This book has its roots in a series of conversations I had with my 88-year-old grandmother, Ann Mary von Blume of Paradise Valley, Ariz. I have known her since I was young, of course, but we didn’t seem to have a lot to talk about until I grew old enough to really appreciate the stories she had to tell. Documenting her life story was a magical experience for me, and one of the best things I’ve ever done. You can do the same thing within your own family.
In Homemade Biography, you’ll find:
- More than 300 questions designed to provoke vivid responses
- Case studies of successful family biographies
- A revolutionary technique for writing with grace and energy
- Ways of finding a connective theme buried in a jumble of facts
- Strategies for dealing with sensitive topics
- Professional methods of editing for quality and accuracy
- Tips for making your relative's story a part of the permanent historical record
An excerpt from Chapter 8
"Writing Techniques"
Now comes the time when you're going to sit and write it all down. I have good news for you. It's easy. Much easier than you think.
It's going to be easy because you're going to skip a step that can make your life miserable. This book strongly recommends that you not transcribe your interviews. In other words, I don't think you should play all your tapes back to yourself and copy down every word that your subject uttered. That's a recipe for boredom and drudgery and eventual surrender. A very good typist takes three hours to transcribe each hour of tape, and an average person will need five hours. There's an entire day down the tubes, for just one hour of conversation. What you get at the end is often ten percent interesting and ninety percent chaff. And if you want to convert the good stuff to a narrative version, you're in for even more typing. Double the work, half the fun. Forget it. There's a better way.
Corrections and amplifications:
All books have their goofs, and this one is no exception. I will post errors here as I find them and readers are also welcome to draw my attention to any mistakes. Corrections will be made to future printings of Homemade Biography. —TZ
Page 206
The following citations were inadvertently left out of "Notes on Sources":
Ernest Hemingway's recollections of his time at the Kansas City Star can be found on the paper's website, kansascity.com/hemingway, as well as literarytraveler.com. The Miller quote originally appeared in Saturday Review, May 5, 1956 in an article by Rachel Girson. It has been republished in Conversations with Henry Miller, edited by Frank L. Kersnowski and Alice Hughes (Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 1994) and on a tribute website maintained by William Ashley. Alain De Botton's thoughts were drawn from Status Anxiety (New York: Pantheon, 2004). The Sandor Ferenczi quote about children comes from his Sex and Psychoanalysis (New York: Basic Books, 1950). Thompson (above) was a source for a few of the questions.