Ancestral Writing Group

This special interest group of Lake County Genealogical Society helps fulfill its purpose to record and preserve family histories, whether Lake County or not, and encourage compilation and publication. We will be exploring how to make our ancestor's lives interesting to the current generation while imparting facts for future genealogists.  There is a LOT in that dash between the birth and death dates, and we will explore how to find it and write it. 

Q: How does this Writing Group work?

A: Participants will work independently on their writing project of an individual or family group.  Once a month they will share their latest work-in-progress by adding a Reply ALL email to the group from Monthly Reminder.  The suggested deadline for the submission is a week before the Zoom meeting in order to give everyone a chance to read and make separate notes about how they reacted to the piece.

Zoom meeting invites and reminders will be sent out by host Rose D. (sleeperseeker @ gmail.com) and each meeting now has a limit of 3 hours, if needed. (Yay!)

During the meeting, after general greetings, there will be a round robin discussion of each submitted piece. Suggestions from first impression notes of what was liked or were confused about are encouraged. Critiques will be helpful and without malice (or else!)  It matters not that you may not have family in Lake County. It matters to get your family history written down and later, after editing is complete, made available for preservation.  

Q: Can you give me a Writing Prompt?

A: "What are your memories of the oldest living relative that you personally met?" 

Q: More Prompts: Christmas Time: Season of Giving. What one item will you be gifting to someone when you pass?  What is the story behind it that makes it so special?  Who is the person & why is this perfect for them? 

Irish or Ireland family

A Strong women/Women in your family, or someone who influenced you

A Suffragist

Easter traditions

Interview an oldster and write about what you learned

Neighbors you remember and what you learned about them since researching them.

Finish up a small biography, since you've got that person's timeline created... start with an event that changed that person's life (even minor), show how the person was before the event and compare it to afterwards.

What was the town like that your ancestor lived in? Who still lives there that you could interview, casually or otherwise?

Finish a writing project or rewrite/edit a previous one.

Remember to keep in mind your audience (hint, it's not us!)  

Re-read your story with fresh eyes, pretend you don't know the people in your story.. Can you follow along who is who, and who "they" are?

After your edits are done, read it out loud. Did you stumble over how the words came out? Did you add or subtract from the written word? Edit it some more!

I hope you've been inspired, or better yet, didn't even need the inspiration!