No Writer's Block!

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New Mexico Wildfire--Silver City Sun-News




Devon Noel Lee is back! The Family History Fanatics team had to flee their home to escape the terrible forest fires in New Mexico, and have recently been able to resume their informative, useful videos. Devon's first loves in genealogy are first, research, and then writing about family. 



Write a Timeline

Recently I watched one of her short writing videos called "Write a Family History Story in Chronological Order | FIRST DRAFT ONLY" which seems so logical! Notice the "first draft only" part of the title. Writing out a timeline can sort your thoughts and yield insights about what happened in the family, such as births happening during travel, deaths of family members close together, when and where the land purchases took place, all of which might otherwise not be noticed.

You may notice holes in your research as you write, which will pause the writing while you chase down those records and complete finding context and family dynamics necessary to tell an interesting story. If you have been researching in chunks, such as land and tax records, then social standing or political or business life, you can write those up as you go, then later edit those parts into the chronological first draft.



No Writer's Block

Reading a story with no drama, no suspense, could be boring, so this does not mean the final draft will be in chrono-order. But First Things First! Get the first draft written. For some help in that, see "Overcome Writer's Block Hint: IT'S NOT REAL in Family History." This video, only 6 minutes long is important, because writer's block stops so many of us from doing the critical work of writing about our ancestors and their families. Inspiration develops after we've done the research, and have already begun the first draft. 

Have you found all the relevant records? If not, then find them. 

Next, continue creating a timeline based on the records, and also consult other timelines, such as http://ourtimelines.com/ to enrich your knowledge of events that influenced your ancestors. Ancestry, FamilySearch and MyHeritage as well as desktop genealogy software offer timeline features based on the records you have found, as well as historical events. Notice that the genealogy sites may have done some of the math to point out the age when events happen in your ancestor's life, which can reveal yet more context. Also see: The Timeline: Your Guide Through the Twists and Turns of Research and The Only Outline Family History Writers Need.

Write a paragraph for each record you have uncovered, detailing everything you can glean. You may not use all of these information items in your final, but as you write, little bits of information may reveal context and family dynamics not apparent in the individual records themselves. You may want to dig more deeply. For example, who was the minister or priest who performed the marriage? Was it a church, the bride's home, or the court house? Who witnessed, and what is their relationship to the couple? There can be a whole series of paragraphs sparked by one record. 


Just Write

I loved Devon's points in the show notes for "Overcoming Writer's Block":

  • Writing a family history book or story must become a habit, just as crafting genealogy source citations. 
  • After you find some discoveries about an ancestor, force yourself to write a short story or biography. 
  • Make yourself write even if you do not feel like it's good enough.
  • Write even if you don't feel you have enough supporting documents yet.
  • Push through the "writer's block," and you'll soon realize that you have many more stories ready for editing and publication. [1]

In other words, just write! Don't try to create the final story; just start your first draft, based on a timeline of records. Then you will have the insight, the inspiration and the raw materials to craft that final story or report. 

And you know what we hope you will do then -- send it to the blog editor for publication! M.Strickland@skcgs.org

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1. https://www.familyhistoryfanatics.com/writers-block


Valorie Zimmerman


Comments

  1. ValorieAugust 15, 2022 at 12:48 PM

    Thank you to Devon Noel Lee for her inspiration and creativity

    ReplyDelete

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