image from mappery.com

On to Day 2 of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge today. I thought I’d start writing today but just ended up making a few notes. Today’s assignment was on the exposition or back story. There are five areas that you want to cover in this:

• main ancestor
• setting
• conflict
• theme/focus
• tone

The first one is easy, my Dad. The setting for the start of the book is somewhere on the road between San Diego and Key West in the late summer of 1954. As I was thinking about the setting, I found a map that I used for my Mom’s Europe trip to show their cross-country bus trip. It is from 1955 and will provide some good information.

The conflict at this point is getting to Key West no later than 2400 hours on September 11, 1954. The theme/focus of the book is setting up the Underwater Swimmers School in Key West.

The tone, I haven’t really thought about this part at all until today. I’m thinking not too serious even though some dangerous stuff goes on. I know my Dad doesn’t want it to sound like he is bragging. As I’m writing this I’m reminded that my Dad has always been a tease with a rather dry humor, so maybe that will be the tone of the book.

There are lots of things learn and think about in writing. I never thought that writing was easy but I had no idea of all the different things to consider when writing a book. This has been and will certainly continue to be a major learning process for me.

I’ve followed my challenge for three weeks now. Yeah! I’ve been almost perfect with just one day that I had to do some make up last Saturday. I think I’ve finished Day 1 of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge today. I spent an hour reading first chapters to get a better sense of hooks and inciting incidents. It was kind of fun. I’ve never looked at books that way before. I read from Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. Half Broke Horses is from the library the rest are from our own collection. You can see what kind of books I tend to read, though I’ve expanded my choice through our neighborhood book club but I haven’t purchased any of those books.

Anyway, back to the writing challenge. At the moment I’m going to start with the cross-country drive as the hook and the letter from the Navy as the inciting incident. Don’t be surprised if this changes as I learn and work through the process but I have to pick something and go from there. See you back here on Monday. I’ll probably have to actually start writing by then.

image from The Armchair Genealogist

I was a bit shy of getting my hour in today, but I did get 45 minutes. Unless you count the time I spent listening to The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. It really should count since Lynn Palermo suggested that it is important to read other people’s writing about their families to get some ideas on what can be done. Even though it is day 13 for my writing challenge I’m finally getting to day 1 on the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge. I’m taking this challenge at whatever pace it takes, not racing through it. I’m guessing it will probably take me most of the summer to get through it but by then I should have a really good start to this book.

So after a quick review of a couple of sections of “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge.” I went to the Day 1 email – “How to Find the Beginning of Your Story.” Part of today’s exercise was to read some first chapters to see what makes a good start to a book. I’ll need to do more of that tomorrow.

I also learned about the “hook”, the “exposition” and the “inciting incident.” I haven’t figured out what the hook is yet for this Key West history but I’m pretty sure the inciting incident was the letter that went out in the spring of 1954 asking for volunteers for the soon to be formed Underwater Swimmers School in Key West. I’m leaning towards starting the story as my Dad makes his first cross-country drive from San Diego to Key West and then flash back to the Hawaii, and then instructor school and leave time with his family. I want to read more first chapters before I decided.

p.s. last night I got an email back from the Underwater Swimmers School website. They want to put some of my Dad’s stories in their newsletter. I told him that would be great but I still haven’t gotten any of them written yet. So in a few weeks I’ll send him something and hopefully they will make it into the UWSS newsletter.

I am happy to report that my Dad is fine with the idea of combining all the class experiences into one class for the sake of telling the story. Yeah! I think it will really help in making it an interesting read. We will certainly make it clear that it is based on real experiences but that they didn’t all happen to the same set of students in just a few weeks but over the space of 3 years.

Last night I put together about a 100 questions to learn more about his experiences at the Underwater Swimmers School. I started with the questions from StoryCorp.org and modified them for this specific situation. My Dad liked them so much that he called the guy in charge of the Underwater Swimmers School website and told him about the questions and said I would be sending him a copy.The website has asked students and instructors from the school to put together histories that they can share with others at their 2015 Reunion. It would be cool if these questions can help others to share their stories. I just got them emailed off a few minutes ago.

My Dad is taking the questions so that he can thing about them. We will talk again at some future date. Some of them are rather philosophical. I think my next step is to make a more detailed outline of the story but I’ll check with Lynn Palermo’s  “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge.” first and double check the first email for the challenge and make sure that is the next step. I still have so much to do for this project but it feels awesome to have a basic storyline that I’m planning to follow. In case you are interested here are the questions:

Key West Story Prompt Questions:

1. Who was the most important person to you at UWSS? Can you tell me about him or her?
2. What was the happiest moment at UWSS? The saddest?
3. Who was the biggest influence at UWSS? What lessons did that person teach you?
4. Who was the kindest to you at UWSS?
5. What are the most important lessons you learned at UWSS?
6. What is your earliest memory at UWSS?
7. What is your favorite memory at UWSS?
8. What are the funniest or most embarrassing stories at UWSS?
9. If you could hold on to just one memory from at UWSS, what would that be?
10. If this was to be our very last conversation, what words of wisdom would you want to pass on to me about UWSS?
11. What are you proudest of in your life at UWSS?
12. When did you fell the most alone at UWSS?
13. What are your hopes and dreams for what the future would hold at UWSS?
14. How did things turn out different from what you’d imagined at UWSS?
15. How would do you hope those at UWSS remember you?
16. Do you have any regrets about UWSS?
17. Is there any message you want to give to or anything you want to say to your great-great-great grandchildren about UWSS?
18. If you could interview anyone from UWSS who would it be and why?
19. Was there a time when you didn’t like being at UWSS?
20. Did you enjoy instructor school?
21. What kind of student were you?
22. What would you do for fun during instructor school?
23. How would your classmates remember you from instructor school?
24. Did you stay friends with anyone from instructor school?
25. What are your best memories of instructor school? Worst memories?
26. Was there a teacher or teachers who had a particularly strong influence on you? Tell me about them.
27. Do you have any favorite stories from instructor school?
28. Do you have a favorite friend from UWSS?
29. When did you first meet?
30. Can you tell how you become such good friends?
31. What lessons have you learned from your friendship?
32. What were the best times? The most difficult times?
33. What advice do you have for young people and their friendships?
34. Do you have any favorite stories from this friendship?
35. What was a typical day like at UWSS?
36. Tell me about how you ended up at UWSS.
37. Did you like your job at UWSS?
38. What lessons did working at UWSS teach you?
39. Do you have any favorite stories from UWSS?
40. Did your religious beliefs have any effects on your work at UWSS?
41. Did you experienced any miracles?
42. What was the most profound spiritual moment at UWSS?
43. Can you tell me about the illnesses at UWSS?
44. Did it scare you?
45. Do you regret anything about UWSS?
46. Do you look at your life differently now than before you were at UWSS?
47. What have you learned from this experience?
48. What was it like living in Key West?
49. What traditions did you have at UWSS?
50. What was your favorite thing to do?
51. Do you remember any of the stories they used to tell at UWSS? Jokes? Songs?
52. What was it like being an instructor?
53. How did it change you?
54. During your time there, can you recall times when you were afraid?
55. What are your strongest memories from your time in Key West?
56. What lessons did you learn from this time in Key West?
57. Is there anything that you’ve never told me about UWSS but want to tell me now?
58. Did anyone died while you were at UWSS?  If so, what do remember of their death and what were the circumstances of their death?
59. What kind of hardships or tragedies did you experience while at UWSS?
60. What are the names of your co-workers? Describe one or more things that stand out in your mind about each of your co-workers.
61. Did you have special ways of celebrating specific holidays?
62. Share a few memories of your co-workers.
63. Where were they from? Did you spend much time together outside of work?  Did they travel to visit their families?
64. What were they like?
65. How many had families there in Key West with them?
66. Where did they go to school? How did they end up at UWSS?
67. What were your favorite subjects to teach at UWSS? Why?
68. What subjects did you like the least?  Why?
69. What do you see as your personal strengths?
70. What were some of the challenges you faced in Key West?
71. What medical issues did you had to deal with?
72. Was religion an important part of the other instructors lives? If so, what religion did they practice and what did it mean to them? If religion was/is not a part of there lives, why wasn’t it?
73. What happened to them?
74. What foods do you like to eat in Key West?  Dislike?
75. Where there two or three dishes you ate that makes you smile every time you think of them?
76. What are some of your life philosophies or life views that you would share with others.
77. What are some of the personal values that are very important to you?
78. Thinking of people worked with at UWSS. Who would you would categorize as great. What did they do to be great in your mind?
79. List 20 or more things that made you happy while you were in Key West.
80. What scared you at UWSS?
81. What advice would you pass on about teaching that you learned from UWSS?
82. What are some of your talents as an instructor? How did you discover them? What did you done to cultivate and improve them?
83. What were some of the life changing experiences you went through at UWSS? How did you handle them? In what ways did they change you?
84. Why did you choose to be an instructor at UWSS?
85. What were some of the jobs you did at UWSS?
86. Were there memorable experiences you had with any of those jobs?
87. What would you consider as two or three truly significant challenges in your life in Key West?
88. What are some of the life lessons that you would like to pass on to your posterity about UWSS?
89. Provide a brief description of each place you’ve lived while you were an instructor at UWSS.
90. If you could go back in time and do things over again, what would you change?
91. When all is said and done, what do you want to be remembered for?
92. What are you doing now to make that happen?
93. What kind of health issues have you experienced from being an instructor for the Navy?
94. What were some of your more memorable extra curricular activities?
95. What were some of the popular fads during your years at UWSS?
96. What kind of music did you listen to?
97. What kind of movies did you go to?
98. What kinds of other recreational activities did you do?
99. How did the students get along with each other?
100. Where some of them difficult to teach?
101. What was it like when you arrived in Key West?