Legacy : A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing Personal History

by Linda Spence

When Linda Spence asked her aging mother to write her life story, her mother stared at a blank sheet of paper and asked—“How? Where do I begin?” In this practical guide to capturing those memories that have been stored away, Linda Spence provides the questions that are the keys to unlocking the memories that make up a life. Beyond the vital statistics are the personal stories that tell what it was like, what we did, and why we did it, how we feel about our choices, and what our circumstances were. Through encouraging coaching, shared memories, and open-ended questions, the process of producing a personal history becomes intriguing and engaging. With Legacy the possibilities expand: a personal record is preserved—with its myths, traditions, joys, pains, gains, and losses; a family opens a potential dialogue that will last for generations; the writer has an opportunity for insight and resolution; the culture of a time and place is noted; the tradition of personal story is revitalized, and our present and future find nourishment and knowledge in the past. Either as a gift that can act as a shared experience as the memories are recounted or as a personal way to take account of one’s experiences, often long since forgotten, Legacy is indeed a way to get one’s story down.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Memoir, Reference, History, Self Help, Family

184 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Purchased with the best of intentions - to capture family folklore. Timing was off and it's one of my biggest regrets. Don't put this off thinking there is always another day. Do it when you have the chance & update as you need.

[Betsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to help you write your personal history because everyone's story is worth telling and sharing.

[Wayne Groner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spence does not use fancy words, out-of-touch theories, and dreary writing exercises in this how-to. She uses down-to-earth, practical, anyone-can-do it guidelines and examples. She debunks every myth you’ve ever heard about writing your life story and walks you through the storytelling process simply, clearly, efficiently, and effectively.

Fear of writing is swept away by her calm assurance that you are preparing a gift for your children, grandchildren, and friends. No need to concentrate on whether the story of your life will be an international best seller. Instead, think of the stories of your life that were fun or interesting for you and that helped form who you are.

She divides thinking about your stories into nine easy-to-read sections: Beginnings and Childhood, Adolescence, Early Adult Years, Marriage, Being a Parent, Middle Adult Years, Being a Grandparent, Later Adult Years, Reflections. Each section begins with a few brief paragraphs on what happened in her life during that period, with plenty of quotes from her family members to reveal she is an ordinary person, just like you. The kicker, though, is what comes next: after the brief paragraphs, she lists a series of questions and thought starters to get your remembrance juices going. There are more than 400 questions throughout the book.

[Tom Romig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm in the process of writing a memoir for my grandchildren, at present, Sophy, Daniel, Adam, and Tommy. So, over the past year, in my usual desultory way, from time to time I've read a few pages of this excellent handbook, written some notes, put it aside, and then resumed the process. I'm ready now to complete my outline, flesh out my notes, write the story of my modest yet precious life. The impetus for this: the oldest of my grandchildren is only five, which means that if I died tonight he'd at best have only the more tenuous memory of me. True though I've been caring for him for three days a week for over five years. I suppose this is my small way of keeping the shadow of death at bay for at least a little while. (P.S. You're unlikely to write your memoir if you don't have a practical, specific guide such as this. The beauty of Ms. Spence's work is her wide ranging selection of penetrating questions developed to guide your memory.)

[JoAnne Thornton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book!

[Dad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many questions, if answered, give a complete memoir for every stage of life.

[Barb Royal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of great ideas. Best read in small bits so you have time to use the tips, hints, ideas.

[Richard Weijo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will use my recently reviewed book The Legacy Guide by Carol Franco & Kent Lineback to compare and contrast with Legacy by Linda Spence. Both of these books use a life stage approach to capturing personal history. However, Legacy is more oriented to life events. It’s stages are:

Beginnings and Childhood
Adolescence
Early Adult Years
Marriage
Being a Parent
Middle Adult Years
Being a Grandparent
Later Adult Years
Reflections

These stages create some awkwardness for those who have not been married, or who are not parents or grandparents. Spence suggests that any committed relationship can be used in lieu of marriage, and that any close child relationships can replace parent/grandparent roles. The other option is simply to skip these sections.

Legacy is a much shorter book than The Legacy Guide, at 155 pages. Both books are similar in providing guidance on getting started with writing a personal history. Legacy suggests writers use a bound notebook or journal to write in, whereas The Legacy Guide recommends a three-ring type binder. With either book, I believe the three-ring binder should be used. This gives the writer flexibility to add more (or replace) pages within each life stage, and to answer questions in whatever order they choose. I believe Spence was trying to keep things very simple and focused on one (or more) notebook(s). I suspect future generations would be happy to read whatever they get as long as it is understandable.

Legacy provides a brief introduction to each life stage, and then immediately goes to the questions to be answered in that stage. It does not try to understand the “meaning” of events at each life stage like the Franco & Lineback book does. Rather, it uses the final Reflections stage as a mechanism to revisit all of the prior steps and to reflect on their overall meaning and significance.

In summary, Legacy is oriented to taking a simpler & easier approach to capturing personal history, focusing more on life events. The Legacy Guide is more comprehensive, oriented to the more rigorous Facts to Memories to Meaning approach to capture personal history and insights — more beneficial for those who want to write a memoir. Both are good books. Some may prefer a more simple and flexible approach; others a more rigorous methodology.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for anyone looking for ideas to write their personal history. This book is less about reading it for guidance on structure, style's, motivation, and direction. This book is more about the IDEAS of WHAT to write. The questions are story stimulating and investigative. This is a resource for when you get stumped and need to know what to write next. This in conjunction with a book that discusses structure, layout, style etc is the perfect combination to get your personal History (or even Family History) written.

[Hom Sack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a good start in preparing to write one's autobiography. The 493 questions: Beginnings and childhood (73), Adolescence (41), Early adult years (29), Marriage (87), Being a parent (82), Middle adult years (32), Being a grandparent (18), Later adult years (55), Reflections (76), are all very thoughtful.

[Megan]

[September/October?]

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very practical guide of writing about personal history. Just contains questions to ask when writing.

[Jennifer Jodziewicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have any interest in recording your own story, or someone else's - this is a great book to have as a guide.

[Lisa Mings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book of it's kind that I have found

[Softness · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been a great help while I work on my personal memoir. The sections are broken up into stages of life with thoughtful questions to help bring back the memories.

[Barbara Lovejoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another great book I am going to use as a resource when writing my personal history.

[Kimber Burgess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Checked this out from the library and now I want to buy my own copy so I can go through and answer all the questions. Most of the book consists of questions to help you get started in writing your own personal history. Not the book for you if you want very technical writing help.