The Novelette Volume Package

"My kids love to hear about my childhood, and I love how they light up when my parents tell their stories, but I'm a busy mom! I can't find the time to write out our whole family's legacy!"

This package is for those looking to focus on specific years of their family’s lives. Maybe you’d only like to explore the early days of the patriarch and matriarch of your family? Or, perhaps you’d rather collect your recent stories and photos with the grandkids? The Novelette gives you the freedom to select the years you’d like to focus on.

• Vol. I—covers the main subject(s’) births, their teenage & dating years, up until their wedding

•  Vol. II—covers the early years of marriage and new parent adventures, up until the last child is born

• Vol. III—covers the grandkids’ births and present day memories (holidays/birthdays/vacations/weddings)

Would you like to see an actual page excerpt in the Novelette format?

Gathering the Information

Your memories and stories will be gathered through a basic questionnaire and an interview process. (You have up to 5 hours of interviews, which can be broken up in whatever way is convenient.)

Before each interview, I will send over a questionnaire that will briefly outline the types of questions I will be asking in our interview. These questionnaires help to warm up people’s minds so memories can flow, which makes recalling stories from years before much easier. I will record our interviews on my phone or a video camera to help me remember your unique facial expressions, tone and body language so that I can make your story even more authentic.

Please note that the interview process is not an exact science; one aspect of your life could have many memories and take up a lot of time, while another could have less, and therefore, we will cover more ground more quickly.

The interview process with depend on which volume(s) you choose.

*If your photos are not in a digital format already, use a scanner to scan them into your computer. Or, position the physical photo on a flat surface with lots of natural light (make sure there is no shadow or glare) and take a photo of the photo with your phone! There are also many photo centres, like Costco or Walmart, that will digitize your photos for you. 

After each interview, I will transcribe our session into notes and these will be the foundations of your story. I will formulate a creative retelling of your story based on your memories, complete with dialogue and descriptions of all the settings that are important to you. During this time, I will also collect the photos you have sent over to me (via Dropbox or a USB), and I will use them to help me picture all of the "characters" in your stories. Then, I will intersperse those pictures with their corresponding stories throughout the book.

Based on your colour/style preferences, I will design a custom StoryAlbum cover as well as the chapter title pages. I will also create a custom layout for your photos and text.

Investment

Investing in a StoryAlbum is a gift for the whole family, as all of your families’ special memories and photos are preserved in one place. You will even rediscover memories and stories you’d forgotten, and read about new ones you'd never heard of before. Since a StoryAlbum is a multi-generational gift, most clients prefer to invest in a book as a group, split up evenly between siblings, cousins or kids.

Each StoryAlbum's price is as unique as the memories that fill their pages. Your StoryAlbum is custom-written for you and your family, so the price will depend on the package you choose and the length of the StoryAlbum.

Ready to learn more?

Introduce yourself over on the contact form to get started!