Category Archives: Writing / Editing

For the third year in a row, Lynn Palermo (a.k.a. The Armchair Genealogist) is hosting the Family History Writing Challenge.  This 28-day challenge begins on February 1 and ends on the February 28. By participating in the challenge, you are essentially making a commitment to yourself to write x-number of words each day about your family history.  It’s a fun way to set a goal and work toward that goal each day during the month of February.  What’s even better is that you will get tips and support along the […]

When you go the traditional route in publishing a book, editing is one of the services performed by the publisher during the production phase of the book.  However, more often than not, when you publish a book yourself, editing is a service that you have to seek on your own.  After reading several self-published books lately, I have a bad feeling that many authors either skip this step or “edit” the manuscript themselves.  I’ll be straight with you—not having your book professionally edited can damage your credibility and possibly impede […]

Putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) is a daunting task for some people.  But taking the time to turn your genealogy research into something more than facts in a database can be very rewarding and beneficial to your research endeavor.

Family Tree University is offering a free webinar entitled Start Writing Your Life Stories, “where Sunny Jane Morton, author of My Life & Times: A Guided Journal For Collecting Your Stories, shares tips and ideas for capturing the stories of a lifetime—whether they’re your own or those of a loved one.” The one-hour on-demand webinar can be accessed here.

It’s time to stop whining and start writing!  Head over to Sharon DeBartolo Carmack’s article Write You Family History:  Get Motivated to see the top five excuses we use to put off writing our family stories and advice on how to defeat those excuses.

Denis Barrett Olson put together a digital book that offers up advice and ideas for digitally publishing your family stories.  The Future of Memories “introduces you to these new technologies and shows you how to take advantage of the opportunities they offer to produce quality histories at a reasonable price.” Currently, you can purchase the book for $2.99 in PDF format through Scribd or as an Kindle eBook through Amazon.  eBook versions for iBook and Nook will be available soon.

A 500-word essay about your family history could win you a complete Premium publishing package from Abbot Press, a Family Tree Magazine partner.  The deadline is September 30, but they will only draw the grand prize winner from the first 200 submissions. For complete details, rules, and how to enter, click here.

Valerie, author of the Family Cherished blog, shares what she learned from Eleanor Jensen’s family history writing class at the UGA Family History Conference in her post The Easiest Way to Write Family History Stories Revealed! Some good advice!