covering a person’s entire life that includes photographs, letters, and other mementoes will cost a great deal more than a six-hour oral history.
As a personal history service, Choose Your Words will work with you to find the right product to suit your needs and budget. You might want to start with an oral history and develop it into a written project at a later date.
6. What format does Choose Your Words use for its books?
Choose Your Words offers a number of formats for its books, including a question-and-answer format, a narrative format that includes photos and other documents, and a brief narrative with more photos than text. Choose Your Words specializes in original narratives, using life themes to create book titles and write original text that reveals a subject’s life stories.
7. What options are available to those who can’t afford to engage the services of a personal historian?
Life Story Writing Workshops offer individuals the opportunity to create their own personal histories. Choose Your Words’ founder, Libby Atwater, is an Affiliate Teacher in the Soleil Lifestory Network, www.turningmemories.com, and she offers Life Story Writing Classes based on the book “Turning Memories into Memoirs” by Denis Ledoux, in her geographic area. Other personal historians offer these services throughout the United States and Canada. To find a Life Story Writing Teacher in your area, contact the the Soleil Lifestory Network or the Association of Personal Historians at www.personalhistorians.org.
8. How do I begin a project?
Your first step is to contact Choose Your Words. After an initial e-mail or telephone conversation, a meeting is arranged to discuss your project in detail. Choose Your Words’ professionals will ask questions to determine which product or service best suits your needs. After this discussion, Choose Your Words will provide a bid for your review.
9. Once I decide to work with Choose Your Words, how does the work proceed?
Choose Your Words will send a letter detailing the project along with a copy of its standard service agreement. Work begins after a client signs and returns a copy of the standard service agreement along with a deposit.
10. How long does a personal history project take?
The length of time it takes to complete a project varies, based upon the product and scope. Time frames can range from three months to more than one year, depending upon the subject’s availability for interviews, the amount of time taken for manuscript review, requested additions or changes, and the intricacy of the production process. Choose Your Words will work with you to develop a schedule for your project.
11. What type of service can I expect from Choose Your Words?
Choose Your Words will devote its resources, knowledge, skills, and experience to your personal history project. Its professionals pride themselves on being organized, flexible, responsive, and professional. Choose Your Words’ goal is to produce a personal history that will exceed your expectations.
12. What is the Association of Personal Historians, Inc. (APH)?
The APH is a nonprofit, professional organization whose mission is to advance the profession of helping people preserve their life stories and memories. APH members possess the knowledge, skills, and experience to research and interview subjects, organize and edit their subjects’ materials, and produce a variety of finished products that become treasured legacies. Members’ products and services vary based on their education, training, and work experience.
Choose Your Words’ founder, Libby Atwater, served as APH newsletter editor and Director of Print Communications in addition to writing some of the organization’s website content and press releases. She currently serves as secretary of this international organization with nearly 600 members.
13. What is The Legacy Center?
The Legacy Center is a nonprofit organization that encourages and guides individuals and organizations to identify and communicate their core values and meaningful experiences in legacy statements known as ethical wills. The Legacy Center, www.thelegacycenter.net, is a resource composed of professionals in the fields of medicine, gerontology, personal history, psychology, education, journalism, financial planning, and law.
14. What is the American Tribute Center?
The American Tribute Center, www.tributecenter.org, was a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 to help families and individuals create meaningful life story tributes. Its first project was to write and publish personal tribute books for the families of victims of 9/11. Choose Your Words founder, Libby Atwater, was a volunteer editor for this organization, which disbanded due to a funding shortage.
