Lynn | The Family History Writing Studio

Who Do You Think You Are? – What it Teaches Us About StoryWho Do You Think You Are? – What it Teaches Us About Story

April 14, 2015 0 Comments

I’ve been watching Who Do You Think You Are? How about you? I enjoy following the celebrities in their journey to discover their ancestors. Now what occurs to me about this show is why do I care about other people’s genealogy. Well, I’m a genealogist, so yes, I am interested. Of course, there is the aspect that they are celebrities. However, to make this show successful the show needs to appeal to a wider audience, and that means there needs to be a great story that captures the viewer’s attention, even non-genealogists.

The same applies to our family history. We want our family to read about their ancestors; we want them to sit up and take an interest. However, our family are not genealogists so we need to appeal to them in a different way than as if we were writing for other genealogists interested in our research.

So perhaps we can learn a little something from the producers of Who Do You Think You Are? What makes this show so popular? What storytelling lessons can we learn? How can we apply them to our family history writing.

There is a plot – whether you realize it our not, very episode has a plot. The celebrity is on a mission to answer a question about their family history. Each celebrity in their journey faces, obstacles, further questions that they need to overcome in their quest. However, there is also the secondary plot, the journey of the ancestor, their story is also playing out for us. In Who Do You Think You Are? both the celebrity and the ancestor faces obstacles, conflicts on their road to their goal.

You should also be structuring your stories in the same manner. If you’re writing just about your ancestor, then your story needs to be structured around a struggle to a goal that your ancestor faced. If you’re writing about your pursuit to uncover you ancestor’s life then you must structure your journey in terms of your obstacles in the quest for your answers. I think the easiest way to find the plot is to look for the accomplishments and then work backwards, looking for the obstacles, either those your ancestor faced or you faced in your research.

For Example:

Josh Groban – sets out to learn about his mother’s lineage and traces the trail of his 8x great-grandfather. He discovers a brilliant man who was a deacon, music teacher, and a well-known astronomer. However, Josh finds that his ancestor’s predictions of cataclysmic doom put him in opposition to the church.

Angie Harmon- On her journey, Angie uncovers the dramatic story of her 5X great-grandfather, who endured hardship and danger as an immigrant coming to America. She discovers that he fought in the American Revolution and risked death for standing his ground.

There is a theme. Every story has a theme and Who Do You Think You Are? does an excellent job of finding a theme and giving us a teaching moment for the celebrity. It’s important to centre your story around a theme. Find a focus for the story, an idea that emulates from either your journey or from your ancestor’s life.

For example:

Julie Chen – in Julie’s episode education is a huge theme. Julie uncovers how education greatly influenced her ancestor’s life including her grandfather Lou Gaw Tong, and her great-grandfather, head of the department of education. Giving Julie a new found appreciation for the great depth in her family history.

Sean Hayes – Sean’s story centers around the father figure. Sean is estranged from his father with a troubled past and goes on a quest to discover the root of the problem. Sean’s journey takes him to Chicago where he uncovers the sad details of his grandfather’s early death on skid row. Sean then follows his ancestral trail to Ireland, where court documents show the chaos in the Hayes family runs generations deep. Through Sean’s search, he deepens his understanding of his father and appreciate that he’s broken a turbulent family pattern on his own, perhaps offering Sean, a little more empathy for his father.

We make an emotional connection. I would be hard pressed to say I didn’t cry through my fair share of episodes. Why is that? There are two things at play. The producers have done a beautiful job of bringing the ancestors to life for us. They have given us characters in the celebrity’s ancestor, with hopes and dreams, failures and successes. It pulls us in emotionally either through our connection with the ancestor or by seeing how the celebrity is connecting to the story. Either way, the producers have used their research to make the ancestors real to the celebrity to the viewers.

It’s important for us to do the same in our own stories. We want to bring our ancestors to life in our stories, giving the readers an opportunity to make an emotional connection with them. In our stories, this is best achieved through characterization. Characterization is a writing tool that helps us to find our ancestor’s personality in our research and bring that personality to the page, the focus of our Workbook Number 2, Authentic Ancestors.

For example:

Julie Chen – From this year’s episode, the producers were able to show us the character of Julie’s grandfather, through his actions in the war and his commitment to bringing education to his village. We get a very clear understanding of his strengths and his beliefs. Therefore, when Julie visits the school her grandfather built it becomes a very emotional moment for her and the viewer.

Christina Applegate – One of the most emotional episodes in my memory belonged to Christina Applegate. Christina seeks to find the story of her grandmother. The information she uncovers, shows a women who lead a very difficult life and faced great personal struggles. But when they discover an incredible gesture her grandmother makes in providing a final resting place for her son, we truly see a mother’s love. Christina finds her grandmother’s final resting place and brings her father to visit, he is able to find and reconnect with his mother.

Scenes and Settings bring the story to life for us. In this year’s episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? we jet off to great locations, like Ireland and China. We watched Angie Harmon walk on the land of her ancestor, Julie Chen tour the school of her grandfather and Sean Hayes visit the court-house where his ancestor was charged. The producers place us in the places where the ancestor’s life played out, where significant events happened.

Scenes and setting offer you the ability to transpose your readers to another place and time. Setting offers your readers details and description so that they time travel, while writing scenes provides your reader the ability to see the events playing out before them on the page.

A main character to focus on. Notice in every Who Do You Think You Are? episode there is one central character, one ancestor that the producers set their sole focus on. Sure there might be some backstory, a bit about the family tree in general. But before too long we are pulled into a story about one ancestor and that is where the majority of the story is told. The producers don’t try to tell us too much about a lot of ancestor’s in the celebrity’s tree. They find one ancestor who plays an interesting or pivotal part in the celebrities history and they shape the family history around them.

In our stories, we too need to find that one ancestor. Don’t try to tell every ancestor’s story in one large story. Focus your family history around a main ancestor. Find your protagonist ancestor and tell your family history from their prospective. Authentic Ancestors provides some exercises to help you find your story ancestors.

Social History. The producers make great use of social history to help paint a picture of what was taking place at the time of the celebrities ancestors. The producers often direct celebrities to social historians who can explain what is happening at the time to get a deeper understanding of their ancestor’s actions.

By exploring the history and social history of the time, you can but your ancestor’s actions into context. You can get inside their heads and perhaps see the whys behind their decisions and actions. As a family history writer, world, regional and local history along with social history play an important role in shaping your stories and understanding the motivations and stakes behind your ancestor’s actions.

Next week, watch Who Do You Think You Are? through the lens of a writer. Alternatively, catch up on past episodes here. Look for the main character, the theme, the plot, the setting and scenes. Then apply these same principles to your storytelling.

How to Use Flashbacks EffectivelyHow to Use Flashbacks Effectively

March 12, 2015 0 Comments

Flashbacks are writing tools that allow the writer to give the reader a window into their past. They allow the writer to bring the past into the present. 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 their story. Flashbacks should not compete with the current story, or become the current story but enhance it. Flashbacks are also not back story but similar in that they allow writers to interrupt the current story to add explanation or answer a question. Let’s look at a few elements we can incorporate to effectively use flashbacks in our family history stories.

1. Find a trigger to ignite the flashback– Don’t jump into a flashback without a trigger. Your character must encounter something in their current story that triggers the memory, an external motivation that pushes your character into a past memory. The trigger signals to the reader that we are no longer in the present story. It also indicates to the reader that its content is important to the story.

2. Does it advance the story? Make sure the flashback adds value to the story. The flashback should be relevant and bring meaning to the story. It is not filler, don’t use it to fit in all that research you know about your ancestor. A flashback should always serve to advance the story, give perspective or answer a question within the present story.

3. Keep it Brief – Get to the key moment you want to convey to the reader. Don’t drag your readers through a long flashback scene when the important point is only a small fraction of the scene. If you find the flashback scene too extensive, maybe it’s time to consider whether it belongs within the greater frame of your story and not as a flashback.

4. Use in Moderation – Don’t use flashbacks unless you feel there is no other way to get an important piece of information conveyed. For new writer’s jumping back and forth in time is difficult to do effectively and can often leave your readers confused. It also can be a lazy way to write. If you’re continually looking to flashbacks to tell your story than it’s time to re-access your story line.

5. Find a trigger to bring the character back to the present. Make sure there is a trigger in the present that pulls the character out of the flashback and back into the present, cueing the reader that the story has returned to present. Without the cue, the reader may be left behind in the flashback. You want to make sure when you bring your story back to the present you are bringing the reader with you as well.

7 Tips to Formatting Dialogue7 Tips to Formatting Dialogue

March 11, 2015 0 Comments

Aside from struggling with re-creating dialogue, many family historians find formatting dialogue a little intimidating. It’s important to understand the techniques of writing your ancestor’s conversations and how to format them on the page so they serve your reader best and follow some basic elements of style.

Here are seven quick tips to formatting your dialogue that will help you overcome your hesitation.

1. Each time a new conversation or speech begins, you start a new paragraph. Additionally, every time there is a new speaker in a conversation, there is a new line. You do not include multiple speakers in one paragraph, so if one person asks a questions and another person responds, the question and the answer must be on two different lines. The use of this technique allows your reader to keep straight who is speaking.

For example:

Victoria asked, “When is Adam leaving for America?”

“On Thursday,” Grandpa replied.

2. Learn to use single and double quotation marks. Double quotation marks are used to indicate dialogue unless it is a quote within a quote, in which case single quotation marks are employed.

3. Understand the placement of quotation marks. Tradition dictates that punctuation falls inside the quotation marks. You may find some editors and professionals who are changing this practice but I would encourage you to stick with tradition.

4. Use commas before dialogue tags, for instance:

“I don’t want to go to Grandma’s house,” Helen said.

5. Dialogue Tags are the he said/she said of quotations. Don’t use these as forms of descriptions.

For example:

“I don’t want to leave,” Adam whimpered.

Instead of telling the reader he whimpered, spend your time describing the scene so we can see the image of Adam whimpering. It is perfectly acceptable to use he said/she said multiple times or not at all. The idea is your tags should be invisible and the focus should be on the dialogue.

6. With that being said use dialogue tags sparingly. You don’t want a string of he said, she said, he said, she said cluttering your story. If you know your characters and have given them a distinct voice, your reader will know from the dialogue who is saying what.

7. Capitalize only the first word of a dialogue sentence. If your dialogue is interrupted by a dialogue tag or description, you do not need to capitalize the second part of the sentence.

For example:

“I don’t want to go to Grandma’s house,” Victoria said while fidgeting in her chair, “because it brings back bad memories.”

Employ the above tips and your well on your way to writing great dialogue for your family history story.

What Kind of Family History Should I Write?What Kind of Family History Should I Write?

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

Before you begin to write your family history stories, you have a couple of decisions to make. One of those decisions: What kind of nonfiction narrative do I wish to write?

Family History Narrative Using Third Person

In this format your ancestor is the main character of your story, he has a conflict in his life, and he overcomes obstacles towards a resolution. He has a goal, and the obstacles are keeping him from that aim. This objective may take many shapes, emigration, finding a job, surviving a war, starting a family, owning land, love, fortune, fame. The list is as plentiful as our ancestors. The story is the journey to overcome the obstacles standing in the way of the goal. The story serves as a vehicle to share your family history research in an entertaining format rather a dry summary of facts.

Family History Memoir Using First Person

You as the storyteller and your ancestor, as the main protagonist, share the story. Your ancestor struggles with a conflict towards an end goal, much like in the first-person narrative above. In addition, you, the narrator struggles to find records or understand decisions your ancestors made, uncover a family secret or dispel folklore and correct misinformation. This format provides you with the opportunity to reflect, offer an opinion, and share your theories and speculations.

The two stories, your genealogical journey, and your ancestor’s story are weaved together to create an engaging tale for your readers.

Both formats will enlist the help of narrative nonfiction to craft those stories.

You’ll often hear me refer to the tools of creative nonfiction or narrative nonfiction. Creative nonfiction is the genre closest to fiction in its structure, but unlike fiction, in that, every detail must be factually true.

Lee Gutkind, nonfiction writer, and author of You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, sums it up best.

“ The words “creative” and “non?ction” describe the form. The word “creative” refers to the use of literary craft, the techniques ?ction writers, playwrights, and poets employ to present non?ction—factually accurate prose about real people and events—in a compelling, vivid, dramatic manner. The goal is to make non?ction stories read like ?ction so that your readers are as enthralled by fact as they are by fantasy.”

Your job as a family history writer is to tell and educate the reader while at the same time entertaining them. Many may write family history using nonfiction to present their research. However, the use of creative nonfiction offers the writer the ability to use a narrative arc, with scenes, setting, characterization and description to engage the reader in the story. The goal is to help your reader make an emotional connection with your ancestor through your words.

You still need extensive research to support your story. You remain faithful to the facts, but in using the tools of creative nonfiction, you give a rich, engaging and entertaining story that will capture the interest of your family. It is no longer enough to offer a narrative summary and hope someone will read it. We must deliver a story that brings the reader along on a journey.

Identifying Your Protagonist AncestorIdentifying Your Protagonist Ancestor

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

The protagonist is the central character in a story. I’m going to assume you’ve watched enough movies and read enough books, that you understand every story has a protagonist. However, did you realize even your family history story should have a protagonist.

Your reader needs a focal character. Someone through whose eyes the story is revealed. Your reader needs someone to either approve or disapprove of and without a main ancestor as your reader’s emotional guide they will have no feeling for the story either way. Your family will begin to connect to your story when they identify with an ancestor, a protagonist in the story.

Here’s a few things you should look for when determining your protagonist ancestor.

Action

Your primary ancestor’s life needs to demonstrate action in his or her life. You need to be able to see that they acted upon the world and not merely reacted to the world. The events in their life are the action they will bring to the story. By action, I don’t mean an ancestor who was hyper and ran around in circles. Action is choice. You want the protagonist in your family history story to be an ancestor who made decisions in their life. The bigger the choice, the more significant the story, and the larger the story, the more compelling the read. Tell your family history story from the perspective of the ancestor that made the biggest choice.

Conflict/Fear

Look for the conflict in your ancestor’s life. That could be an outer conflict or an inner conflict or perhaps both. If that fear or conflict is something that your readers will identify with then, you probably have chosen a good protagonist.

Plot

Your principal ancestor must be crucial to the story’s plot. If you can write a story without them or a mere mention of them than they are not your protagonist ancestor. Their actions and choices should move the family history forward.

Relatable

Your readers should empathize with your ancestor. They should be real people, with real dreams and real problems. You want your main character at the very least to be somewhat likable. They should want to know them, maybe even become their heroes.

Flaws

A good protagonist should have a few flaws. Don’t shy away from choosing an ancestor with visible defects. It is in these blemishes that your reader relates to their ancestor.

Change

Storytelling is change. In your story, change occurs either because the protagonist changes, the world changes or the protagonist changes the world. But something must change. In your research, it’s important to identify the change both outer and inner change that your protagonist goes through.

If you would like to know more about identifying a protagonist in your family history story, we discuss this in great detail in Authentic Ancestors, Bringing Your Ancestor to Life through Characterization.

Finding the FocusFinding the Focus

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

To write a good quality family history story, one must be able to take a lot of information, research and reduce it into a focused narrative.

William Zinsser reminds us to think small.

He writes, “Decide what corner of your subject you’re going to bite off, and be content to cover it well and stop.”

This is an especially important lesson for family history writers. We often want to include it all, every morsel of research we have uncovered in our travels. We want to write about every ancestor, every event. One of the most difficult tasks we face comes in reducing the wealth of information we have uncovered down to what is essential.

Ask yourself,

“What do I want my family to remember most about their family history?” and

“What point do I really want to make?”

How do we focus our story?

Ask questions

Asking questions helps us concentrate on the big picture topic. If you’ve chosen to write about your grandfather, ask yourself, what do I want my readers to know about my grandfather? What legacy did he leave to his family, what lesson can we find in his life?

Ask what really interests you about your grandfather? What do you find fascinating about him?

It’s one thing to write about family history because it is your passion, but consider which ancestors you are most passionate about? What about their lives will readers find most interesting. We all have ancestors that intrigue us. Ask yourself why? The focus of your story may be in the answer.

Understanding Your Audience

What is the purpose of your story? Who is your reader? Are you are writing for your family, a larger audience or yourself? The purpose can directly affect your story.

Identify a Specific Event or Time Frame

There may be many aspects of your ancestor’s life that may not make it to the page because it has no bearing on the story you are writing. A difficult thing for family historians to grasp. For instance, perhaps your writing about your grandfather’s life as a railroad conductor. While his family life may garner some small part of the story, the story may not focus on his married life, and children, etc. Perhaps that was a part of his life before his family. If they don’t support the focus of your story, don’t include them.

Family history stories do not have to be entire birth to death history of an ancestor. A story may span one day, 2-years or 10 years. It could even cover a single event in a life. Regardless, narrow the scope of the story. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself pulled in any number of directions.

Sift through the abundance of information you have on any given ancestor. Find those gems that will be the focus. When you find the focus, hold on to all the supporting facts and let the rest go. If we treat all the research equally, we give every fact and detail the same importance then our story will feel diffused and unfocused.

How to Begin Your StoryHow to Begin Your Story

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

Without a great beginning, a beginning that draws the reader in and hooks them your story is dead. The beginning becomes especially important in a family history narrative. We all know how difficult it can be to get our relatives to read about their family history. They may not have a particular interest in their history; maybe you forced them into reading this story, perhaps some guilt is involved. Regardless, how they got to that first page you want to be sure they stay, and they stay because they are intrigued.

The beginning is the start of your story up until your first plot point. The first plot point being the event that causes your ancestor to take action and set them on a path to their goal. This first plot point is often referred to as the inciting incident or the first turning point.

There is no tried and true answer to where to begin. Throw out the idea that your family history must start at the beginning of a life, in chronological order. Look at your research, your ancestor’s story and find a moment, event, question or surprise that you feel will grab your reader’s attention. Your story’s beginning should set the tone and mood, establish a point of view and make the author’s voice heard (that’s you).

A Checklist for the Beginning of Your Story

A Hook – the opening lines, the first moments of your story that grabs the reader’s attention, that captures your reader’s curiosity and propels them to keep reading.

The hook can come in a variety of ways:

Start with a question – put a question in your reader’s minds. Make them wonder what does this have to do with my ancestor, my family history. How is my ancestor going to get out of this situation?
Begin at a crucial moment – Choose a critical juncture in your family history, an event that captures your reader’s attention and will encourage them to learn what happens next.
Create an interesting picture – Start your family history with description that helps your reader’s paint a picture of their ancestor’s setting. Put them in a scene, give them some action and your reader will be drawn in.
Introduce an intriguing character– A character that grabs your reader’s attention will encourage them to stay to find out more. Let your ancestor’s personality take the lead.
Start with an unusual situation – Show us your ancestor in a unique situation that makes your family take notice, and they’ll be sticking around to see what it’s all about.

With each passing sentence, you want to continue to build, coaxing the reader to stay with you. Each paragraph should build on the last, pulling them deeper until they can’t turn back. The last sentence of each paragraph should be a catalyst to the next. We all remember a book that we couldn’t put down. The authors of these books excelled at creating great beginnings that drive you forward into the story.

Besides the hook, the start of your family history story should offer the reader other elements that will help capture their attention and curiosity.

Introduce the Protagonist – Introduce us to the Protagonist Ancestor if you haven’t done so in the hook. Assist the reader in establishing a relationship with your primary character.
Establish the Setting – The reader should be able to visualize where the story takes place, area, time and even season.
Introduce the Antagonist – Introduce us to the Antagonist Ancestor ( if there is one). Keep it brief, don’t give us everything up front.
Introduce a Story Question – Present the reader with a challenge that your ancestor faces. Have your readers asking the question, How will they overcome this challenge?
Theme – Introduce, your reader to the theme of your family history story. Give them something to think about, what does your family history mean?

What Your Beginning Shouldn’t Include

Avoid backstory or flashbacks. Stay in the present story. There is plenty of time to add historical information later.
Too much description, particularly of the central character, give us just enough to paint a picture, not a long drawn out description. Stick to unique and very specific details. It’s important to remember, in this case, more is not necessarily better.
Don’t introduce too many characters.
Don’t change point of views between characters, too confusing this early on. If you are writing your family history from the point of view of two ancestors, let the reader get comfortable with one point of view before changing.
Too many locations, keep your beginning limited to one or two locations. Ancestors travelled but let’s not have them in a dozen different places in the first chapter.
Don’t spoon-feed the reader, giving everything they need to know about their family history upfront. You’re writing this story to share a family history in a compelling read. Make them hang with you until the end, don’t share everything in the first chapter.
Prologues – much debated, but personally I dislike books that start with a prologue because they are often a place to dump backstory and it often feels lazy. It’s a personal choice; prologues are best used to raise a question in the reader’s mind about the main character.

Goals, Motivations and StakesGoals, Motivations and Stakes

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

You’ve chosen your Protagonist Ancestor, and now it’s time to structure his or her story in a format that will keep your readers entertained and engaged from beginning to end.

Every main character in a story has a goal that is ultimately the heart of the story. A reader stays with a story to see if the main character reach their goal. Your ancestor’s goal is motivated by something in their life, usually in their history, an experience, or event that may of had a substantial impact on them and their actions. In addition, if they didn’t achieve their goal, they fear a loss. It could be an external loss such as in a material item, money or land, or even the loss of life, or it could be internal losses, such as respect or honour.

Before you begin to write your story, it’s important to recognize the goals, motivations and stakes of your ancestor. They are critical to not only understanding them but also in shaping their story.

I love these next three questions because by answering them you not only identify your ancestor’s goals, motivations and stakes but you understand how they relate to each other.

GOAL – WHAT DOES YOUR ANCESTOR WANT?

MOTIVATION – WHY DOES YOUR ANCESTOR WANT IT?

STAKES – WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR ANCESTOR FAILS TO GET WHAT HE WANTS? WHAT WILL HAPPEN? WHAT COULD HAPPEN IF YOUR ANCESTOR HAD FAILS TO MEET HIS GOAL?

Let’s look at each of these elements individually.

Goal – There are any number of material and or emotional desires we seek; these are our goals. Your family history story needs a goal, which means your Protagonist Ancestor needs a goal. Where do I find the goal of my ancestor? Look at the actions in their lives. Look at the events on their timeline, did they emigrate, why? Did they own a great deal of land, did they fight in a war, did they become famous, or influential in politics, did they have a large family? Our ancestor’s actions are clues to what they valued in life, their goals, the wants or desires that they put most of their effort towards.

Does your ancestor want something so badly that they are prepared to destroy or be destroyed to attain this goal? To make sacrifices? To take risks? Did they join the army because they believe in the cause? Did leave the country because they didn’t support the cause?

Of course, not all goals are created equally, the bigger the goal, the bigger the story, the bigger the story, the more compelling the read. Try to find a goal that you feel will provide a big story that will engage your family. Stop thinking of your family history as a chronological timeline of events, but rather a desire, a want, with obstacles to overcome on the path to it.

Motivations – Once you’ve determined the purpose of your story, the next step is to understand their motivation. Why did your ancestor have this particular goal? Each and every human being who walked this earth had wants, desires that were driven by a motivation. Through your research, you wish to understand what that motivation may be. For example, if your ancestor’s goal was to own land, what in their history, their past motivated that desire? Look at motivation as the back story to the want.

Stakes – What happens if your ancestor does not fulfill his goal? The stakes are why we keep reading, if there is nothing at stake, no risk then there is little reason to keep turning the page. Of course, not all stories are life-or-death. Again big stakes produce significant stories. While the risks may not necessarily be life or death, our ancestors faced some very real stakes. For example – war, poverty, deportation, inscription, jail, poorhouses are only a few of the outcomes that may have occurred if they had not taken actions towards their goals.

Identify the goals, motivations and stakes of your ancestor and you have identified the heart of their story, along with the elements on which to shape your family history story plot.

Who is the Enemy?Who is the Enemy?

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

Once you’ve identified the conflict and obstacles that your ancestor faced it shouldn’t be too hard to identify the enemy, the source of the obstacles, the antagonist.

While your antagonist may be human, another person, even another ancestor, the enemy may come in many forms. The enemy may also be a thing, a concept or your protagonist ancestor himself. The antagonist may originate from a number of sources and could be both friendly and unfriendly.

The antagonist in your family history story is going to be the person or thing that opposes your protagonist ancestor in some way and attempts to stop him from achieving his goal. Consider who your ancestor is trying to defeat in telling their story, the source of the obstacles and conflict.

The antagonist can be a person with good intentions keeping the protag ancestor from harmful choices; it may be someone trying to stand in the protags way with their own agenda.

Here are a few questions to consider when discovering the antagonist in your family history story.

Who or what is the source of the obstacles?
What type of antagonist are you dealing with? Person, thing, idea, self?
What are the antagonist’s intentions?
What is motivating the antagonist?

Finding the Enemy in a Family History

Finding the obstacles that your ancestor faced in life can come from a number of directions. While your story may have a more traditional antagonist in the form of a person or another ancestor, there may be other entities that are the source of your ancestor’s obstacles, here are a few examples.

Institutions – banks, big business, government, etc.

Social Organizations – local community organizations, schools, neighbourhood, a church, a family, a boss or co-worker.

Nature – hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires, the weather, illness, mountains, jungles.

Self- what we do to ourselves knowingly or unknowingly, vices, how we feel about ourselves, or how our lives can keep us from reaching our goals.

Medical – issues that your ancestor faces or someone close to them faces. i.e. debilitating diseases, handicaps, mental health.

Your family history story is built around your ancestor’s conflict and the obstacles they overcame. There are many psychological, cultural, sociological, physiological and religious ideas that may offer challenges in your ancestor’s life from which you can structure their story and find an antagonist.

Consider your research and find the challenges your ancestor faced and what obstacles stood in their way. Give your ancestor an antagonist by discovering who or what was behind those obstacles.

Consider using the same ancestor profile we used in our workbook, Authentic Ancestors, to complete a character profile on your antagonist . It’s important to know the antagonist as well as you know your protagonist ancestor.

Finding the Conflict and the ObstaclesFinding the Conflict and the Obstacles

March 8, 2015 0 Comments

One of the fundamental components of any good family history story is recognizing a conflict your ancestor faced in their life and bringing that to the front of the story. Without conflict, there is no story. Story is built around a conflict, a challenge and the obstacles your character faces in pursuit of his goal. It’s crucial in keeping your reader engaged to the end. It creates a story question. How does my ancestor overcome this conflict, this challenge? The reader wants the answer and, for this reason, stays with the story to the end.

By the end of the beginning of your story, you want your readers to understand your ancestor’s challenge and how they intend to overcome this problem.

Let’s create an ancestor, Henry Jones, for the purposes of demonstrating conflict and obstacles, and follow him through a story plot. Of course, in your own family history, you’re going to pull this information from your research.

We start by understanding Henry’s goal.

Henry’s Goal: Henry Jones wants to own land.

Of course, in order for this story to be a story there must be some conflict, some challenge in Henry’s pursuit of that goal.

Henry’s Conflict– Henry cannot own land in his current country, land is owned by the wealthy, Henry is a peasant and will spend his life farming the land of the wealthy.

The First Turning Plot Point – this is the moment when your ancestor changes his path in pursuit of his goal. This is also often called the inciting incident.

Henry’s First turning point – Henry makes the decision to emigrate to the New World, where land is plentiful.

Obstacles

In our family history story, obstacles block our ancestor on their path to achieving their goals. In a story plot, they are often referred to as plot points.

There are three types of obstacles that your ancestor may confront:

ancestor vs. another person

ancestor vs. circumstance

ancestor vs. self

What is the difference between conflict and obstacle?

The conflict is the overall idea; Henry cannot own land. While obstacles are those roadblocks that stand between Henry resolving his desire to own land.

Keep in mind that both conflicts and obstacles may be both internal and external, they can come from within the protagonist or from external forces, friendly and not so friendly.

If we continue to follow the example above, our ancestor Henry who wished to own land may come up against many obstacles.

Henry’s Obstacles

Obstacle 1 – Henry arrives in United States, there is plenty of land but he must head west, Henry has no money to get there. He overcomes this obstacle by getting a job. ancestor vs. circumstance

Obstacle 2 – He’s saving his money and close to leaving when he meets the love of his life. But, Mary doesn’t want to leave her family behind and travel west for land; Henry must convince her this decision is in their best interest. ancestor vs. another person

Obstacle 3 – Along the way they fall on hardships, and Henry doubts his choices. Ancestor vs. self

Obstacle 4 – There journey is delayed by a violent storm. ancestor vs. circumstance

These obstacles are plot points in our story and keep our reader compelled to keep reading. The obstacles tell a story, but also show growth of your ancestor, from poor to rich, sad to happy, hate to love, weak to strong.

Look at your research, what obstacles did your ancestor’s face in pursuit of their goals?