Writing your family history

Image by Leandro De Carvalho from Pixabay 

Let's talk about writing, shall we? I'm contributing to a Talking About session tomorrow morning run by QFHS.  

The session description says the following:

The best way to preserve your family history is to write about it.

You could write a story for our journal; upload a document to Ancestry; a page on a website such as the Virtual War Memorial, My Primitive Methodists; an entry on Convict Records, Wikipedia and Wikitree; a media output (blog, podcast and YouTube); or a play for your grandchildren to act out.

Have you ever looked for pictures of writing on something like Pixabay?  Most of them are images of disembodied people. The focus is on their hands or their torso.  Most are missing their heads.  

The photo at the beginning of this post is rare.  We can see the author's head and he is even smiling.  Good for him.  Obviously, he didn't lie down in an ant's nest in that park - like I probably would. I live in Australia - lying down anywhere lends itself to getting up close and personal with our fauna.  Even tonight, as I was lying on my bed reading something someone else had written, I was keeping an eagle eye on the screen door - looking at the gap where the spiders seem to get in when it's raining. I think this guy is writing a letter to his lover. What do you think?  No one could be that happy about a uni assignment surely? C'mon Alex, get real.  The guy's an amateur model.  His friend, the photographer, has just told him a porky pie about him being the next Tommy Hilfiger model to make him smile.  It's a blank piece of paper and the pen has run out of ink because this is the 27th take.

What's my point? Well - writing is an odd activity.  You, the author, are trying to digest what you know or have discovered or are passionate about and then regurgitate it in a palatable or engaging format that someone else might actually be interested in reading.  Or in the case of television or a movie or a talking book - watch it or listen to it. 

Let's look at some more pictures.

You can write in a group.

Or on your own. (See what I mean about headless?)

Some people get a bit precious about what they write with - fountain pens for example.  I'm sure they have improved over the years but my abiding memory of fountain pens is the blue ink all over my fingers at school and Milton fluid to try and get the ink out of my uniform.

And what is it with typewriters?  Look at that romantic vision of a Bronte-Esque-looking writer.  She's just realized there isn't a delete key and she's going to have to use liquid paper. And could someone please clean those windows so the poor woman can see what she has written?

What about this would-be writer, pretending to write with the friggin' mobile AND the laptop right beside her.  Talk about distraction!  That's why the page is blank.  No chance.

As a writer, you will need inspiration, no doubt about that.  Photos, letters, and diaries are all good fodder for material.

Lordy, I've even been known to read books to see how other writers do it.  Don't look too closely at that book - it's written in German.  I can't read German to save my life.

So, I can't wait to see what everyone shares tomorrow about the writing experience.  The good, and the bad, what inspires them, how to avoid distractions, and how to meet deadlines - self-imposed or otherwise. Why they write the way they do be it blog, book, journal article, or play.

What do they do when they get stuck I wonder?

What do they eat or drink to get them through?

Are they a planner?

or a pantser?  Like me.

This last photo reminded me why I do it at all. 

Do you remember when you first learned to write?  I had a fab teacher in 2nd grade.  We would write little books every week - just three bits of paper folded in half and stapled together on the spine.  We would studiously write the title of our book and then "written and illustrated by......" We were so proud of being able to write "illustrated".  That was a big word.  And the stories just flowed out of us.  I still have those stories.  They were about all manner of things. Lions, tigers, goodness knows what.  I had no fear.  There was no judgment or self-editing.  Those were the days.  I remember when... 

I hope you find joy in your writing.  That you have whatever tools you need or desire, be it a silly old typewriter or a fancy non-leaking fountain pen.  Enough corn chips or cupcakes to sink a ship and endless cups of tea or glasses of wine. Whatever it takes.

But I suspect the biggest challenge most of us face is finding the time and the space to write as well as challenging the never-ending excuses for why we can't do it just at this particular moment.  

Above all, getting over ourselves and our inhibitions that constantly get in the way of sharing some of our precious and unique thoughts and ideas with others.

What do you think about writing family history? What's your preferred format? How do you get past the blank page? Do you have a routine?  What's your greatest obstacle in writing? What tools or resources must you have to get the job done?