Writing Family Stories with Deborah Shepard
This workshop, facilitated by memoir teacher Dr Deborah Shepard, offers an opportunity to explore your family stories using photographs, heirlooms and meaningful domestic objects to trigger a creative response. Deborah will also guide you through stages of life review: interview and recording technique; key questions; trust building and the interviewer's role as attentive listener sensitively facilitating the narration.
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Description
This workshop, facilitated by memoir teacher Dr Deborah Shepard, offers an opportunity to explore your family stories using photographs, heirlooms and meaningful domestic objects to trigger a creative response. Deborah will offer guidance on different approaches and structures for writing family stories, and the day will include writing exercises. Deborah will also guide you through stages of life review: interview and recording technique; key questions; trust building and the interviewer's role as attentive listener sensitively facilitating the narration. The workshop will include an experiential exercise, working in pairs as interviewer and narrator, to illustrate the process. No prior writing experience is required, just a passion to tell stories about the significant figures and events from your historic past to the recent past and a willingness to explore the creative possibilities. The workshop is open to all ages.
Course outline
If you've ever thought of recording the life story of a beloved family member, or significant or favourite person this two-day workshop with its introduction to the gentle art of life review, and writing family stories, may be just what you need to ignite the process. Guiding you through the various stages of oral history production, Deborah will introduce you to the techniques and methodologies you need to create a meaningful oral history for your family archives, for publication and ultimately for posterity. You'll learn how to prepare for an interview; interview technique as well as the personal dimensions of trust building, ethical considerations and your role as an alert listener; creating structure for the interview and managing time, understanding of the biographical arc; identification of themes and particular questions that might encourage spontaneity in the storytelling.
Deborah will also teach ways of exploring family stories using evocative objects or photos to trigger a creative response as a starting point for a story. You'll learn how to structure stories and how to use different approaches for recording your stories. The course will include writing exercises with time for sharing and feedback.
Expected learning outcomes
- learn to use prompts such as photos, heirlooms and mementos to trigger creative responses as prompts for starting stories
- gain an experience of interviewing and being interviewed
- acquire a set of biographical questions to begin an oral history enquiry
- contemplate interviewer/participant relationship: trust building, ethics and privileges of this work
- understand preparatory stages, record keeping, confidentiality and ethics, interview technique and how to facilitate storytelling
Who should attend this course?
Family genealogists/keepers of the stories, writers, auto/biographers and those people who yearn to capture and record some of the family stories before it is too late. No experience is required just a passion for storytelling and family history.
What to bring
An A4 lined notebook and pen for note taking. Please come prepared with a short life story of your own to narrate to an 'interviewer'. Recording devices are not needed. Bring a photograph, heirloom or meaningful domestic object for the writing part of the course. Bring your lunch. Tea and coffee will be provided in the staffroom for breaks.
About your tutor
Dr Deborah Shepard is an Auckland biographer, oral historian and teacher of all forms of life writing. Three of her books Reframing Women, Her Life’s Work and The Writing Life: Twelve New Zealand Authors were based on oral history interviews. She was consultant biographer at Mercy Hospice. You can explore her work and a ‘Writers Stories’ forum at https://www.deborahshepardbooks.com/writers-stories
A Writer's Weekend 16 - 17 August 2025
Join us for our opening address at 9am on Saturday 16 August. Details to follow.
Testimonials
What people say about Deborah’s memoir courses:
I came away with a lot of confidence that I had something to say and that I could say it well
— Terry Levenberg
