Here’s why we should capture all Life Stories

People wait, people procrastinate, people make excuses but most of all people don’t take the time to really consider the stories in the lives of those around them. It’s only once you start asking the stories start to come out.

Christian & His Gran

Try not to feel inspired and a little touched by this story.

It’s been a great experience but time to move on.

It’s now been 2.5 years since I started Create Your Life Story but really the story goes back to 2006 when  I discovered podcasting and spent the next couple of years learning how to produce my other podcast at Your Story. Very soon I realised I needed to find a business model to continue, so I learnt from the internet & content marketers all about finding a niche and selling to it.

In order to pull that off I had to find something in sync with my passion and ethics, which is where recording my uncle’s Life Story gave me the idea of teaching the same to others with Create Your Life Story. It was a great mix as it satisfies my interests and I know I’m doing good for the community and maybe I can make some income if I produce a quality product.

It’s been a great ride.

Over the course of the last 2.5 years I’ve produced:

• 200 posts of educational content somewhere in excess of 100,000 words or equalivant to 3 novels
• 72 podcast episodes – Close to 40 hours of audio
• 2.5 hours of instructional video
• 3 self-published E-books

This is still the best content on the internet to help people know how to produce a personal (audio) biography of yourself or someone else. There is nothing that even comes close but that doesn’t mean I’ve been a commercial success.

It’s about community.

Old media feeds the public information and entertainment as incitements in order to sell You as the product, to the advertisers. There is no need to communicate with the old media producer other than an occasional letter to the editor as really your not at all important to them, the advertisers are!

I’m not the old media, and neither are all the hard working new media producers out there on the internet.  I’m someone you know or yourself, working from home, wanting to help and make a difference, but without feedback it’s like working in a vacuum and screaming into the void and only possible for a period of time without some return of energy. Now, I didn’t expect a huge interaction with the greater world and I knew things wouldn’t happen overnight but it’s only possible to keep up the enthusiasm needed to create quality content for so long before it feels like no one is listening.

Above everything else, I’ve desired to build a community here with the feedback being more important than the income. An email, comment here on the site or on any of the social channels motivates more than you can imagine and with enough feedback (even without the income), this episode would never happen.

Income for survival.

I’ve put in thousands of hours to produce all the content you see here while receiving in return all but nothing, except knowing I’ve done well for the community. But this is what I wanted to do! Have a shot at the title, do some good and see what happens. Maybe good things could come of it?

Unfortunately it hasn’t really work out as I hoped. Maybe people don’t really care about this topic, maybe I’m incompetent at sharing the information or as I really suspect, maybe I’m just very bad at self-promotion and marketing.

Marketing & Self-Promotion.

I despise the manipulative marketing practices used today and feel it’s an insult to our intelligence, so it goes against my ethics to use them to convince you to act for my benefit. I’ve always felt that good work is rewarded by intelligent people recognising the effort and when they’re offered an opportunity to reimburse for that effort, will act accordingly. It’s a matter of mutual respect.

I don’t push for the financial return, actually I don’t want to charge for anything, I want to give it all away, which is the reason for having everything under Creative Commons and the depth of content in the posts & podcasts. I don’t believe in copyright and the abuse of the current patent laws. It simply stifles creativity and sharing knowledge, but I’ve followed some of the marketers strategies as they know more than me, in an attempt to encourage you to help me out .

But I think you can see through me… I want to just give it all away. It’s not in my nature to scream from the roof-tops about my efforts. I respect you to have the intelligence to recognise a good product and service and if you think it’s worthwhile I figured you’d act appropriately for yourself and me.

Ian Recording on the Berlin Rooftops for Your Story with Metroccolis

Two reasons for moving on.

I have two reasons for ending production of new content on Create Your Life Story.
Financially I’ve run out of resources and need to find some income before I dig a deeper hole but also I’m not getting responses from the audience and I can’t maintain the effort in a vacuum. There is just not enough demand for what I’m doing here. People only seem to care once their loved ones are gone, which is why genealogy is so popular. It seems people live in denial that their relatives will one day die and would rather dig around in old shoe boxes for information about their ancestors long gone, so everyone will have to live with regret once their relative’s pass.

Last episode of Create Your Life Story.

So this is the last episode of Create Your Life Story, with no more regularly posted content. All the content will remain here. I’ll maintain Create Your Life Story as a static site with all the resources available for the community at least for several years before eventually archiving it as I’ve shown here with individuals Life Stories. At the end of the day this all belongs to you anyway, it’s the human story and I’m just the messenger. If you feel it’s of value could you please consider the value you’re receiving.

Value for Value.

If the content here at Create Your Life Story has assisted you and you can see the value in the production and for your benefit, please consider making a Value Payment.

• What do you feel it’s worth?
• Do you appreciate the effort?
• What is the value and return for you?
• Make a payment for the value you’ve already received.
• Value for the additional content you’ll consume.
• The worth of the bonus content you’ll receive.

If you make a Value for Value Payment you can have one of the products as an extra bonus or split your payment across both products.

If you’re interested, go to either of the products and make a payment of your choosing based on on the value you’re getting from the entire site and while considering the value of the Quick Start Guide or the Prompts & Topics book you’ll receive.

Make the Value Payment of your choice for either product and with my thanks have that item as my bonus gift for you.

I trust your decision is based on what you can see and the value you’ve received.

Some new media content producers ask for simply a $1 per episode payment, which coincidently happens to be the combined asking value for both products to date:

• Quick Start Guide to Your LifeStory currently is $37
• Prompts & Topics for Your Life Story is $35
• 72 podcast episode @ $1 = $72

You decide.

If you feel the products are worth nothing and you pay a minimal amount, well that’s your opinion of the content of the entire site.

If you feel this site is of value, you could consider the amount of quality content, what you’ve got from it, the effort to produce, your personal situation and decide on another amount.

This is Ian’s style.

This financial model is much more in line with my style of life. Give it all away and the rewards will look after themselves. If it’s worth anything to you please consider what you see before you & make a Value Payment.

I’ve produced all this content from what I’ve found around me and from my personal experiences but at the end of the day we all stand on the shoulders of giants and no knowledge is new, just new ways of sharing it. I hope you’ve enjoyed the way I’ve been sharing this content and I hope you’ve gained a great deal from it, if you have please consider helping me and get additional content for yourself.

As always… Please leave your comments at the end of this post or make comment on the social systems. If  you want my personal attention please email me at chat@CreateYourLifeStory.com or via the Contact Page, I’m always up for a chat.

Thanks for a great ride and I hope we meet in person one day

Farewell.

Interesting Links from this Post

• All the available products
• Quick Start Guild for Your Life Story page
• Prompts & Topics for Your LifeStory page

Use some of the ideas in the e-Book Recording Life Stories. Just sign up for it in the side bar form.

To get a kick start, get the Quick Start Guide to Your Life Story by clicking here and be underway in just an hour.

To automatically receive this free podcast, click on the iPhone image to the right or search in iTunes for “Create Your Life Story” or Subscribe in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here.

Support Create Your Life Story by using one of these services from the top navigation bar, commenting on this episode with social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes.

← If you want to hear some other great stories about the interesting lives that people have, listen to my other podcast at Your Story or on iTunes.

…Or have a look at some other great shows available at LifeStyle Pod Network→

Kirk Whalum

 ”Fit To Battle” (mp3)

from “The Gospel According To Jazz – Chapter III” (Rendezvous Music)
 Buy at iTunes Music Store
 Buy at Amazon MP3
 More On This Album

Kevin Eubanks

 ”Adoration” (mp3)

from “Zen Food” (Mack Avenue Records)
 Buy at iTunes Music Store
 Buy at Amazon MP3
 More On This Album

Joan Chamorro, Andrea Motis, Bobby Gordon, Sant Andreu Jazz Band

 ”Lousiana Fairy Tale” (mp3)
from “Joan Chamorro presenta Andrea Motis” (Temps Record)
 Buy at iTunes Music Store
 Buy at Amazon MP3
 More On This Album

Seth Ford-Young
“Gnossienne #1″ (mp3)
from “Seth Ford-Young”  (Porto Franco Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon MP3
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The Glitch Mob
“Warrior Concerto” (mp3)
from “We Can Make The World Stop – EP”
(Glass Air)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon MP3
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Craig Padilla
“Lost In You” (mp3)
from “The Heart Of The Soul”
(Spotted Peccary)
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Bright Moments
“Tourists” (mp3)
from “Natives”
(LUAKA BOP)
More On This Album

Jabberloop
“Area 51″ (mp3)
from “OOParts”
(Daruma)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

A Social Voice for your Community.

Now with the modern digital age it’s even easier for people around the world to keep the stories of a lifetime alive long into the future for others to hear, read and see. One person I’ve meet through producing Create Your Life Story is Kevin Farkis of The Social Voice Project. With a long interest in personal stories starting with capturing those of his relatives and moving onto gathering the quickly disappearing stories of returned Veterans of his community, Kevin is now working with others on Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh.All of the archived content from the Social Voice Project is available for you to listen to is here on Archive.org. Take some time to listen to some great stories and understand the subtle nuances of his story telling style to draw the best out of the people he records.

Kevin Farkas

In this interview here on the podcast with Kevin he mentions a video story of a father who went to war, never to meet his daughter and the thousands of letters he wrote over his time away. Take the time to have a look at the great work Kevin’s been doing including the video, All My Love, Always . . . A Thousand Letters which helps to share the story of a missed father.

We discuss some great tips for your project but more importantly use Kevin’s inspired story to help inspire you with your project.

Many thanks to Kevin for being on Create Your Life Story and the excellent work he’s doing for the community at large.

Let us know in the comments below of the experiences you’ve had recording the people in your life.

Interesting Links from this Episode.

• The Social Voice Project
• Soldiers and Sailors Hall
• Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh
• Archive Stories

Click to get the book now.

Use some of the ideas in the e-Book Recording Life Stories. Just sign up for it in the side bar form.

To get a kick start, get the Quick Start Guide to Your Life Story by clicking hereand be underway in just an hour.

To automatically receive this free podcast, click on the iPhone image to the right or search in iTunes for “Create Your Life Story” or Subscribe in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here.

Support Create Your Life Story by using one of these services from the top navigation bar, commenting on this episode with social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes.

← If you want to hear some other great stories about the interesting lives that people have, listen to my other podcast at Your Story or on iTunes.
…Or have a look at some other great shows available at LifeStyle Pod Network→

Joan Chamorro, Andrea Motis, Bobby Gordon, Sant Andreu Jazz Band
“Lousiana Fairy Tale” (mp3)
from “Joan Chamorro presenta Andrea Motis”
(Temps Record)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

Kermit Ruffins
“Panama” (mp3)
from “Happy Talk”
(Basin Street)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

The best method to remember what you’ve forgotten.

A LifeStory, memoir, biography or autobiography is agreed by everyone as a great idea but a moment later when someone starts to make it happen they’re challenged with where to start and, “What would I talk about?”

I constantly hear requests for Prompts and Topics on  the survey associated to the download of your free copy of Recording Life Stories, so I’ve created a new approach to an old problem.

The traditional method of long lists of questions to prompt the conversations was both boring and generic and simply didn’t work. It missed the personal and didn’t promote the real passions someone has in their life. Over the years I had been using a different method when I connected with people which I knew had real power but I had to get it across in a way for you to understand.

A new strategy

A Topic will have some stories of your life and
the Prompt is a reminder of that topic.

The normal strategy to help people remember the topics they want to talk about is to start at birth and list out a lifetime’s experiences chronologically or copy one of the long… Loooong… list of questions and prompts. And there are plenty of these lists on the internet. The problem with them is they are general, often asking questions biased from the point of view of the interviewer or subject. This is not you! They’re simply a chronological list of your life.

After months of mulling the ideas of how we communicate, particularly when we first meet someone and start to explore and understand their life I hit upon the idea of approaching Life Stories in the same way.

A totally new, innovative way of personalising the prompts and topics for a Life Story biography or autobiography using simply, natural methods we all use every time we meet someone and want to learn more about them.

It’s about the reminders of life

This new book is not about telling stories or how to edit them but many ideas for that will evolve by understanding this new way of approaching your Life Story.

Prompts & Topics for Your Life Story is a way of jogging your memory, of all the interesting experiences in your life. It’s a strategic approach to re-explore your life in much the same way as someone would get to know you.

Rediscovering your life!

Too often we forget events only to be reminded when something appears in our life. The goal of Prompts & Topics for Your Life Story is to jog your memory of the things you’ve forgotten or things you didn’t even think of as important. Even the mundane memories are fascinating to the younger generation.

By following the advice in Prompts & Topics for Your Life Story you’ll create a long list of prompts to remind you of the interesting topics of your life. Then with these memories you’re away telling the stories and sharing your lifetime.

Start big then dig into the details

When you meet someone you’re introduced to a broad generalisation of who they are, then over time you get to know them better and in more detail through listening to the stories about the topics of their experiences.

This is the same approach Prompts & Topics for Your Life Story uses. Start with a generalisation of who you are then work down through the shared and personal eras, eventually to the individual stories which explain the topics of your personal Life Story. From this careful exploration of the interwoven topics of your life a long list of prompts are generated to remind you of what to talk about. Then it’s just a case of looking at a prompt, remember the story and turn on the recorder. Away you go…

This is not an approach for compiling your Life Story project but a strategy for discovering the topics to talk about. By taking this approach of exploring your life then capturing those memories, the obvious method to help explain it will evolve and aid you with the eventual formatting of the biography

Sneak-a-Peek at Prompts & Topics for Your Life Story.

Get underway

Too often the challenge with any project is getting started.
The moment you realise how easy it is to generate specific, individual, insightful prompts to the stories of your life, you’ll realise the wealth of knowledge you have to share. Then the excitement builds to tell of these stories.… But you have to start!

Click on Image to start discovering what you’ve forgotten.

In the Quick Start Guide to Your Life Story I show you how to get started with your Life Story project. Part of which is to create the list of Prompts & Topics for Your Life Story and then the list will grow almost organically as you scan your life and realise how much you have to share.
And with the growing list of prompts, will also be your enthusiasm for your project until you’re bursting to ask the questions or tell the stories of this life.

Just having a long list of prompts shows you how much you have to say and reminds you of all the memories and stories you want to mention.  A list of prompts and topics is a huge motivator for your entire project.

How can you not be excited when you see all the topics you want to tell stories about!

Action:

• Get the Prompts & Topics for Your LifeStory now and rediscover the stories of your life.
• Let me know via email how your project is progressing.

Share you thoughts in the comments below.

Addition Links to help you further

• Prompts & Topics for Your LifeStory
• Free ebook Recording Life Stories
• Quick Start Guide to Your LifeStory
• Episode 7 : What to talk about – Prompts
• Episode 10 : Conversational Interview Technique – Let’s Have a Chat
• Episode 19 : Teaching Your Life Story to Others
• Episode 25 : Prompting Your Conversation
• Episode 50 : 5 Historical Timelines of Your Life Story
• Episode 60 : Remember the Stories of Community

Click thu to iTunes

Use some of the ideas in the e-Book Recording Life Stories. Just sign up for it in the side bar form.

To get a kick start, get the Quick Start Guide to Your Life Story by clicking hereand be underway in just an hour.

To automatically receive this free podcast, click on the iPhone image to the right or search in iTunes for “Create Your Life Story” or Subscribe in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here.

Support Create Your Life Story by using one of these services from the top navigation bar, commenting on this episode with social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes.

← If you want to hear some other great stories about the interesting lives that people have, listen to my other podcast at Your Story or on iTunes.
…Or have a look at some other great shows available at LifeStyle Pod Network→

Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel
“Hesitation Blues” (mp3)
from “Willie and the Wheel”
(BISMEAUX RECORDS)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
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Hot Club Of Detroit
“Junction” (mp3)
from “Junction”
(Mack Avenue Records)
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Bernie Williams
“Go For It” (mp3)
from “Moving Forward”
(REFORM)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon MP3
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Kermit Ruffins
“Hey Naa” (mp3)
from “Livin’ A Tremé Life”
(Basin Street)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon MP3
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Real time History Lessons will give you real understanding

History is the past!  That’s obvious, and it’s that disconnect from us that makes history seem so cold and irrelevant. But what if you could travel in a time machine to one of those historical events?

For months now I’ve been following on Twitter @RealTimeWWII. This is a tweeter stream of WWII in real time, to the hour, 72 years ago. What I’ve found amazing is to start to feel an appreciation of what was happening in ways I’ve never perceived before. We have the advantage of knowing how WWII unfolds but as you read the tweets or the Facebook feed it’s a little easier to put ourselves in our ancestors shoes, in fear the outcome of the war.

Here is the author Alwyn Collinson explaining why and his motivations for creating this feed.
Check it out if you want to get a feel for the past in ways I’ve never seen before. It’s awesome!

Alwyn Collinson: ‘Realtime World War II’ from The Lost Lectures on Vimeo.

Master storyteller Ken Burns gives us his thoughts.

Ken explains great stories are about 1+1=3. I remember hearing years ago from Edward de Bono about great jokes taking you down an obvious path only to give you a realisation of something unexpected. What Ken is saying here is the same. A story has to have a surprising element to it much like humour.

No memory is perfect. In telling a story as accurately as possible it’s still possible to put emphasis onto the things within that make a truly great story. It’s the point of the story which will catch the attention and that point will catch the most if it’s a surprise revelation.

Collect the content, then share your project!

You need content for a Life Story project. Not just the content you’ll generate yourself in the recording or the shoe box of old photos you have stashed under the bed. You also need that photo album you’re Great Aunt has stashed away. Or the old Super 8 films Uncle Bob shot back in the ’60′s. But you also want the new digital images your grandchildren are taking on their new fangled smart phones. You have an idea of what you want to create but you have to pull it all together to make it work. Producing the Life Story is for later but how do you collect the scattered information?

Herding Cats

Getting information from relatives is akin to herding cats. Everyone has their ideas of what they want to do. What works for me is to give them clear and concise instructions of what I want depending on the skills of who I’m talking to. For some people you may need to go to their home and scan the photos, while others can use email and online sharing services.

Physical Digital Media Systems …via By Danny Nicholson on Flickr

• What do you want?
• Who has it?
• What form is it in?
• Can it be digitised?
• Can they convert it to digital?
• How do you want it shared?
• Do they have the skills to share it?
• Do others near them have the skills?
• What are the alternatives?

And if all else fails you may need to travel to them and do all the work in gathering the information.

Sharing the finished Life Story Project

Once you’ve finished your masterpiece of this persons Life Story you’ll eventually want to show it to everyone involved so the same will apply but in reverse.

Types of information

First of all you need to decide what information you need, what’s available and in what format…

Physical – Analog

Tapes, cassettes, films, photographs

Physical – Digital

CDs, DVDs, Thumb Drives, Hard Drives, SD Cards, Floppy discs, In built memory in cameras, etc,.

Once you’ve decided what you want, who has it and where it is you have to decide how you’ll get access to it for your project.

Transfer methods

You know what you want and where it is, now you have to get it to you using one of these systems.

Get DropBox for easy file sharing

Physical

Post or hand deliver the physical items to who needs the information.

Email

Limited size of attachments could need multiple emails for a project. Okay for a couple of images.

Digital internet transfers

Digital transfer services for large files such as DropBox etc.

Internet and Web

Place the content to share with others on various sharing services. Some have ability to have private accounts while others are public only.

• Everything – Archive.org, Facebook, Google+.
• Images – Flickr, Panorama, Photobucket & many others
• Video – YouTube, VIddler, Vimeo.
• Audio – SoundCloud.
• Everything – Your own website.
• Everything – FTP. (If you don’t know what it is don’t worry, if you do, consider it)

Using variations on these systems could also be used for sharing your finished project.

Choose the system to suit the personality

Collecting and sharing your project is about communication.
Take the time to consider who you want to communicate with. What do they have in what system. Do they have the skills needed and change your responses to suit the different people involved. Maybe they can’t use the technology but they know someone who can help.

At the end of the day you can always go for a visit, grab a cup of tea, have a chat and share the information you’re after.

Ian’s Preference

If they have the skills (or someone can help them), my preference is the amazingly convenient DropBox. It’s free up to 2 GB (more with this link) and can be used for far more than just sharing a few files with friends. If that’s too much of a struggle then the old email or going for a drive and doing the leg work at least guarantees results but it’s time consuming and nowhere near as convenient as DropBox. WeTransfer is good for a one-off situation but inconvenient if it’s an ongoing situation.

When it comes to sharing the finished project using systems like SoundCloud and YouTube is a great way to get it to people but there is nothing better than watching their reaction when they watch the video with them.

I think the best system to share to the masses is to use the one stop shop in your own free WordPress.com web site where they can get to your production as it suits them.

Action:

• What do you want?
• Who has it?
• Choose the best sharing system to suit the individual.
• Get hold of the information.

Interesting Links from this Post

• Dropbox.com  Up to 2GB of storage then share folder and content to others.
• WeTransfer.com Up to 2GB file size free.
• YouSendIt.com 500 mb file size, 2GB storage, 14 day free trial.
• ShareFile.com Up to 10GB file size, Free 30 day trial.

Click thu to iTunes

Use some of the ideas in the e-Book Recording Life Stories. Just sign up for it in the side bar form.

To get a kick start, get the Quick Start Guide to Your Life Story by clicking hereand be underway in just an hour.

To automatically receive this free podcast, click on the iPhone image to the right or search in iTunes for “Create Your Life Story” or Subscribe in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here.

Support Create Your Life Story by using one of these services from the top navigation bar, commenting on this episode with social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes.

← If you want to hear some other great stories about the interesting lives that people have, listen to my other podcast at Your Story or on iTunes.
…Or have a look at some other great shows available at LifeStyle Pod Network→

Joan Chamorro, Andrea Motis, Bobby Gordon, Sant Andreu Jazz Band
“Lousiana Fairy Tale” (mp3)
from “Joan Chamorro presenta Andrea Motis”
(Temps Record)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

Wayman Tisdale
“Slam Dunk” (mp3)
from “The Wayman Tisdale Story”
(Rendezvous Music)
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

Benjamin Drazen
“Jazz Heaven” (mp3)
from “Inner Flights”
(Posi-Tone Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

Audio as prompts & atmosphere for your personal story!

The most obvious audio you have, will be the recorded conversation and the most obvious prompts for getting that audio are questions. But there are other types of prompts, including audio.

Old Time Radio Drama Sound Effects

When editing a Life Story there is nothing better than music for setting the tone. In your world you’re immersed in music from the radio, television, records, live performances and now all their digital versions. It’s impossible not be affected by the music that’s around you and often just hearing a snippet will remind you of  your past or that of your culture.

Audio to remind, other than music.

Some families are fortunate to have audio from private sources. These could be tape recordings, film or video of people when they were younger or the atmosphere of events. The audio reminders of you life, like music, can also be the sounds that take you back to the times long ago. Are you lucky enough to have audio of a wedding, a child’s first words or the sounds of an overseas trip?

The audio not normally considered is the background to the home movies you shot decades ago. Stripping out the audio track and using it as a prompt will remind you of things that are missing from the video, then you can build on the video with your stories.

Record your own audio atmospheres …via vancouverfilmschool on Flickr

Record your own atmospheres

Maybe as you wander through your life working on your Life Story project you’ll have access to audio to help explain the era being talked about. If you happen to visit a museum, workplace or performance you could record some contemporary audio to use as background for a historical period. For example visiting a steam-powered machinery day would give you a chance to record the sounds of traction engines to lay under the background stories you tell if relevant. The sound of an old telex machine working in a museum could be used to explain office life. Even a treadle sewing machine or manual type writer could be laid under audio of the relevant story.

Cultural audio to jog your memory.

You’ve been immersed in sound all your life. Consider the sounds about a time you want to talk about.

The internet with the power of search now gives you access to sound recordings to prompt and enhance your Life Story. Search for an atmosphere of a work period of your life, or an event you participated in and use that to create the prompts to talk about. Then you can lay the atmosphere or effect into the Life Story to enhance the audio of the stories as they’re talk about. Audio from your life to consider could be from the following areas.

Recorded Sound Effects …via Jacob Whittaker on Flickr

• Work atmospheres
• Clubs and organisations
• Hobby sounds
• Events and celebrations
• News broadcast
• Film, television and radio broadcast
• Historical events
• Natural atmospheres

Action:

• What historical recording do you have?
• Record some audio of your own – Be creative
• Have a look at the web sites below to discover  available audio.
• Write down your memories when you hear a piece of audio.
• Use those notes as prompts for recording your Life Story.
• Use the audio to enhance the stories you’ve record in the mix.

Do you have some audio for your Life Story? Comment below and share your thoughts.

Links to start discovering available audio…

Click thu to iTunes

Use some of the ideas in the e-Book Recording Life Stories. Just sign up for it in the side bar form.

To get a kick start, get the Quick Start Guide to Your Life Story by clicking hereand be underway in just an hour.

To automatically receive this free podcast, click on the iPhone image to the right or search in iTunes for “Create Your Life Story” or Subscribe in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here.

Support Create Your Life Story by using one of these services from the top navigation bar, commenting on this episode with social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes.

← If you want to hear some other great stories about the interesting lives that people have, listen to my other podcast at Your Story or on iTunes.
…Or have a look at some other great shows available at LifeStyle Pod Network→

Like a bud unfolding in time-lapse to a flower.

I speak often of not only the importance of recording a retrospective of your life but also capturing a life story as it’s live. There are many ways. Here is another…

Today my favourite uncle passed away.

It started with Bill, …this site I’m talking about.
It was after sitting with him for a week recording his humble but (for his family), interesting Life Story that motivated me to want to share these techniques with you. What his six hours of audio has given my family is immeasurable but also, as often happens, what I gave him in asking to hear his story was to show how much I cared and how much those who love him cared about who is was. One of the world’s great Gentle Men.

We all have loss in our lives, now is my families turn again. Here’s a little of what he was like and for us will always be. Travel well Billy

I’m incredibly glad I took the time to capture his Life Story.

Please don’t procrastinate!