Disclosure: I’m a fan of P. Sidney’s “Astrophel and Stella” - "Biting my trewand pen / Beating myself for spite / “Fool said the muse to me, / Look in thy heart, and write”
My father is a fantastic writer. Very persnickety in all things, but writing is one of his best skills (IMHO). He’s been a US Marine serving in combat overseas (Vietnam), a cop, a construction worker, etc. As he gets older and closer to his third retirement (he always retired and then went back to work again… bastard can’t keep himself from working), I find myself wondering how I could get him to write - fiction or fact (he’d favor non-fiction, I’m sure - or at least fiction based on fact).
I’ve hung out with his friends from the USMC and the PD he worked for, and there is no shortage of stories that could be interesting to the average bear. He has that perfectionist fear of it not being good enough, I think.
Hell, a movie was made 20-some years ago based in part on one of his experiences.
I also think it would be good for him to “dump out” some of his thoughts; and I’d like to hear everything he says (the latter part is the selfish part).
This a little sneaky, but you could record one of his stories, transcribe it and show it too him. Maybe seeing his words in writing would give him a different perspective. It’s hard to get past those perfectionist tendencies. You have to find a way to show him that recording his life experiences will benefit both immediate family and future generations, so no matter what the quality of writing might be, it will be infinitely better than silence.
Maybe if he doesn’t want to write just ask him to talk to you and record it, sort of what dzero says. My grandpa likes to write, but only short letters and journal entries. But, if you talk with him and ask him specific questions, he’ll go on all day, and never be boring.
You don’t even have to transcribe it, just keep it in digital audio. Easier to archive than hand-written stuff.
Why don’t you start off with participating in the Veterans History Project from the Library of Congress? They give you a “script” to follow with questions to ask. This will get you and him comfortable with interviews, and also be a valuable contribution to our nation’s history.
I agree with what was said above. Sit down and have a long conversation with several questions. If you need help with what type of questions to have you can use StoryCorp’s question generator for something like this.
An account for my grandfather at The Remembering Site has been a great tool for getting his stories written down. His answers to the questions are often succinct, but make good fodder for further conversation.