More than twenty-five years ago, my journey to a career as a personal historian began. As a freelancer, I enjoyed writing feature articles about people and community, which eventually evolved into work as a lifestyles editor for a daily newspaper. I briefly fantasized about writing the Great American Novel, of course, but soon realized that nothing I could dream up would equal the power of true stories about real people. Not just writing about the antics of celebrities or politicians or the lurid tales of criminals, but saving the lives of everyday people by writing of their joys, sorrows and lessons learned.
The seed of an idea began to grow. Why not help people tell their stories? Not simply the facts and figures of genealogical research, but the real stories behind all family histories. Not for publication or fame or fortune, but as a legacy for future generations. Finally in 1999, I founded LifeSketches & Heirloom Memoirs, a biography service for everyone. To date, my company has produced more than 400 personal histories in many formats-oral histories; simple transcripts for Web sites or the Library of Congress, including the recorded recollections of over 150 World War II veterans; concise but powerful ethical wills; and memoirs or full biographies published in elegant hardback books complete with ancestral background, prized portraits, and reproductions of cherished family documents.
I strongly believe that my work fulfills many special needs of individuals, families and communities. Often, the adult children of elderly parents commission me to produce their parents' memoirs. Simply knowing someone cares about their stories revitalizes our elders as they come to realize their ongoing value as mentors for later generations. Also, research by the scientific community has demonstrated that sharing our stories connects us with the world around us as we discover the similarities of human experience and understand that our problems do not exile us from humankind. Through ongoing “Healing Power of Story” workshops, I have worked with victims of domestic violence and encouraged women to share their stories through journaling and in discussion groups. Writing about the difficulties in our lives can become an avenue for changing the way we relate to trauma, resulting finally in calm amid chaos.
By now, you should have a better understanding of what I do in this business of saving lives. The best job in the world! I hope you will consider telling your own story in one form or another. But I'll warn you… it's contagious. Once you tell your story, you will want to gather those of relatives and friends. Then they will want to gather even more stories. What better path could there be to our true history?
Paula Stallings Yost
Credentials
To date, LifeSketches has helped hundreds of people record their memoirs in book form or as an oral history or transcript. Among the published works are: “Tales of a Scrapper,” a poignant story of one man's survival during the Great Depression; “Profile of a Lone Star Legacy,” a record of the life of Judge W. T. McDonald, an influential Texas political figure; “A Country Cowboy,” the simple tale of an East Texas cowhand; and “Miracles on the Amazon,” a delightful memoir of a couple's forty years of missionary work in Brazil from 1944 to 1984.
Yost served as co-editor and contributed her own stories for a Story Circle Network anthology titled “A Land Full of Stories: Women Write About the Southwest. The book is scheduled for publication by The University of Texas Press in the spring of 2007.
A popular speaker on the national circuit, Yost also offers informative, compelling workshops. For example, From Memory to Memoir covers basic life-writing techniques. Cooking Up the Memories centers on creating family history cookbooks. The Healing Power of Story is a powerful series of classes about the therapeutic value of journaling and writing life stories.
Yost is immediate past vice president of the Association of Personal Historians-an international trade organization of professional writers, videographers and oral historians. She remains an active member of that organization. She also is a member of the Texas Oral Historians Association and serves as editor of the Story Circle Network Book Review Website.
For more information about the writer's background, read an interview published recently in the Story Circle Journal.
Memories flow gently through the river of life, scattering seeds of wisdom and history, creating roots to strengthen and encourage the growth of future generations. The simplest stories of our lives will remain behind as our richest legacy.
— Paula Stallings Yost