Story Terrace is a service that connects ordinary people with professional writers to tell extraordinary tales, creating professional-quality biographies. It was founded in 2013 by Rutger Bruining who was inspired by his own grandfather’s tales of adventure and adversities overcome, narrated to him on a whim. Now this idea is spreading across the UK and US, and Story Terrace has written over a thousand people’s life stories, with thousands more well on the way.
Having secured significant funding in the UK, Story Terrace is simultaneously massively scaling on the US market and has developed a large audience across the pond. This means that despite the differences in audience culture, lifestyle and attitudes, the commonality that unites us is one thing: storytelling.
With an aim to document the epic tales of ordinary people across the world, Bruining is passionate about encouraging greater communication, strengthening familial bonds and passing on invaluable life lessons to future generations.
The Story Terrace process
First, the subject is matched with a writer of their choice, with whom they feel comfortable sharing their life story. Story Terrace has a wealth of writers on deck, from the junior writer to the critically-acclaimed. Next come the questionnaires; these are designed to jog the memory and provide a structure for the interviews. They also bring back memories that haven’t been thought about in years or even decades.
After that, in-depth interview sessions take place between the subject and writer to form the backbone of the story. These most often take place as face-to-face sessions at home. To ensure complete authority over the piece, the subject has full jurisdiction over the final draft. The writer then makes the requested changes before the story is professionally proofread.
