Preserving History with Storyzon
When Jürgen Möllers told his parents he wanted to record their life stories, his father was resistant. "He thought it was a stupid idea," laughs Möllers. "But once we got started, he really got into it. After awhile he was following me around the house telling me stories. He couldn't turn it off."

That's par for the course. "Many people think their lives are not special and not worth talking about," says Möllers, the founder and president of Storyzon, a San Francisco-based company that specializes in recording personal histories. "But once they get over their initial shyness, they get excited. It's a great joy for most people to talk about their lives. People are often surprised by what they remember."

Möllers, a published writer who learned how to record personal histories in his native Germany, conducts most of Storyzon's interviews himself. In addition to factual information about families, careers and accomplishments, Möllers likes to probe the company's clients about the emotional turning points and major decisions of their lives.

"I try to draw out the personal recollections that give life to their stories," he says. "The best part is when they stop and realize that what they just told me is something they hadn't thought about in years or that they have just realized something new about themselves."

"For many people there is a therapeutic and deeply satisfying aspect" to the story-telling process, adds Möllers.

After he meets with a client or clients to discuss the goals of an autobiographical project, Möllers spends anywhere from four to 40 hours, over the space of several days or weeks, interviewing clients and other people connected to their stories. "The schedule is often determined by the client's health and stamina," explains Möllers. Interview sessions, which typically last about two hours, are recorded on audiotape.

After the Storyzon team transcribes the stories, its writers develop a written narrative. "We help craft the story by chronologically organizing the material, weaving together the various narrative threads and editing for grammatical correctness," he says. "We make sure the narrative captures the personal voice and flavor of the person."

Clients then receive a first draft of the text, to check facts and make edits to the story. Once the client returns the edited text to Storyzon, the company's graphic designers prepare a final version, which is then proofed and sent to a printer. The final product, in most cases, is a handsome, leather- or linen-bound book of between 80 and 250 pages.

The cost of a book project varies, depending on the length of the interviews, as well as on design features and the number of copies produced. Lower-cost alternatives are also available. "Some clients want just the audiotapes, or just a lightly-edited transcription of the interviews," says Möllers.

Most of the people who approach Storyzon "are baby boomers who want us to interview their parents and preserve their parents' stories before a parent dies," says Möllers, a member of the Association of Personal Historians. "The books we produce help keep the connection between generations alive."

The company, which has been in business for about a year, has so far received most of its business through word of mouth referrals. "But we've had clients who live as far away as Tennessee," says Möllers. Storyzon's translators, and its partnership with a European personal history agency, give the company multi-lingual and international research and interviewing abilities.

In addition to personal stories, Storyzon records and publishes company histories. "We do a biography that tells about the company's successes, setbacks and changes over time," explains Möllers. Möllers also leads autobiographical workshops, often at senior residential facilities, in which participants write a series of short stories about their lives and share them with a group.

"It's amazing to hear people tell the stories of where they were when Pearl Harbor happened, or how the Depression affected their families," he says. "I have the most rewarding, beautiful job I can think of."

For more information about Storyzon, see www.storyzon.com. Jürgen Möllers can be reached by phone at (415) 637-7662 or by email at jmollers@storyzon.com.

(This article originally appeared in the Fall 2004 issue of Bay Area Summit)

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