These are the 21st & 22nd in a series of Articles.
WRITING YOUR FAMILY HISTORY
Part I
Patricia Wellingham-Jones
You’ve been collecting information for years: searching data bases and genealogy programs; spending time at the Church of Latter Day Saints Family History Centers; writing and phoning distant relatives; badgering family members for stories big and small. Now you must do something with it.
For twenty years I’ve published books in a wide range of fields. Along the way I researched, wrote and produced five family histories. The tips here come from that experience, plus talks and handouts I have given since. I hope they make the process easier for you.
Part I of four gives tips on assembling the material. Part II concerns writing the book and making sure the end result is the way you want it to read. Part III discusses the actual components of the book with tips I’ve learned the hard way. And Part IV discusses covers and mentions some final touches to review at the end of your project. This information is designed for creating the book manually, although computer programs exist which can guide you through the whole process.
Preparing to Write
Your most important decision is deciding to write the book. You must make that commitment and be ready to give up much of your social life until it’s finished. See article #15 in the January 2005 Long Story Short called “Keys To Getting that Long Writing Project Done” for helpful information.
Keep all your material in one place; you don’t want bits and pieces scattered all over the house. Sort papers and data into the groups where individual items fit best. Keep each collection of information in its own place (folder, box, drawer, etc.).
I found it easiest, and least confusing, to work on one family at a time. The project isn’t so overwhelming this way. First establish your timeline for each family using census, groups, where people work and when, relationships, and so on. Sort the reference material into each family’s timeline. Don’t despair when people or dates overlap, just make a note of it.
Look at other family history books as models for how you want to design your book or arrange the data or chapters.
Tips and Essentials on Writing
As you get ready to write, paying attention to these points will save you grief later.
Page Layout
It pays to set up your page size and margins in your document file before you place a word on the computer. This allows you to know exactly how much space you have and what the ongoing page count is. You will also be able to visualize your book and where the graphics fit as you go along, preventing unhappy surprises at the end.
The Value of an Outline
Although some people don’t like to work with or from an outline, in a project this large, an outline plots the sequence of the book and helps you know where you’re going, keeps you on track. It also makes sure you cover everything you want covered and helps keep your thinking straight. The outline keeps the book flowing.
Tips: There are different ways to plot a book, for those who just don’t like outlines. Make yourself allow random stuff to enter, goodies often surface during the process. Allow for change.
References
Do note the full information the first time you look at the data. This saves enormous frustration later, when you can’t lay hand on that specific book title or file. Get permission from living sources, in writing; this avoids problems and clears you when publishing the information. Websites and emails are also references; keep the dates, etc. You can list references at the end of a chapter, end of the book, or in footnotes on the page. Just be sure you can back up all your statements—this is a work of data, not fiction, and will be useless to others, not to mention scorned, if you assume links that do not exist.
Anecdotes
Anecdotes and short stories about people and places keep the reader interested. They put a human scale to the project and make historical figures real. Even if you’re not a good writer, anecdotes in the person’s own voice cover weaknesses in the writing and give the true flavor of that person and his/her life. These tidbits add richness and color to the text, add humor to dry material, and make the book and individuals memorable.
Tip: Remember—give sources of anecdotes in references, too.
WRITING YOUR FAMILY HISTORY
Part II
Patricia Wellingham-Jones
All right! You’re ready to start actually setting on paper what you’ve learned. These tips may help produce a polished and interesting read.
On the Actual Writing
Aim for clarity and conciseness; long and wandering writing is boring. Your chapters, as well as the entire book, need a beginning, middle and end as all good stories have. Make the book as easy to follow as you can—perhaps family by family, or era, or state.
Short lines grab attention, make for drama; long lines/paragraphs promote mulling, slow the action.
In addition to the family history, add the history of the time, place, and era. People’s lives don’t happen in a vacuum; details (clothes, scenery, food, work, smells, etc.) bring them to life and intrigue the reader. Handle strong material with restraint; the object is not to hurt feelings but trace history. Some of what you discover in your research may prove painful to family members so be careful how you word things. Back up everything you say with references. Add humor where appropriate.
Use as a guide any sets of rules for good writing that you can find. The cardinal rule whenever possible is show, don’t tell. Start writing, keep going, let it take you where it will. Then – revise, revise, revise.
Critiquing
Ask a friend or your writers’ group to read your chapters and critique.
“Critique” does not criticize (censure or attack) the writer or the writing. Critique applies critical analysis to what is written to see what works, what doesn’t, what might help the final product. It raises questions and helps provide answers to the writing, shows where the writing is unclear, asks “does it make sense?” Critique identifies strong and weak areas.
In the end, this is your book, you make the final decision after weighing what others say.
Editing
Check for spelling; double check names. Beware of spell check on the computer – it doesn’t consider context. Check grammar. Check punctuation. Assure that everything matches. A style sheet set up at the beginning with details of font styles, chapter headings, spacing decisions, etc. gives you a guide for later proofreading. Hire an editor/proofreader if you feel uncertain of your own skills.
Proofread the final draft—again—to catch all the little bugs. And realize, the gremlins get in the night before you take the book to press and play with all the letters, scramble syntax, move footnotes around. That’s why you find glitches after the book is printed and it’s too late to fix them.
See Parts III and IV for the actual components of your family history book.
(to be continued next month)
