| How to Break Through Genealogist's Writers Block |
| Every November writers around the world challenge themselves to write at least 50,000 words of a brand new novel. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a fun event that helps writers of all skill levels break through their writer’s block and bring their stories to life on paper. But what if the story you wanted to write was already on paper — just lost in a sea of facts and numbers? This is the writing challenge of a genealogist: how to somehow transform their hard-earned research into compelling stories that will intrigue and inspire the reader. It’s a daunting task; how do you make your story interesting while still staying true to the facts? How do you handle sensitive information that may affect living relatives? If questions like these have you stuck behind genealogist’s writer’s block, here are a few steps you can take that can help you get started: Get inspired. It’s much easier to get started if you have an idea of what the final product will look like. Genealogy writing can be done in various styles and genres. Explore the options and consider reading a few examples to familiarize yourself with the style. Make a plan. Writing projects can be intimidating. Make the task more manageable by creating a plan with a clearly defined goal and purpose. Get organized. Like genealogy research itself, it’s easy to let your writing project to get out of control. Choosing your organizational system and tools ahead of time will help you keep track of everything. We’ve got a free form that you can use to plan and organize your project, and we’ve also covered several helpful organizational apps. Happy writing! |
