On to day 21. Wow, just seven days to go after today. Today’s writing challenge from the Armchair Genealogist‘s was about the tone of the story and conveying the right mood. I’ve thought about this some for my Dad’s history in Key West and I know I want to convey his personality and the way he likes to tease and his dry sense of humor. Not sure how I’m going to do that yet but it feels like a big part of who he is. I think he will like if it isn’t too serious in tone even though a big part of what he did was making sure the students were safe in potentially life threatening situations. And he took his role very seriously and personally. One suggestion Lynn had, was to read styles of writing that you would like to emulate. I’ve got lots of reading ahead of me. I haven’t read any histories yet that have the kind of tone I’m hoping for. Maybe if I look for some military type family stories I might find it. Any suggestions?

Another point in today’s lesson was that it takes time to develop the voice or the mood of a story so don’t worry if it isn’t there on the first few revisions. It takes time for it to come together and then the challenge is making it consistent. So I’ll be referring back to this lesson in the future.