March 8, 2015 | The Family History Writing Studio

Putting Words in their MouthsPutting Words in their Mouths

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

We now know that dialogue is an important element to good scene writing.

However, it doesn’t remove our apprehension about using it in our family history stories. It becomes a scary proposition for family historians and often stops many from writing scenes because they don’t want to put words in their ancestor’s mouths. Instead, they settle for dry narrative summary rather than writing an engaging story built on scene and summary.

Dialogue for family historians falls into two camps, which I will refer to as recalled conversations and re-created conversations. First let me start by saying, how you handle dialogue in your family history is a personal decision. Some nonfiction writers believe in no fabrication, while others believe you can put words in your character’s mouth within guidelines. There seems to be a broad range of interpretations on the subject.

Recalled Conversations

My definition of a recalled conversation is when the person or persons were present for the discussion but do not recall the exact words that were exchanged. This could be you writing a memoir or interviewing a relative recalling a conversation. Here’s a few guidelines for recalled conversations.

You are not expected to remember verbatim what was said, but instead convey the essence of the discussion. If your grandmother is recalling a conversation to you, it is not expected that she would remember the exact words that transpired. However, through your interview she would remember the conversation to the best of her knowledge, capturing the tone and essence of the exchange.
If you are privy to a conversation, don’t transcribe the conversations word for word. Separate out the important parts. What part is memorable and reveals character and is relevant to the story?
Conversations do not need to be complete sentences, nor does it need to contain every verbal tic a person might say. You know all those ands, umms and buts, we insert into our vocabulary. The reader does not need to read these.
Also don’t forget to include setting and body language, which help add to the characterizations behind the words.

Re-Created Conversations

My definition of a re-created dialogue applies to those discussions that took place well in the past, and no one who was present is alive to interview. You may wish to re-create this conversation but here are a few guidelines I follow.

1. Turn to your research to re-create dialogue. I believe you can re-create dialogue that is based on your research and can be summarized and hypothesized base on your ancestor’s actions. I’ve covered the possible resources for re-creating dialogue in a previous post, Re-Creating Dialogue and in Authentic Ancestors.

2. Remain faithful to the essence of what the character would have said and the nature of the conversation.

3. Be honest with the readers, acknowledge when you are re-creating dialogue and when you are recalling.

I’ll also include a link here for those of you who are just learning to write dialogue, 7 Tips to Formatting Dialogue.

I’ve grabbed a couple of books from by bookshelf to offer examples of how other authors have handled the situation.

For example in the memoir , The StovePipe by Bonnie Virag, in her author’s notes she addresses the topic:

I set forth each incident as I remember it, occasionally relying on my sisters to fill in some of the gaps – bearing in mind that each of us saw through a different set of eyes and may have perceived things differently. Some of the dialogue I remember clearly and recount verbatim. Where memory fails me, I created dialogue based on the way my sisters expressed themselves. The rest is as accurate as I can make it. It is the story of my life, and I have tried to be true to my thoughts and memories.

Another example,

Jeannette Walls, Author of Half-Broke Horses

In telling my grandmother’s story, I never aspired to that sort of historical accuracy. I saw the book more in the vein of oral history, a retelling of stories handed down by my family through the years, and undertaken with the storyteller’s traditional liberties. ….she goes on to say

I don’t have the words from Lily herself, and since I have also drawn on my imagination to fill in details that are hazy or missing- and I ‘ve changed a few names to protect people’s privacy – the only honest thing to do is call the book a novel.

Regardless of whether you are recalling dialogue or recreating dialogue the important thing to remember is to be honest with the reader.

Lee Gutkind, creative nonfiction teacher and author of You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, expresses his thoughts and I’ll end with his words

“The idea is to replicate the conversation vividly and to mirror memory and speculation with trust and good judgement.”

Enriching Your Story with HistoryEnriching Your Story with History

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

In the Getting Ready to Write and Authentic Ancestors workbooks, I mentioned historical timelines and their importance in organizing your research and writing your ancestor’s stories. Not only is it important to map your ancestor’s life on a timeline, but also to map world, regional and local history. It’s necessary to consider what was happening in the world around your ancestors and it’s relationship to their life.

I want to spend a few minutes today discussing how we can use historical events to enrich your stories.

Historical events can provide both a background and a setting for your story. However, while these events can add a lot of colour and depth to your story, it’s important to not just insert a historical event in your ancestor’s narrative only because it happened during their life. It’s important to look at how those events may have impacted your ancestor’s life, actions, and reactions. While some events will be easy to include due to your ancestor’s direct relationship to an event, do not discount an event because it did not happen directly to them. It may be happening in the background and influencing their life.

These historical events can happen before, after or during the story. It may be something from the past that sets in motion a current event in your story. Historical events can add richness to your story and can place your ancestor’s life and story within the context of the world. It can also help to establish the tone of your story for your reader. By linking your ancestor’s story to something happening or that has happened, this event may impact them or people around them. It’s important to consider how the event may change their feelings, attitudes, culture, or society.

These historical events may strengthen your story ideas and feed your ancestor’s stories. Perhaps your ancestor’s story will be a political or social statement about abortion, adoption, slavery, corruption in politics or the environment to name but a few. You can look to historical events to help you build your story ideas and theme.

An excellent resource for looking at events in a variety of categories is The Timetables of History by Bernard Grun. This book is organized into seven categories, history and politics, literature and theatre, religion, philosophy and learning, visual arts, music, science, technology and growth, and daily life. It spans from 5000BC up to 1991 and is organized on a year by year basis.

I’ve also provided you with a small chart below for you to download and use if looking at the historical events of your ancestor’s life and analyzing them for the impact on their lives. Completing this chart might help you to shape your story with regards to plot, theme, and your story question.

Don’t limit yourself to just the large world events. Regional and local historical events must also be considered. We often think wars and national tragedies when discussing historical events. However, a local storm that causes devastation to area crops or local politics may play a significant role in your ancestor’s life and decisions.

Historical events provide context and richness to your story, and it places our ancestor in the world making them more real and believable to your reader.

Here’s the timeline with a couple of examples filled in.

Timeline Table

Timeline Table – blank

Turning Back TimeTurning Back Time

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

When compiling a family history story, writers often get tripped up by time. They start writing and quickly find themselves time traveling and before you know it the flashback has become the story, or the present story has been taken over by the backstory.

Backstory and flashbacks are both used in writing to convey an event before the present story. However, backstory and flashbacks are often confused. Both should be used in your family history with caution. Let’s take a look at each so we can understand how they each play a different yet important role in telling a family history story.

Backstory is the story before the story. It is the accumulation of earlier events and accounts of your ancestor’s past that transpired before the current story events. It is the baggage, the effects of these events that your ancestor carries with them into your story and motivates them in the present action. Backstory is at the root of your ancestor’s personality and motivation. Remember that motivation we talked about in Goals, Motivations, and Stakes. It is the reason for the events happening in the present story. Backstory is conveyed through exposition and is everything that happened in your ancestor’s world prior to the point you open that world to your readers. However, backstory is not the place to unload your ancestor’s history. It’s not a place to dump all your research, but the place to reveal your ancestor’s motivations that stem from their past and drives the storyline.

Flashback is a tool writers use to give the reader a window into the ancestor’s past. It is employed by the writer to bring the past into the present usually through a scene. Family history writers often misuse flashbacks in conveying their story. They tend to use flashbacks as the story. However, flashbacks are not the story but a tool to help add another layer to the story, an opportunity for the character to recall a memory that is relevant to something happening in the current story. Flashbacks should not compete with the current story, or become the current story but enhance it. Flashbacks are also not backstory but can be used to deliver backstory. They are similar in that they allow writers to interrupt the current story to add an explanation or answer a question.

When to Choose Flashback over Backstory

Choose a flashback when you wish to evoke an emotional response to an event that happened before your story line.

Choose a flashback when you want to convey a detailed picture of the past.

Choose a flashback when a scene is needed rather than more long narrative summary.

Choose a flashback when you need to break up the pacing.

Choose a flashback when the reader has to remember this information because it’s important to the rest of the story.

Choose a flashback when you want to tell another story, another part of your ancestor’s life.

If you want to know how to write flashbacks effectively in your family history story, read this post for some suggestions.

Posted in: Writing A Scene

Starting at the EndStarting at the End

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

All stories must end in a different place from where they began.

Family history stories are no different. They are not obligated to stop at the conclusion of a life, or with a happily ever after. They end when your ancestor has achieved something in their life that has brought about change and growth, hopefully, both internally and externally.

As we’ve discussed earlier on in this month, stories are about conflict, a complication. We’ve looked at identifying that conflict and how our ancestors have overcome obstacles on their path to their goal.

The third act of our story focuses on the climax and the resolution. The climax being that final conflict that will ultimately resolve your ancestor’s problem and bring about a resolution. The resolution is the point in your ancestor’s life when they achieve what they set out accomplish, whether that is to own land or emigrate or acquire a prominent position or be free, etc. The resolution is the prize, the reward at the end of the journey.

For some family history writers, this may be very clear and apparent at the start. However, some of you may be struggling to find that resolution, to identify your plot line from the conflict to a resolution, to identify the prize in your ancestor’s journey. This may be presenting a problem because not all conflicts in a person’s life have resolutions. Perhaps you’ve chosen a conflict with no clear resolution.Therefore, you may have better luck in developing a strong story line by identifying the resolution first and working backwards.

Identifying the Resolution

Look at your ancestor’s life as a whole, make a list of the achievements they accomplished in their life. Consider the following questions.

How big is the success? The bigger the success, the more significant the efforts, the more powerful the story.
Remember anything your ancestor does on purpose will most definitely have a motivation behind it, for example, your ancestor receives a diploma, acquires land, obtains a prominent position, sets sail for a new land, becomes a military officer. These are all goals that require purposeful action on their part, pressed upon by some motivation. What motivated the action to the accomplishment?
There is often complications on the road to the accomplishment. Did the accomplishment come through way of a struggle?
Did the resolution/accomplishment grow out of your ancestor’s own actions?

Keeping the above thoughts in mind choose an achievement/resolution that you feel meets the above criteria.

Linking the Resolution to the Conflict

Once you identify the resolution and the conflict in your ancestor’s life, linked them together. Look for the actionable steps your ancestor took working back from the resolution to the conflict. Each of these actionable events are the obstacles. These are events in which your ancestor either does something or something is done to him in pursuit of the achievement. Identify those and you’ve identified the obstacles he overcame on his path. Connect your resolution through these obstacles to the initial conflict. You’ve just identified the plot of your story from the end to the beginning.

If you’re struggling to find the end of your story perhaps it’s because your conflict doesn’t have a resolution. If your struggling to find your storyline then look to your ancestor’s achievements in their life and work backwards.

The Writer’s NotebookThe Writer’s Notebook

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

The writer’s notebook, it’s not a diary or a journal but a valuable tool to help you develop your writing skills. It’s a place to be a writer.

A writer’s notebook can help you develop your writing skills through a variety of ways.

A writer’s notebook will help you to pay attention to the world around you. By recording events, ideas, dialogue, people that you come across in your day, you become more aware of your surroundings, the setting, how people interact. In your notebook capture what moves you in the day. Perhaps it was a conversation you overheard, or person you saw, or something in nature that caught your attention. Write it down, explore what it means to you. Practice transforming what you see, hear, smell, touch, and taste during your day in to words on the page.

A writer’s notebook will help you develop ideas. Your book is a place to capture seed ideas. Whether they are ideas for stories or scenes or even if you’re not sure what you plan to do with them. It’s a place to nurture ideas, keep them safe until you’ve ready to explore them further.

A writer’s notebook can help you develop your creative writing skills. Practice scene writing, dialogue and descriptive writing. Heard a conversation, recreate it in words on the page, what did they say, how did they say it. It can teach you to listen. It can teach you to be aware to details.

A writer’s notebook can help you to expand your vocabulary. Record favourite words, unusual words you hear in your day, or a new word you’ve recently learned.

A writer’s notebook is a place to explore your memories bring them out of your head and onto the page.

A writer’s notebook is a place to map a story, draw a plot line, sketch a setting, or draw a character, maybe an ancestor?

Spend 10-15 minutes a day free writing in your writer’s notebook. Carry it with you throughout the day. It will help you to develop your voice and your sense of self as a writer.

Don’t restrict your entries to family history thoughts and ideas. Our ancestors lived in the real world. They interacted with the world around them. Observing your world today can help you add tremendous detail to your stories and help you to learn the tools of character, setting, dialogue and description enhancing your creative writing skills.

Here are a few prompts to help you get your notebook started.

A gesture, word or phrase you found interesting
A conversation you overheard
An interesting person who you met or observed
A person from your past, you want to remember
A description of a photograph
What you see outside the window
Surroundings you may have passed in your daily travels
A quote you heard today
A dish or meal that you made or ate, note its characteristics using all your senses or just one.

One thing is certain, to become a better writer; you must be an observer of the world and you must practice writing. Starting a writer’s notebook is an opportunity to incorporate both into your daily routine.

5 Reasons You Should Be Writing Your Family History5 Reasons You Should Be Writing Your Family History

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

Family historians are often contemplating what they will do with the copious amounts of research they have accumulated over the years. No question, writing stories is often the end goal. However, by the time most genealogists begin thinking about writing they are completely overwhelmed by the size of the task. Too many times I’ve heard the words…”maybe some day.”

If this sounds like you then consider joining me in The Family History Writing Challenge, we can overcome this obstacle and all the other excuses that are preventing you from beginning.

There’s never going to be the perfect time.

There will always be obstacles. Life will get in the way and waiting for the perfect time will never happen. The Family History Writing Challenge will help you to structure writing to be a regular part of your life.

You can wait for the perfect time, when there are no distractions. But, let’s be honest that will never occur. However, by investing in as little as 15 minutes a day or by setting a daily word count, like 500 words a day you can meet your goals. Can you find 15 minutes in your schedule? I’m certain you can.

2. There is so much to learn from the journey.

Often family historians are reluctant to make the transition because they don’t consider themselves writers. No one is born a writer. Writing is a process, a learned skill that improves with practice. By diving in, you learn the habits and the environment that is conducive to helping you write, along with the necessary skills.

You learn to write family history by writing. (Tweet this!)

Often family historians are reluctant to make the transition because they don’t consider themselves writers. No one is born a writer. Writing is a process, a learned skill that improves with practice. By diving in, you learn the habits and the environment that is conducive to helping you write, along with the necessary skills.

Regardless of whether it is creative nonfiction that we cover in The Challenge or another genre you care to write about, you can’t learn, understand and perfect these skills without practicing them…that means writing.

You can research and write at the same time.

Taking up the task of writing your family history doesn’t mean your research comes to an end. Throw out that excuse because we all know that your research will never be done, and you can’t wait until it is to start. There are many great stories waiting within your research right now. Start with one ancestor, one story, start small and simple.
Schedule your research and writing as two separate tasks. When you write a story you’ll find opportunities when perhaps a little more research is required. That’s great. Make a note and keep writing. During your designated research time, turn to your list. Don’t allow your research and writing time to cross.

You want to write engaging stories.

The Family History Writing Challenge focuses on the tools of creative nonfiction. Turn your dry narratives into engaging stories that your family wants to read. The Daily Dose newsletter is delivered to your inbox for 28 days through the month of February. You’ll learn characterization, plotting, showing and telling, turning facts into scenes and description and detail. You’ll discover all the elements which make an entertaining nonfiction narrative.

5. You can find growth in a short amount of time.

In the 28-days of The Challenge, you’ll find your focus. You’ll make writing a priority in your life, and the knowledge and inspiration you’ll learn during our month together will result in a growth experience in a short amount of time. We also have expert authors joining us to add their depth of knowledge. If you venture into the Writer’s Forum, you’ll also learn to give and receive critique and elevate your writing to a new level.

Start getting organized to write your stories with our Getting Ready to Write workbook. Perfect for the first time writer who just doesn’t know where to start and needs some guidance in identifying the kind of story they want to write, setting up a workflow and creating sustainable writing habits.

Finding Time to WriteFinding Time to Write

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

Finding Time to Write

We all struggle to find a few minutes in our day to write. Here are a few tip to aid you in identifying opportunities in your day to make writing a priority.

Keep a Journal. For one week keep a notepad jotting down everything you do in the day, all tasks, household chores, work, lunch, making dinner, checking email, watching TV. Record all tasks, large and small for one week. This exercise will help you be conscious of how you currently spend your time. You might me surprised.

Identify the time stealers on your list. I’m sure there are plenty. These are items that you’re doing far too frequently with little to show for it. Are you aware how many times you check social media in a day and for how long?

Create a Plan to Minimize Your Time Stealers

Sleep. I don’t consider sleep a time stealer. However, I’ve always been envious of those who get through life on a minimal amount of sleep. No question the best way to add time to your day is to wake earlier and go to bed later. I have to be realistic, I don’t function on 5 hours of sleep nor can I make the jump from 8 hours of sleep to 7 or even 6 hours of sleep in one effort. I have been trying to wake earlier. Writing in the morning works best for me, but I also need my sleep. Every couple of weeks, I adjust my alarm clock 15 minutes earlier slowly adjusting my wake time and extending my day and writing time by a few more minutes.

Turn off the TV. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been involved in several writing groups and classes and one common characteristic I have found among writers who are getting the work done…they don’t watch TV. Many writers have sworn off television or limit their TV time, instead they spend time with the more productive and rewarding task of writing.

Limit social media and email. Don’t constantly check your email and Facebook and Twitter accounts. Social media is a huge distraction. Identify times in your day when you engage in social media and email and stick to it, set a timer if you have to and shut it down when the timer goes off. When you sit down to write, create a distraction-free zone, no TV, no email, no social media while you are writing.

Set targets. The more you write, the more you write. That’s not a miss-print. When you first start it might take you 45 minutes to write 500 words, but as you progress you’ll be able to crank out 1000 words in 45 minutes becoming more efficient and productive. Set yourself a target, stick to the plan and give yourself a good 30 days to find a groove making writing a new habit in your life. Here’s what I liked to do in the early days, when I needed a few minutes of distraction-free writing. I turned off all social media, and phones. I set my timer (a kitchen egg timer-for 30 minutes) and I began to write. Even if the telephone rang, I did not stop to answer it. It’s about choosing to make writing a priority! When the timer goes off, I took a 5 minute break, got a drink, stretched, and maybe checked who called. I set the timer and repeated. I used this process regularly when I started writing. I can now write in 5-6 hour stretches in the right conditions with little more than a few breaks and shutting out all distractions. I accomplished a lot using this method. If you have kids it’s also a cue to them, when the timer goes off mommy is available. I don’t use the timer too often anymore, your needs will change as you begin to develop good habits and it will all become natural. Consider the egg timer to find your distraction-free writing time. Despite whether you use time or a word count as your measurement for daily writing, set a target to help keep you on track and measure your daily success.

Be Proud. Let your family know it’s time to write, that means declaring your intention to them and offering up cues when you mean business. That might mean closing the door to your office, or hanging a sign but without their support you’re fighting an uphill battle. Share your goal and enlist their support. If your family has an awareness of your goals, they are less likely to intrude on your writing time.

Carry your writing with you. I always have my writing with me; it may not be my entire project on my laptop on Scrivener. However, there is always a yellow legal pad on my kitchen counter to capture those thoughts when I’m making dinner. I keep a notebook in my purse and on my smartphone, again readily available to write at a moment’s notice. Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t get into some heavy writing in the middle of the doctor’s office but I do on occasion get an idea, a word or a sentence that comes to me out of nowhere. I always have something available to capture it. I know myself and that thought will vanish in seconds if I don’t write it down.

Don’t cheat. Like a diet, it’s a slippery slope if you’ve committed to writing six days a week and suddenly you’re convincing yourself you don’t need to write today…or tomorrow. Before you know it, a week has passed without a written word. I also know that we are human and sometimes life just gets in the way. Don’t beat yourself up but get right back on schedule.

Schedule Your Writing Time. Seems like a frivolous task, marking your calendar with your daily writing time. However, writing is a mental game. You must treat writing as a concern in your life, and adding it to your daily schedule, making it a priority alongside all the other tasks you must accomplish in your day is important to keeping it front and center. If it’s not important enough to mark it on your calendar, it’s easily overlooked and soon will take a backseat to anyone of your other tasks.

Window to the Physical WorldWindow to the Physical World

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

Writing the physical world of our ancestors may seem impossible at times. We face two concerns, how do we know what it looked like and how do we bring that world to life on the page.

Replicating that world will once again rely heavily on your family history research along with social history research. I encourage you, where possible to visit the ancestral hometowns of your ancestors. Walk the streets, visit the local historical societies and learn everything you can about their surroundings, from the house they lived in, to the street they lived on. Absorb the town that was a part of their daily life. If you can’t go in person visit through the magic of Google Earth. Reproduce your ancestor’s setting down to the most minute detail.

Once you have your research, you now must turn to painting a picture of the landscape with words so the reader can visualize being there. We want them to feel as if they are standing beside their ancestor, seeing what they are seeing.

As we have previously discussed with regards to scenes; we will rely on our senses, all of them, specific details, and figurative language to make this happen. However, before writing physical description of your ancestor’s world let’s discuss the importance setting plays in your family history story.

You learned in previous posts, setting is a component of scene, without a setting to anchor your reader, they are lost.

However, I see writers not doing justice to setting. They may include a year, maybe a town name or a place like a the kitchen, but that’s where the description often stops. More detail, particular detail is needed. When I say more, I don’t mean describe the entire house, or the whole town. Give the reader intimate details of the immediate setting. For example, if we’re in the kitchen then give the reader the colour of the tablecloth, the smell of the stew cooking on the stove, the creak of the chair and the burnt out lightbulb dangling above.

A setting can also set tone, a feeling and it can be a character in of itself. For example, the supportive small town or the thick forest holding back progress or a chaotic city that overwhelms a new resident can play a pivotal role in a story. The setting can offer far more complications or support in your story than just a pretty backdrop in which to tell your story. Keep in mind that what you choose to share in terms of details are the very tools you will use to create tone and evoke feeling. Is the kitchen warm and cozy, or cold and desolate? The description you share should be hand-picked and carefully worded to evoke the feelings you want to bring forward to the reader.

Setting can also take on a character type role. Many of you writing memoir might find this to be true when writing about a childhood home, or a grandparent’s house, a setting that conjures up immense emotion.

Consider how the environment plays into your ancestor’s emotions. Take out something you’ve written so far this month. Read it. Is the location clear? The physical setting established? Are there details, or is it very general in nature? Does it reflect a feeling an emotion, could it?

On the other side, setting shouldn’t take over your writing. Long narratives describing a family home or locations pull the reader away from the action and the story. Describing setting within a scene requires a delicate balance, just enough to to feel like we are there, not to much that it pulls us out of the story.

You, the family history writer control the window to your ancestor’s physical world, think cautiously about how you wish to portray that world to your reader and what feeling and emotion it could bring to the story.

The Tools of a Family History WriterThe Tools of a Family History Writer

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

One thing about writing, you don’t need a lot of tools to write, a pen and paper if you really think about it. However, we’ve come a long way from pen and paper, there are all kinds of tools to make writing a litter easier. Of course, I mean in terms of the act of writing, nothing I share below will do the job for you but they can organize you and make it easier to plot and rewrite and edit. Saving you time and frustration and those are all good things with today’s busy schedule. There is no point going old school when you really don’t have to. Here’s my list. It is hand-picked for the family history writer.

Organizational Software

Before you begin writing I strongly suggest you put in to place a program or programs to help you manage your research and create a workflow for yourself. My recommendations for assembling the necessary research for a particular story would be Onenote or Evernote. They are both exceptional tools. Pull all your research together for a particular story in to a binder in either tool. Makes for easy reference and keeps you from being distract by all your other research. Keeping your research organized keeps the brain focused. Also choose a citation manager such as Zotero or Refworks . Zotero is free, while Refworks has a price. It’s hard for me to suggest one, as they all work a little differently and it will depend on the scope of your project and your own personal preference. Choose one, and assemble your sources along the way. I cover creating a workflow in further detail Getting Ready to Write Guide. Thinking ahead and creating a workflow with organizational software goes a long away from you feeling like you’re drowning in a sea of research.

Writing Software

When it comes to writing your family history stories, Microsoft Word will be the go to for most of you, and Pages if you’re on a Mac. However, several years ago I started using Scrivener for writing all my articles, stories, and ebooks and I’ve never turned back. I’m not going to spend a lot of time discussing it’s merits here. I’ve written many articles on the subject and created some videos on my You Tube Channel showing the family history writer how it can serve them in their writing endeavours. I will just add that it is the best $40 I have ever spent on a piece of software, not just writing software, any software.

Visual Aids

I love all visual aids, I use two mindmapping programs, imindmap, which is a little more formal lots of bells and whistles and as well as Scapple. Scapple is from Literature and Latte, same developers as Scrivener. I use it for those quick mindmaps of random I ideas I want to quickly see quickly. I also love a white board and cork boards for mapping out my stories and then there is also the Pinterest board for creating an Ancestor Collage. We discuss this in detail in Authentic Ancestors.

Grammar and Style Guides

I will be the first to admit that grammar is not my strong suit and feel like it might take my entire life to master. When I write I see the creative side of the craft and the rules of grammar get in the way. However, you can’t be a writer without developing your grammar skills or at the very least implementing a few tools to help you out. There are three tools I will suggest.

1.Grammarly

My first line of defence is Grammarly. Grammarly is a software program you download to your computer, works much like spell check, but is much more sophisticated. You can check out my review of Grammarly today on The Armchair Genealogist, and enter for a chance to win a one month subscription.

2. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by Strunk and White
This old-school standard nevers goes out of style and has prominent place on my desk. Every writer should own a copy.

3. Dictionary.com App

The Dictionary.com App is an all in one tool for today’s writer. It offers a dictionary, thesaurus, word of the day, example sentences, pronounces the word for you, and so much more. Invest the $4.59 and get the upgraded version of the app.

Notebooks

You should have an abundance of notebooks both paper and digital to help capture your ideas. Don’t forget that all important writer’s notebook we discussed earlier. Pretty or plain, your choice, just make sure you got notebooks in place to capture your ideas and to practice your writing.

Study of the Craft

There are many books that can help you to understand the craft of writing. I read 3-4 books a year. In my opinion, here are some of the best books you should have in your writer’s toolbox. Some apply to all writers, while a few are specific to creative nonfiction. In my opinion they all have something to offer the family history writer.

On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Writing Creative Nonfiction by Philip Gerard

You Can Write Your Family History by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: The Complete Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction–from Memoir to Literary Journalism and Everything in Between by Lee Gutkind

On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser

Writing Groups and Classes

Seek out writing groups online or in your community. Writing groups offer moral support from like-minded individuals. The critiques from fellow writers is invaluable in your growth as a writer. The same goes for classes. There is always something to learn, I take at least one class every year. It keeps me motivated and pushing my knowledge of the craft. Look to your local University, or through the many online resources available today. I find writing groups not only offer that invaluable feedback they offer motivation and accountability.