Hi, I'm Devon Noel Lee with Family History Fanatics and you
know what I love? I love when viewers like you start asking
us questions that we can answer. So today, we're going
to answer a question from Sandy Cox and Sandy asked, how do you
start writing your story? Not like start writing the story
but how do you start your story like your first line, your
first paragraph? How do you start it so that someone
actually wants to read your book?
Well, Sandy, that is a fabulous question and I'm so glad you
asked. For anybody else who has questions regarding writing or
genealogy or anything else, be sure to put your comments and
questions below in the comment section because we will
definitely consider doing a video for you in the future
just like we're doing for Sandy. Now, Sandy, let's talk
about the difference between a book that has a genealogy
perspective, a family history perspective and most of the
books that you put on a shelf Think of the first lines of
some of the famous books out there. It was the best of
times, it was the worst of time. That's a great line. Let
me get you started. But here's the problem. Most Family
History books are not novels. Stressing out over the first
line in the first paragraph of a novel is important because
novels are competing against hundreds of thousands of novels
that are on bookshelf not just from today's writers but
authors for hundreds of years. They know in anyone? So, stops
worrying so much about that first line in that first
paragraph because when you have a family history story, it's
more like a non-fiction book. When you read a non-fiction
book, the first line doesn't matter as much but a reader
wants to know very quickly what you expect and so it's more
important that you focus on the first event that you start off
in your family history books and your writing than the first
line or the first paragraph. I'm so excited. Here's another
way to think about a family history book, a story versus a
novel, the creative writing way of writing stories. You're a
reporter. You're writing a feature. Now, in reporting,
generally, we, when we do a news piece, the most important
information is in the first paragraph. You have a headline
to cook somebody into reading your writing and yet that first
paraph that you better tell them the most important
information right there in that first paragraph and then as you
your story, it decreases in importance as you get to the
bottom paragraphs because most people don't read all the way
to the bottom of a newspaper article. Generally in a family
history, you want people to read from beginning to end but
if you want them to actually stay in tune, actually want to
read your book, then start with the most important story. Start
in the middle, start at the end, start in the turning
point, start somewhere other than Bob was born on a cold day
in nineteen twenty, in the Ukraine right not very exciting
so again think about what's the most important part of the
family story and start there and then in fill the rest of
your story with the important facts so again figure out what
the most important part of an ancestor's life is the most
exciting and start there and then weave the rest of the
effects into your story as you fill the rest of your book
whenever you write a news feature or read a news feature
not the editorial page not the news page but the human
interest stories well then you can have a lot of fun but the
first line isn't all that important the headline is the
most important to get someone to read your story but then
quickly getting to the action telling people what is the
story about who are we featuring why are they
important but you don't have to put the most important things
first and then the least important thing at the end so
take some tips from journalism rather than creative writing
when you're concerned about how do you begin the stories for
your families Sandy thank you so much for sharing that
question I hope I gave you a little bit of insight on how to
get started writing your family histories quite honestly a
family history just has a completely different audience
than the creative writing works that you see which are usually
equated to novels but more like a nonfiction people know what
to expect when they pick up a non-fiction book. If it's going
to be how to sew, the book better be about how to sew and
tell you quickly how to sew. When it comes to family
history, if it's about Uncle Fred, will the story better be
about Uncle Fred and it's going to be his life stories. So, we
can take the pressure off of trying to make the first
sentence great or the first paragraph great and really
deciding do we want to find more of the inverted pyramid
content of a new story where we share the most important thing
first and then down to the least important things or do we
want to take an feature approach from the newspaper
where people know what they're going to get into with a
feature and it's our job to hook em with a great title and
then just tell a great story started wherever we feel most
comfortable. Readers of Family History are a whole lot more
and you know what's more important than trying to figure
out an award-winning first line or paragraph? Set you write
your story because a story that's not written and shared
with your family members doesn't benefit anyone. So,
relax, write your stories, and then share a link when you're
done so we can all celebrate with you. I'm Devon Lee with
Family History Fanatics. If you have other tips for Sandy,
share them in the comments below and once again, if you
have further questions we can answer here on this channel,
put them in the comment section below and they'll be answered
in a future video.