Aug 31, 2020
If someone asked you to tell your life story, where would you begin?
For a lot of people, the answer to that question is "I was born in … "
When we interview people, we often start there, too. "Where were you born?" is a perfectly fine way to begin a conversation. From there, Veterans might talk about where they grew up, who their parents were, where they went to school, when they got married, etc. In other words, they talk about their life chronologically, focusing on "milestone moments" along the way.
We have a phrase for interviews that go like that. We call them "Just the Facts."
A lot of Veterans we talk to are far less straightforward. They, like most of us, think in tangents, speak in anecdotes, and play hopscotch on the timeline as they recount the biggest moments in their lives. Writing stories from interviews like that can be harder than composing a "Just the Facts" life review. But those tangents and anecdotes can be gold when you're looking for a good story.
In this…