Month: March 2016

Writing a Family History MysteryWriting a Family History Mystery



family history detectiveAs genealogists, many of us consider ourselves family history detectives, sleuthing through clue after clue uncovering the lives of our ancestors. You’ll often find me encouraging you to take the stories you uncover, and shaping them in engaging and entertaining family history stories using the tools of creative nonfiction.

However, let’s consider another option aside from the traditional family history narrative. Let’s consider telling the tale of your family history research like a mystery novel.

Mystery novels are a very popular genre, the reason for this popularity is because it makes for exciting reading. Mystery novels bring the reader on a journey, leading them along, almost allowing them to play detective beside you. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to incorporate the tools of the great mystery novelists in writing your family history.

As family history writers and bloggers we can enlist this genre to write and relay our family history research in a manner that will capture the attention of your readers.

How a Mystery Novel Works

  1. The Opening – Create the mystery for the reader

The opening of your story should begin with presenting a mystery to the reader. We want to grab the reader immediately, and therefore, it’s important to give the mystery on the very first page to capture the reader’s attention. In mystery novels, your reader does not know the answer to the mystery until the end of the story.  The story is centered on the exercise of trying to figure out the answer to your mystery.

In the beginning, you want to introduce the reader to your mystery and the setting of your story.  As well you will introduce your main character, that’s you. You’ll be the detective in your mystery novel, bringing your reader along with you on your discovery. Place yourself in the setting of your story. The setting may come in the form of many places, your office, an archive, your ancestor’s hometown.  Where are you when you first begin your story and take on your call to adventure.  The call to adventure is your inciting incident, the moment you took on the task of uncovering the answer to the mystery.

Think about the number of puzzles that you have pieced together in your research journey – which one will you write about? Don’t tell us about every ordinary discovery you have discovered in your research. Nothing will put a reader to sleep faster. You know the ones, the finding of a birth certificate or your ancestor’s hometown. Don’t get me wrong these are great discoveries for genealogists, but the average family member won’t be interested.

You need to think big. A mystery novel approach is best reserved for those discoveries in your family history that have high stakes attached to them. Of course, there are no stakes in uncovering your ancestor’s story; the high-stakes lie in the ancestor’s story itself. The higher the stakes, the more engaging the tale you have to tell. The bigger the mystery, the more compelling a story you have to share with your reader.  Of course, to tell a mystery you need to have an answer to the mystery. Don’t bring us along on a research journey that you have yet to discover the answer. Nothing will frustrate a reader more than not having an ending to the mystery.

Possible Mysteries in Your Family History

Murders or any significant crime you uncover in your family history are great storytelling topics for mystery novels. Was an ancestor murdered? Was there a trial? Trial transcripts may provide excellent information for the retelling of a murder mystery. You may know the answer, but your reader doesn’t. Turn your ancestor’s murder into a whodunit crime novel.

An ancestor is murdered or found dead under suspicious circumstances – Was there an inquisition into the death? Again these inquisitions can provide excellent information for the retelling of a mysterious death.

Some of the best mysteries start out with a dead body. But we might not all have the option of starting with a dead body. Here are some other ideas for your mystery story.

Was a valuable item stolen from your ancestor?  Again you may find information in a trial or the newspapers.

Did an ancestor go missing ancestor or did you uncover the disappearance of an ancestor that you later solved?

Did your ancestor witness a crime, was the victim of a crime or solved a crime?

Was there a secret child, a hidden family or a second family that you uncovered?  Did you come across a child in a census and you don’t know who they are, or a child that disappears from the family. Did you discover a child in a census that your family never talked about?

Did your ancestor have a secretive career that you uncovered?

These make great mystery stories to recount as you uncover the clues to the answer.

 

  1. The Middle – Building the Tension

You will spend the better part of the middle of the story revealing the mystery piece by piece, overcoming obstacles until finally the mystery is solved for your reader. A mystery often brings great tension. Mystery novels are usually page-turners that keep the reader engaged to the end. How does a writer accomplish this?

Obstacles

The middle should demonstrate the obstacles you faced in uncovering the mystery. These barriers may come in the form of people, suspects, false leads, and misleading clues.

Create a list of obstacles you encountered throughout your research. Were there missing records? Unattainable records?  Folklore stories that lead you in the wrong direction?  Records with missing or misleading information?

Did you experience any red herrings? Red herrings are clues that are false or deceptive. Did an ancestor lie on a document sending you in the wrong direction?

Cliffhangers

A cliffhanger is a storytelling technique that writers use to end a scene or chapter. They leave the reader in flux desperate to read more.  In your family history mystery, cliffhangers may be formed from any number of problems you came up against during your research.  A missing document, a dead end, a family member unwilling to talk, a small piece of information that leads to more questions.

Major Setback

Did you experience a major setback in your research?  A time when you almost gave up in solving the mystery?  A major setback will escalate the tension in your story and keep the reader guessing.

Bit by Bit

You want to make sure you are dripping the information to your reader bit by bit, encouraging them to keep reading. Don’t lay it all out right away. They will have no reason for your reader to stay with you until the end.

 

  1. Resolution – How is the mystery solved?

After overcoming your obstacles and pulling your reader along on the journey, you need to provide them with a solution, an answer to the mystery. This solution, while it should unfold gradually from your research and not come entirely out of left field, you still want it to be somewhat surprising to your reader. That means holding a little back for the end.

However, your resolution shouldn’t just be about the answer to the mystery but also demonstrate how you the author and detective of that mystery has experienced a change or shift in perspective after learning the answers to your ancestor’s mystery.

Your solution may come in revealing if your ancestor was, in fact, a murderer, or was murdered. Your solution may come in the form of explaining some motivation behind your ancestor’s actions in committing a crime, or hiding a child or a family. Your answer may come in the form of revealing the reasons that motivated your ancestor’s actions and putting their actions within the context of the time.

Consider using a mystery novel approach in sharing some of your family history findings. It makes a great format for bloggers and story writers alike.

Tip: One final thought when it comes to writing a family history mystery. Read examples of mystery stories to become acquainted with how they are written.

 

What mysteries in your family history research would make a great mystery novel? Share your ideas below in comments.

 

 

Cooking Up a Satisfying SceneCooking Up a Satisfying Scene



Like a good pot of soup on a cold’s winter’s day, every family history scene requires some essential ingredients to make them successful.  Without a tasty broth, some colourful veggies, and a fat noodle the soup will just not satisfy. The same can be said for a scene, if it’s missing an essential ingredient it will likely fall flat and you may lose the interest of your reader. Today, we look at the ingredients that make a satisfying scene.  Let’s identify the key ingredients in a family history scene each one closer so that you can create powerful and fulfilling scenes for your reader.

Protagonist Ancestor

The majority of your scenes should be built around your protagonist ancestor. Your protagonist ancestor is the main character of your story and through whose point of view, the story will be told.  In each scene, your protag ancestor will be involved in action or dialogue.   Make sure that you’ve chosen a single ancestor from which point of view that story will be told.

Action

Every scene shows some dramatic movement, large or small. It creates a sense of movement through time and space. It could be actual action or even dialogue which gives the essence of movement within a scene. Without action, you have no scene.

We want to demonstrate our ancestor’s movements, feelings, actions, and reactions. Don’t tell us about them, show them offer up the proof in the form of a scene.

 

Scene Goal

Every scene has a goal. We know that our story also has a goal, however, this is different from the scene goal. The scene goal begins and ends in the scene, but contributes to the overall advancement of the story.

Antagonist and Allies

Your protagonist ancestor needs someone to interact with, these will come in the form of an antagonist who opposes your ancestor’s goals or allies who will help your ancestor to achieve her goal.

New Information

Each scene builds on the previous scene providing new information that keeps moving the story forward. If it doesn’t move the story forward then perhaps it doesn’t belong in the story.

Setting and Time Period

Setting and time period is essential to grounding your scene through sensory details and description.

Theme

The overall meaning of your story is conveyed within scenes using images and sensory details.

Tension

Not only organizing your scenes within the story but by creating a feeling of conflict and uncertainty within a scene will keep the reader guessing as what is next and will keep them turning the pages.

Great Endings

Scenes can end in any number of ways. Some may end on a high-note, with a small victory for your ancestor, or in defeat. It can end with a cliff-hanger or some uncertainty. It’s important that each scene ends in such a way that it eludes to future obstacles for your ancestor and a yearning in your reader to know what happens next.

Make sure your story scenes have all the right ingredients.

 

Want to learn to write family history scenes. You’ll learn to incorporate all of the above elements into your scenes. Click here to learn more about our upcoming scene writing course,  Writing the Family History Scene.