How to Tell Personal Stories

I really enjoyed reading "Writing Family History and Memoir" from William Zinssner because it gave insight to strategies that writers use when collecting information and writing a memoir. For this upcoming final project I feel like if I did not read this piece I wouldn't have asked the right questions to my family over thanksgiving break. I feel like I was planning on asking questions to them that I already knew the answer to. This would have made for a fabricated, unoriginal project. One of my favorite things that Zinssner said "Your biggest stories will often have to do less with their subject than the significance–not what you did in a certain situation, but how that situation shaped you." I feel like when you are collecting information before writing you may think of a situation that you vividly remember that did not create anything physical but it played a major part in how you changed your thinking from then on. Another strategy he talked about was collecting as much information as you can from who you are interviewing and from there you can read it over and the story will unfold. This method is more truthful and original than collecting the information you want for your story. Instead let them tell the story then just put it all together. This is what Zinssner said, "They will tell you what your memoir is about–and what it's not about. Once the information is gathered the story is right in front of you. You will be able to see how much you should talk about a subject and how little you should talk about another. It will become clear from all of this and when you have it in front of you, just focus on what's important and condense it into a shorter version. "They will tell you what's interesting, what's not, what's emotional, what's important and what's worth expanding."