Tips for Getting Down the First Draft
2 thought on “Tips for Getting Down the First Draft”
Comments are closed.
Related Post
How to Transform Writing Dreams into Tangible GoalsHow to Transform Writing Dreams into Tangible Goals
As the curtain falls on this year, it’s time to take a moment to celebrate our triumphs, envision grand dreams for 2024, and transform those dreams into achievable targets.
Don’t miss out on today’s episode of “Storylines”. We’ve got a special treat for you – six thought-provoking questions that will kickstart your goal planning journey for 2024. Click, watch, and let’s start crafting your future together!
Who is the Enemy?Who is the Enemy?
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.
Thanks for this. I am in the process of doing my first story. This is very helpful, and I look forward to more.
Thanks, Lynn! This helped to pull me back to the creative writing process just as I was getting impossibly lost in the story while I was writing. Now I can go back to my outline, and making index/scene cards to carry me along in the process. Also very helpful was the reminder to allow myself a special time and place to write and feeling okay about closing the door to family during that time. Finally, and probably most important, I really need to stop polishing and reaching for perfection as I go along, but just get the first messy draft done and edit LATER. A huge weakness with me. It is too frustrating to get the first draft down and edit at the same time. You have been such a wonderful support in my writing. If I ever finish this book, you will be first on my list for sending a copy!