How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History

How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History PDF

Author: Annette Gendler

Publisher:

Published: 2019-12-03

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781734065206

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Do you have a box of mementos you'd love to turn into a book? Discover where to start and how to choose a format to bring your ancestry to life. Have you inherited the responsibility of preserving your family history? Do you wish you could transform your old photos and artifacts into entertaining tales? Want to record all those great remember-when's but worry your writing will bore your relatives to tears? Author and writing instructor Annette Gendler has helped countless eager writers over her many years of teaching at StoryStudio Chicago. Now she'll show you how you can turn your treasured family saga into a captivating narrative you'll be proud to share. How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History is a concise guide for converting your heirlooms and oral anecdotes into engaging prose. Following Annette Gendler's step-by-step instructions, you'll learn how to decide which memories are best suited to chronicle your loved ones' unique journeys through life, and what makes them an absorbing read. Supported with personal examples and writing prompts at the end of each chapter, you'll quickly be giving voice to your ancestors' adventures. You'll discover: - How to prioritize all those photos, letters, diaries, and official documents- Sample passages and an extensive reading list to inspire your creativity - Ways to craft stories that won't put your readers to sleep - Tips for dealing with negativity, missing materials, or too much information - Methods for conducting research to ensure accuracy, and much, much more! How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History is a must-have resource for anyone interested in preserving their lineage. If you like actionable advice, no-frills-added instructions, and guidance from a memoir specialist, then you'll love Annette Gendler's easy approach.

The Truth about Stories

The Truth about Stories PDF

Author: Thomas King

Publisher: House of Anansi

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 0887846963

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Winner of the 2003 Trillium Book Award "Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples. Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well.

Write Your Family History: Easy Steps to Organize, Save and Share

Write Your Family History: Easy Steps to Organize, Save and Share PDF

Author: Stephen Szabados

Publisher: Stephen Szabados

Published: 2014-04-09

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Writing a family history does not have to be an overwhelming task. This book outlines a simple process that will aid your research and create pages of information that can be read and understood by all family members. Your research will become faster and more accurate and your family can enjoy the family history. Remember, our writing should go beyond finding documents and filling in charts. Hopefully, the methods discussed in this book will show the reader a simple format that will make this task much easier. You may be reluctant to write down these stories because you do not consider yourself a writer. Our ancestors were ordinary people. Why should we write about them? All of our immigrant ancestors contributed to America’s history and their stories should be saved for our grandchildren. Our family histories should give clues of their roles and this will help us understand our roots.

Jumping Over Shadows

Jumping Over Shadows PDF

Author: Annette Gendler

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2017-04-04

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1631521713

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The true story of a German-Jewish love that overcame the burdens of the past. Finalist for the 2017 Book of the Year Award by the Chicago Writers Association “A book that is hard to put down.” —Jerusalem Post “This book confirms Annette Gendler as an indispensable Jewish voice for our time." —Yossi Klein Halevi, author of Like Dreamers "The ghosts of the past haunt a woman’s search for herself in this thoughtful, poignant memoir about the transformative power of love and faith.” —Hillary Jordan, author of Mudbound, now a Netflix movie “An exquisitely written conversion story which expounds upon personal and collective identity.” —Washington Independent Review of Books “A compelling, gracefully written memoir about the impact of the past on the present.” —Michael Steinberg, author of Still Pitching History was repeating itself when Annette fell in love with Harry, a Jewish man, the son of Holocaust survivors, in Germany in 1985. Her Great-Aunt Resi had been married to a Jew in Czechoslovakia before World War II―a marriage that, while happy, put the entire family in mortal danger once the Nazis took over their hometown in 1938. Annette and Harry’s love, meanwhile, was the ultimate nightmare for Harry’s family. Not only was their son considering marrying a non-Jew, but a German. Weighed down by the burdens of their family histories, Annette and Harry kept their relationship secret for three years, until they could forge a path into the future and create a new life in Chicago. Annette found a spiritual home in Judaism―a choice that paved the way toward acceptance by Harry’s family, and redemption for some of the wounds of her own family’s past.

Courage, My Love

Courage, My Love PDF

Author: Kristin Beck

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-04-13

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0593101561

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

When the Nazi occupation of Rome begins, two courageous young women are plunged deep into the Italian Resistance to fight for their freedom in this captivating debut novel. Rome, 1943 Lucia Colombo has had her doubts about fascism for years, but as a single mother in an increasingly unstable country, politics are for other people--she needs to focus on keeping herself and her son alive. Then the Italian government falls and the German occupation begins, and suddenly, Lucia finds that complacency is no longer an option. Francesca Gallo has always been aware of injustice and suffering. A polio survivor who lost her father when he was arrested for his anti-fascist politics, she came to Rome with her fiancé to start a new life. But when the Germans invade and her fiancé is taken by the Nazis, Francesca decides she has only one option: to fight back. As Lucia and Francesca are pulled deeper into the struggle against the Nazi occupation, both women learn to resist alongside the partisans to drive the Germans from Rome. But as winter sets in, the occupation tightens its grip on the city, and the resistance is in constant danger. In the darkest days, Francesca and Lucia face their pasts, find the courage to love, and maintain hope for a future that is finally free.

Publish Your Family History

Publish Your Family History PDF

Author: Dina C. Carson

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781897579633

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

If you have stories to share with your family, whether you have been researching a short time or a long time, this book will: * take you through the four stages of publishing projects * show you how publishing works * help you pick a project to publish * lead you through a research review to see what you have and what you still need to tell the stories in a compelling way * give you the skills to become a good storyteller * lead you through the process of editing * instruct you how to prepare your manuscript to look like it was professionally published and * give you tips for getting the word out that you have a book available Everything you need to write and publish your family history.

Writing About Your Life

Writing About Your Life PDF

Author: William Zinsser

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 2005-03-28

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9781569243794

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Written with elegance, warmth, and humor, this highly original "teaching memoir" by William Zinsser—renowned bestselling author of On Writing Well gives you the tools to organize and recover your past, and the confidence to believe in your life narrative. His method is to take you on a memoir of his own: 13 chapters in which he recalls dramatic, amusing, and often surprising moments in his long and varied life as a writer, editor, teacher, and traveler. Along the way, Zinsser pauses to explain the technical decisions he made as he wrote about his life. They are the same decisions you'll have to make as you write about your own life: matters of selection, condensation, focus, attitude, voice, and tone.

Writing Your Family History

Writing Your Family History PDF

Author: Gill Blanchard

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2014-09-30

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1473841186

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

“Inspirational and very useful . . . quite literally packed with valuable tips and exercises and is almost a mini-course in writing your family history.”—Bedfordshire Family History Society Gill Blanchard’s practical step-by-step guide to writing a family history is designed for anyone who wants to bring their ancestors’ stories to life. She looks at ways of overcoming the particular problems family historians face when writing a family history—how to deal with gaps in knowledge, how to describe generations of people who did the same jobs or lived in the same area, how to cover the numerous births, marriages and deaths that occur, and when to stop researching and start writing. Her book provides examples to help readers find their own writing style, deal with family stories, missing pieces of information and anomalies. It also offers advice on key aspects of composition, such as adding local and social history context and using secondary material. The focus throughout is on how to develop a story from beginning to end. Exercises are a key feature of the text. There is guidance on the various formats a family history can take and how to choose the appropriate one, with examples of format and layout. Production and publishing are also covered—books, booklets, newsletters, websites, blogs and ebooks. “If you’re toying with the idea of writing a family history-themed book, whether it be for general publication or simply for family members, read this first and then take the plunge. Who knows, it could be a bestseller!”—Family Tree Magazine

You Can Trust God to Write Your Story

You Can Trust God to Write Your Story PDF

Author: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

Publisher: Moody Publishers

Published: 2019-09-03

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0802498140

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

WHAT’S GOD DOING IN YOUR STORY? Our kids beg us for stories at bedtime or while we drive; we gather around firepits and dinner tables to tell and retell our favorite tales—the more dramatic the better. But when it comes to our actual lives, we prefer something less sensational, even boring—sunny skies and smooth sailing, please and thank you. We want our own stories to be predictable, safe, controllable, and catastrophe-free. When plans fall apart, jobs are lost, kids wander off, doctors give bad reports, we often wonder, "What are you doing, God? Are you sure you have this under control? It doesn’t really seem like it right now." God is the master Storyteller. He’s writing your story and it’s a part of His bigger, grander, eternal Story. But we’re still in the middle. We haven’t gotten to the happy ending yet, and it can be hard to trust Him in the thick of our struggles. That’s why Robert and Nancy share their own story, friends’ stories, and the stories of people in the Bible who have faced life-altering challenges, but, in the end, have found God to be faithful. Learn why you really can trust God to write your story—no matter what plot twists you may encounter along the way. "This is a unique and charming book, integrating stories of God’s providence from His people and His Word. Nancy and Robert write personally and beautifully, infusing readers with a Christ-centered vision, hope, and trust for the future." -Randy Alcorn, author of Heaven, Giving is the Good Life, and Deception "You Can Trust God to Write Your Story is an amazing book whose title says it all. For if you are a follower of Jesus, every day of your life—whether you feel like it or not—is weighted with kingdom purpose, eternal significance, and a royal destiny filled with joy and contentment. Let my dear friends, Robert and Nancy, help you embrace the mysteries of the Lord’s Providence. For when it comes to happy endings, you can’t find a better Author than the God of the Bible. Happy endings are His forte—turn the page, trust Him, and discover it for yourself." -Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni and Friends International Disability Center