Organize a story collecting party to gather information for writing your—or anyone else’s—memoir. A gathering of family members to share stories about family events can help you double-check the information you already have and seek new material to flesh out your stories.

Reunions, weddings, funerals, birthday and holiday celebrations rate well on both of these tasks: scattered relatives, each of whom has a piece of the family history to share, are in one place at one time. Gathering stories at family events is an opportunity not to be missed.

Organize a story collecting party!

Since our lives are usually lived in a community and our lifestories have evolved with other people in tow, take advantage of this symbiosis to write the best memoir you are capable of by accessing a collective memory of your life’s events.

Use the following Action Step to help you organize everything and everyone you need to gather the information to write your memoir.

Action Steps to organize a story collecting party

1.  Invite people who were involved with you during the time covered by your memoir.
2. Ask your friends, your siblings and/or other people who might be able to contribute to your info gathering. A story collecting party is not so much a social gathering as an information-harvesting event. Tell your guests there will be a free exchange of memories, which you will record because you are writing a memoir. In this conversation, you are free, as are your guests, to agree or disagree—but in the end, you are the one who has the task of choosing what details and what interpretation of those details will make their way into your memoir.
3. Be sure you have an audio recording of the event.

Please share this information about organizing a story collecting party with friends and family.

Take advantage of this.

This handy book of memory list questions serves as prompts for everyone at your gathering to spark forgotten memories and details: The Memory List Question Book 101. Take advantage of our special, 20% discount you’ve earned by coming to this page. Use the coupon code memorylist20 at checkout.