Monthly Family History Prompt

First of all, I’m sorry to be so long between posts. I’ve been busily trying to complete the manuscript for my third novel and have been directing all my attention in that direction. But I know it’s important to keep up your efforts to document your family history so I’m taking a break this afternoon from novel writing and putting some time into helping to stimulate the capturing of your story.

For anyone who has not been following my blog and doesn’t know what I’m talking about, I am encouraging all my followers to write or record stories about their lives. I believe that every story is important and that one day your descendants will be puzzled, the way that I have been about my ancestor’s lives, about your life and how it relates to their personal story. I was lucky in that my paternal grandfather left poetry and a journal behind. And I’m even luckier that it survived and informed my understanding of his journey (see “A Ring of Promises” if you are interested in that story). However, there were a lot of missing details that made it difficult to piece together the story. I had to spend days at the National Archives sifting through material to figure out the events that were referred to but not described in detail. Please make it easier for your descendants and write or dictate vignettes of your life.

Today’s assignment is to think about the most influential person in your life to date. Now when I say “most influential” I don’t want you to spend hours trying to decide between two people … if you have more than one influential person it will be important for you to write or dictate something about each of them. So, for the first assignment just pick one of the influential people in your life and use him or her or them if that is their pronoun and work through the following exercise.

1. When you are writing something that you want others to read try to write it interestingly. Don’t just say first this happened, then this happened, then this happened. Instead, find a way into the story that will draw the reader in. For example, if the person you are writing about saved your life in a desert you could start by saying something like: Have you ever been lost in a desert with only a sip of water left? I have … and then go on to tell the story of being lost in the desert and how this influential person came upon you and helped you.
2. It’s a good idea to write a point-form outline of what you want to convey about this person and/or the event that brought you together. This will get the writing juices flowing and allow you to cycle back to the list after you think you are finished to make sure you have covered everything.
3. Think about the Who, What, When, Where and Why of the story. Have you included something about each?
4. When you think you are done read it out loud. If you are open to input from others read it to someone else. If not, then read it to yourself. The story will sound different when you hear it as opposed to just reading it silently to yourself.
5. If you read it to someone else, ask them what they liked about it and what puzzled them about the story. This will help you to understand how you can improve it.
6. Make any alterations and then put the story somewhere safe and make a note to come back to it in 48 hours or so. Your subconscious mind will be thinking about that person and the information you have written as you go through your day. If you get any sudden insights or ideas about how to improve your story write them down on paper or if you have an electronic device you can use a notepad or recording feature. Don’t expect to remember it when you sit down to revise the story. What seems like a brilliant idea at the moment may not even come into your mind when you need it to.

Good luck with bringing your story to life! Ask any questions by using the comment function. I’m always happy to hear from my readers.