Personal History and Memoir Websites
The Basics
Do not worry too much about the differences between personal history and memoir. If memoir sounds too fancy for you, then use the term personal history. If you do a search for the phrase “personal history,” a specific book will come up with that title. Don’t worry. The fact that someone claimed this phrase as the title for their memoir is neither here nor there. Do not let it concern you. Move on.
You should also be aware that most personal histories are written by personal historians. I won’t belabor the point, but your personal history cannot be written by a professional personal history writer. It will be their interpretation of your personal story. I feel very strongly that you should write your own history. Get help if you need it. But try it out on your own first.
Blogging
I think one of the best ways to start writing about your life experiences is with a blog. Why and how?
- I encourage women to tell their stories because the world needs women’s thoughts to draw upon. We do not have enough of them.
- A blog is sequential. You can write about one experience, or one small topic, at a time. No pressure.
- Start with a free blog. Stay with it unless some pressing reason requires you to change to a paid plan. There are reasons to pay for a domain name and hosting, but if you just want to share your stories with your family or community, your blog may remain around longer as a free one as you will not have to worry about it maintaining it if assisted living, a nursing home, or other eventualities present themselves. If there is no payment you cannot miss it.
Memoir Basics
This is a great, fairly recent article by a publisher about various memoirs. Perhaps it will inspire you about how you want to focus your memoir.
JRNL
Before you create a blog you might want to check out JRNL. I’ve include a snapshot of the page or workspace you will see if you create a journal on JRNL. As always, I recommend trying out the free version, and not upgrading or paying for any extras, for several months to see if the free version does what you need. It may well do that. What you create is more of a journal and not really a blog.
Free websites
The first two online, free website/blog platforms I recommend are always WordPress and Blogger.
WordPress
The vast majority of blogs on the web use WordPress software. (It is reliable.) It has been a while. (It is not fly-by-night.)
WordPress.com is the home of the free blog platform. It will will have wordpress.com in the URL of you blog and look something like https://yourblogtitle.wordpress.com. Spend a few minutes watching this tutorial on setting up a free WordPress blog. WordPress offers two major types of product. It can be confusing. This one, the one he walks you through, is the one you want. Don’t look at other ones that will only confuse you.
You can go back and watch this as many times as you want to for help if you decide to use this option.
Blogger
Same as with the other Tony Teaches Tech YouTube video above, I recommend watching this for all the same reasons. He talks too fast, but explains the process well, and is accurate. And you can return and rewatch if this is the option you go with. Blogger is owned by Google and probably will be around for a long time. A site I no longer update has been up and running without attention from me for years.
Other posts of mine have mentioned why I think (free) blogging is a good option.
I will be debuting an options for getting help with memoir blogging in 2023.
I agree telling our personal histories via a blog is a good option. I’ll look into JNL to see if it works for things I don’t want to share publicly, and I think we all have some of those. I changed to a paid WordPress.com blog when the GDPR requirements came in because some of my stories being in European readers.
I’ll be reading back through your A2Z posts as there’s lots of food for thought in them.
What a great resource. I hadn’t heard of JRNL. Going to check it out, thanks!
It does look interesting, doesn’t it?
I haven’t heard of JRNL either and will look into it. One thing is, you don’t have to be sequential in your memories. You can always put them in order later. Sometimes something will trigger a memory and it may not have anything to do with the memory that came before. I remember when I did “The Streets In My Life” it was for a alphabetical challenge that jumped around through the years because I didn’t live on various streets sequentially. And there have been many prompts throughout the years that triggered memories in a most random fashion. One day I’m going to put all that blogging info into order for various books that are already written right there. Hopefully before I end up in assisted living or my daughter’s extra room!
The fewer rules, the better. Especially as I age and grow tired of limiting constraints.
Oooh! Great new sites here!
I started my blog AS my personal history and have loved doing it. 12 years and 3000+ stories on!
I’d be curious to know what you think. Your love shows.