Kristen Kuhns Discusses Memoir Writing
An Interview with the Co-Founder of Story of My Life About Memoirs
Aug 19, 2008
Kristen Kuhns is the COO and co-founder of the Story of My Life website which is under the parent corporation Eravita, a site dedicated to preserving the most precious of all assets - life Stories of everyone. Kristen is also a writer currently working on a fictional novel.
Fresh from her interviews with Suite 101 about the future of memoirs Kristen spoke to us about her personal feelings about memoirs.
Suite 101: Why do you feel that documenting your life is important?
The minute you’re born, you begin consuming. You breathe air, you create waste, you interact with others. Your life, even at its most simplistic, has an impact on this world. Now add on top this your actions, thoughts, contributions, achievements, children, etc. and you’ve created a footprint of your life. Every single person is important to this world and every single person impacts both the earth and the people who interact with them. Capturing life stories ensures that YOUR story is told.
This is especially important in this digital age. We’ve all googled ourselves. Sometimes we may even be surprised at what we find. Do we want our great-great-great-grandkids reading all that without us being able to tell the whole story? Leave your story the way you want it told – this way you control it.
Suite 101: How important do you feel it is to link your own stories to other peoples?
This isn’t for everyone, but to us as scholars and researchers and plain old human beings who interact with friends, family, colleagues, neighbors – a memoir is rarely written in isolation. Life stories are about events and thoughts and the people who shape our lives. Connecting them together is ultimately infinitely more satisfying and interesting to the readers than reading something in a vacuum. People are nuanced, creative beings. They change throughout their lives, so connecting people and stories together makes sense to get a more vivid imagery of the person telling stories.
One of my favorite things to read about is when two people will tell their version of the same story. Sometimes it seems those two weren’t even in the same planet, let alone the same room when some event occurred, but it’s incredibly interesting to see how their perceptions colored the event or moment.
Suite 101: What tips can you give to anyone wanting to write their autobiography or memoirs?
The best tip I have: just do it. Stop saying “that’s something I *should* do (one of these days)” and just do it. Just start writing. Keep a journal, keep your thoughts, take pictures, make videos, record audio stories. However you want to capture them – the fact that you did is so much more important than grammar or creating a masterpiece. If you wait too long, you may lose your chance. We’d all give a lot (at least I hope) to learn more about our ancestors – the whole stories, not just snippets and facts and conjecture. So do it for your kids and their kids and their kids….
The site of course too has a whole storyteller Writer's Forum with inspirational questions, guides on writing, links and more.
Suite 101: What is your opinion on people publishing their memoirs and life stories?
I think they’re pretty darned important. Have you ever gone through someone’s old photo albums where no one can explain what the pictures are of and nothing is written to tell the stories behind the photos? Who are those people? What are they doing? Why are they so happy/sad/? What was going on in the world/ what era was this? A picture is worth a thousand words – but are they, if the picture has no context? Especially pictures of people. Or a journal that has no name? Who is this person – all his/her hopes and dreams and thoughts laid out but no one to attribute them to? We all want to matter. Leaving stories behind is one way to talk about how we do matter.
Suite 101: Are there any memoirs, biographies or autobiographies which inspire you?
I’m a big WWII aficionado, so I’ve read hundreds of memoirs about the Holocaust and survival. They are all heartbreaking, every one of them.
My favorite creative non-fiction writer is Studs Terkel. His latest book on dying is really poignant, especially in light of the fact that he’s 96 now I believe, and losing his voice will be a tragedy.
I also highly recommend Tim Russert’s stories about life with his father ‘Big Russ’.
Suite 101: Have you written your own life story?
It’s a work in progress. I have a lot of it set currently to private, with my Story Guardian assigned to release them if something happens to me. Not all things in my life have been good (although most are) but I don’t wish to hurt or embarrass anyone now. But if I die, all bets are off….. (I’m joking). I’m currently encouraging my mother and father to write more so that their stories are preserved.
To read Kristen's full biography check out her interview on the services offered by Story of My Life.
 |
 |
