Project 365 Vets is a site I would normally list on one of my inside pages rather than featuring here, but because its mission is so worthy and may be time-limited (it’s not clear to me whether the project will continue for more than one year), I’m giving it the spotlight.

The site was found by two moms “who are on a mission to honor a Veteran a day, every day of the year.” The founders say:

We want to honor veterans through their stories told in their own words. Our goals are simple. We want to honor our heroes, raise awareness about the issues veterans face every day, and preserve veteran’s stories for future generations.

Project 365 Vets actively seeks veterans who would like to share their stories. Wednesdays have been set aside for Memorial Stories, so that those who would like to honor a fallen hero may also participate.

Those interested in participating in the project are encouraged contact the project founder Tina Shang.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Some interesting life-writing items I’ve come across recently reflect end-of-the-old-year/beginning-of-the-new-year themes.

Professional Personal Historian Dan Curtis (pictured) published a list of The Top Personal History Blogs of 2011, some of which I know well and will also be well-known to readers here. (Do read his post to learn his criteria for the list and which blogs he considers to be the best of the best). Here are his picks with his commentary:

• The Heart and Craft of Life Writing. Owner Sharon Lippincott describes herself as “…passionate about all forms of life writing, especially memoir and journaling.”

• Legacy Multimedia blog. Owner Stefani Twyford says that on her blog “you will read about my passion for personal history, filmmaking techniques, genealogy, and related topics. I will veer off onto other topics from time to time but always come back to the things that make my work and my life a joy.”

• Memoir Mentor. Owner Dawn Thurston says, “My blog is an attempt to participate in the larger community of people interested in life story writing of all kinds and perhaps help a few people persevere in writing their stories.”

• The Memoir Writer’s Blog. Owner Denis Ledoux describes his blog as “helping people write family and personal stories…”

• One Story at a Time. Owner Beth LaMie says, “I hope you find my stories of interest, especially if you want to write some of your own family stories.”

• True Stories Well Told. Owner Sarah White says, “Here’s where I share the thoughts I might bring up for class discussion. Here’s where I post the writings of my fearless, peerless, workshop participants. Here’s where I share stories from my own life, as well as my pet peeves, pointers, and personal observations. I hope to create the atmosphere you find in my classrooms.”

• Video Biography Central. Owner Jane Lehmann-Shafron describes her blog as a place for “Advice, essays, samples and inspiration for people interested in preserving their personal and family history through video biography, memorial video, life story and genealogy video.”

• Women’s Memoirs. Owners Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnet have put together a wealth of information that includes writing prompts, book reviews, and more. Women’s Memoirs is not strictly speaking a personal history site but there’s a lot of useful material here for anyone involved in personal histories.

Curtis also recently published The 50 Best Life Story Questions. It’s a terrific list because it certainly isn’t run of the mill. Here’s a small sampling:

• If you could do one thing over in your life, what would it be?
• What makes you happy?
• Looking back on your life, what do you regret?
• What do you believe to be true?
• What is the secret to a happy life?
• What do you believe happens to us after we die?
• Who’s had the greatest influence on your life and why?
• What are the qualities that you admire in your friends?
• What is the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?
• How would you describe yourself?

Amber Lea Starfire has an New Year’s Day excellent post in which she describes the process she engages in annually in which she reflects on the past and looks forward to the future. In A New Year’s Writing Tradition, she describes creating a New Year’s Chart (pictured), kind of a mind map that captures:

• Things I want to do.
• Things I want to be.
• Things I want to learn.
• Things and people I want to see.
• Places I want to go.
• Adventures I want to have

Amber says developing the chart is a fun, creative activity, and I believe it.

Finally, when SMITH Magazine founder Larry Smith participated in his Q&A here back in September 2010, the magazine had just launched a new project, The Moment, “moving personal pieces about key instances — a moment of opportunity, serendipity, calamity, or chaos — that have had profound consequences on our lives.” Today is the release day for the book that resulted from the project, THE MOMENT: Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories from 125 Writers and Artists Famous & Obscure. I’m probably looking forward to this book more than Smith’s six-word-memoir books because the contents will necessarily be much more storied when not restricted to six words.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

To my current theme of year-end review and new-year goals, I’m adapting some ideas from an article by Ernest R. Stair in the January 2012 issue of Toastmaster magazine (to read the full article, you’ll need to return to the link later in January — unless you’re a Toastmasters member).

Stair’s thesis is that you can’t get a real sense of achievements if you look at them through the perspectives of others. An example of a particular telling question that reveals the wrong way to look at achievements (and a question I can see myself asking) is: “How will my job title sound at a high-school reunion?”

Instead, Stair suggests a set of the “right” questions to ask. I’m adapting them here, not as questions, but as prompts to apply to the year we’ve nearly completed:

Thinking about the year just completed, give one or more storied examples of:

• Times you’ve learned from your mistakes.
• Times you’ve refused to quit.
• Times you’ve let someone else have all the glory
• Times you’ve taken criticism gracefully
• Times you’ve made someone’s day

Your responses to these prompts, says Stair, “succeed in highlighting the true you, as you rise to great heights turning ordinary moments of your everyday life into events of extraordinary significance.”

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

In his final offering of November’s National Lifewriting Month, Denis Ledoux offered the downloadable Scheduling for Success, a guide to keeping one’s writing projects on track.

Strictly speaking, the guide works for any writer, not just lifewriters.

Meanwhile, Annabel Candy is offering the free, downloadable e-booklet, Personal Writing Magic.

The 10-page publication offers personal writing tips, storytelling devices for memorable personal writing, a piece on personal writing and self-discovery, and seven personal-writing themes.

The personal-writing approach came about for Candy when she made an interesting discovery: “It turned out that people are much more interested in my personal story and experiences than they are in my qualifications …”

I can relate. Sometimes I feel self-indulgent when I occasionally write personal stories about my own life in this space — but those posts often generate more attention and comment than my usual fare.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Here’s one more followup on New York Times columnist David Brooks’s project to collect stories from folks older than 70, a series he’s calling “The Life Report” …

Brooks has synthesized the lessons offered by the life stories/essays he received:

• Divide your life into chapters.
• Beware rumination.
• You can’t control other people.
• Lean toward risk.
• Measure people by their growth rate, not by their talents.
• Be aware of the generational bias.
• Work within institutions or crafts, not outside them.
• People get better at the art of living.

You can read Brooks’s full elaboration on these lessons here.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

November 25 is the third annual National Day of Listening, a national holiday started by the acclaimed oral history nonprofit organization StoryCorps in 2008. It is a day when families are encouraged to give the gift of storytelling to their loved ones, leaving a legacy that’s likely to be treasured more than any gift you could purchase. It is an effort to encourage all Americans to honor a friend, a loved one, or a member of their community by interviewing them about their lives.

This year, National Day of Listening is especially emphasizing giving thanks to teachers.

National Day of Listening participants are encouraged to record their National Day of Listening interviews, using equipment that is readily available in most homes — from cell phones to tape recorders to computers or even pen and paper. StoryCorps has created a free Do-It-Yourself interview guide with equipment recommendations and interview instructions available online.

“The idea of listening during the holiday season has clearly resonated with people across the country,” says StoryCorps founder and MacArthur “Genius” Dave Isay. “The National Day of Listening, which coincides with Black Friday, provides a meaningful alternative to holiday consumerism and proves that simply listening to one another is the least expensive and most meaningful gift we can give.”

“Life review is an important activity that hospices use with the patients and families they care for at the end of life,” says J. Donald Schumacher, NHPCO president and CEO. “So StoryCorps’ National Day of Listening is something we strongly support and we’re pleased to be a national partner.”

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Denis Ledoux has been offering loads of free goodies for November’s National Life Writing Month.

The latest is a free download, Who Will Read Your Book?.

The guide includes a detailed form that enables authors to truly understand whom they’re writing for.

Ledoux’s own audience is lifewriters/memoirists, but the handout could be used for virtually any kind of book.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I’m continuing to receive lots of communications from Denis Ledoux of Soleil Lifestory, marking National Lifewriting Month.

Tonight at 7 Eastern is his first of three teleclasses for memoir writers, “Write the First Draft of Your Memoir: Getting Started and Keeping Going.” To register for the free class, call 207-353-5454 or e-mail.

Denis is also offering a PDF “Where Do I Start Guide” for memoir writing, along with these November memoir-writing/activity prompts:

November 6: Organize a lifestory party to which you invite your siblings. Have a free exchange of memories.

November 7: Tell a story to your child or grandchild about one of your grandparents.

November 8: Tell a friend or relative the back story of an object in your house. Write the story down.

November 9: Write in a journal about today. Include salient details that will make the day vivid when you reread this entry years from now.

November 10: Write a 3-to-5-page story about something in your life you have not spoken to many people about.

November 11: Volunteer to write five pages of a relative’s lifestory.

November 12: Find your memorabilia (diplomas, newspaper articles, certificates) and write at least 50 memories that come to you.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

When I first read this article about funeral celebrants, I didn’t get what the big deal was. It talked about “a growing trend at funerals: celebrants, whose aim is to make funerals more personal and meaningful while officiating the services.”

It seemed to me that part of funeral officiants’ role has always been to deliver a personal eulogy if possible.

But as I read on, I learned that this breed of celebrant helps “families that are not affiliated with a church and who do not want a religious service.”

I also learned that celebrants are trained by the likes of the Celebrant Foundation and Institute and In-Sight Institute and that they offer storied ceremonies for occasions other than funerals. From the Celebrant Foundation and Institute (which calls these practitioners Life-Cycle Celebrants):

Celebrants officiate at and co-create personalized ceremonies such as weddings, marriages, commitments, renewal of vows, baby welcomings and adoptions, coming of age, step-family tributes, new dwellings, birthdays, graduations, survivor tributes, job transitions, memorials, funerals/end of life tributes, divorce, special achievements and civic and corporate events.

Storytelling is part of the curriculum for those training to be celebrants, and these practitioners sit down with families to gather stories for the ceremonies at which they serve.

Celebrant Foundation and Institute Charlotte Eulette international director affirms what I’ve always believed about why personal storytelling has exploded in recent years:

After Sept. 11, 2001, she said, “people in America wanted something personal, and death became something to be embraced.”

I’m excited to learn of a new way folks can integrate storytelling into a career field.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

New York Times columnist David Brooks isn’t framing his request as “stories,” but rather as essays providing “a brief report on your life so far, an evaluation of what you did well, of what you did not so well and what you learned along the way.”

Nonetheless, Brooks is asking for these essays from folks over 70, and he plans to write columns about them at Thanksgiving time, as well as post as many as possible online. Septuagenarians can send their stories to dabrooks@nytimes.com.

His purpose is twofold. First, he wants to provide an opportunity for folks to conduct self-appraisal because our culture provides few formal opportunities for us to do so. Secondly, Brooks feels the essays will provide lessons to younger folks about “how a life develops, how careers and families evolve, what are the common mistakes and the common blessings of modern adulthood.”

Though I don’t always agree with his politics, I find Brooks to be a very smart guy. I look forward to learning what he comes up with

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.