Before You Begin...

...ask yourself the following questions:

• What do I want from this project? What do I hope to accomplish?


• Who is my intended audience? Family? Friends? Historians? Researchers? The public?


• How much of my life do I want to cover—the entire journey or just one memory at a time?


• To write my own memoirs, how much guidance do I need? Will my story require a teacher, a class, an editor, an interviewer, or someone to organize the whole project?


• In an audio or video interview, who will be interviewed—one person, a couple, a family, an organization, or a company?


• Where will the interviews take place?


• What photographs and documents should I add?


• Do I want artwork or graphic design in my project?


• Do I have a hobby, a collection, or some well-loved places I’d like to show in this project?


• What is my budget?


• What is the form of personal history best suited to this budget?

By Libby Atwater, Choose Your Words, Ventura, California

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