Another day and on to new day for the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge. On day 9, Lynn talks about re-constructing the past and the dilemma of writing about something you haven’t witnessed. It isn’t right to just make stuff up and call it non-fiction. I haven’t gotten a complete grasp on this myself yet. I like what Lynn said:

It is impossible for us to know the exact details of an event that occurred in our ancestor’s life without having witnessed it. Even if you did witness it or other relatives witnessed it, our perception is skewed. One person’s perception of an event can differ from another’s. There are many truths to a story, and many versions of the same story.  Witnesses can often see the same event in two varying ways.  So even with witness in hand we can’t know for sure what the truth is. We all witness an event through our own perceptions, bias and experiences. However, what we can’t deny are the facts.

While we can’t make stuff up we can be creative in the way we present the facts while we are truthful, accurate and respectful of those involved. Sounds like a tall order. I have no idea yet how I’m going to accomplish that tasks.

For today’s writing exercise I did some more free-writing. Lynn suggests choosing an internal want and then an event that may represent that inner desire. While she applied this to ourselves I decided to try applying it to my Dad. So I wrote about my Dad’s desires to be part of something bigger and I focused on the events that led up to him being a part of setting up the Underwater Swimmers School, what he calls being a “plank owner.” I think I’m getting a little more comfortable with free-writing.

I can hardly believe that I’m moving on to day 7 after only one day on day 6 of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge. Today’s assignment was about the internal conflicts and desires as opposed to yesterday was about the outer story. I didn’t know that and at first I thought I’d done yesterday wrong but I think I wasn’t too far off after all. Lynn had us take a piece of paper and divide it into three columns. The first column I wrote down events from the timeline I did for my Dad’s Underwater Swimmers School experience. The next column was for his external wants and desires (the stuff I worked on yesterday) and the last column I listed my Dad’s internal wants and desires.

Here are the internal wants and desires that I wrote down:

• be happy
• have fun
• self-worth
• add value to society
• do the right thing
• help others
• have more options for the future
• be part of a team
• belong
• feel loved and accepted
• be valued
• self-confidence
• be something more than just a sailor

On Lynn’s suggestion, I did some more free-writing. Today’s topic was from my Dad’s wants and desires. I picked his feelings of inadequacy and feeling like he was “just a sailor”. I decided to do it long hand today since yesterday’s writing it straight into WordPress didn’t help me to not stop and edit some as I went. There is no backspace on a sheet of paper. It went better, I think. It is funny how crooked my lines get when writing on a blank piece of paper. Takes me back to childhood for some reason and writing crooked lines then. I’ll spare you (and myself) having to read the ramblings I wrote today. But maybe some of it will make its way on to my blog at some future date.

Yeah for day 6 of the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge. Today’s assignment was finding the conflict in the story. There are four basic types of conflict:

1. man vs. man
2. man vs. nature
3. man vs. society
4. man vs. himself

I think for my Dad’s story it is mostly about him vs. himself.Though their is an aspect of man vs. nature in keeping the students safe.

Next question from today lesson is what did my Dad want or desire. I know from his letters he really wanted to have a family. He felt alone and saw others with family and yearned for that. The problem with that is that he doesn’t want this story to be about his personal life. The purpose of this book is to tell the story of his Navy life. So I need to focus on another want. In thinking I came up with a twist on the wish for a family. I think one of the reasons he wanted to have a family was to be part of something important, something that matters. I believe being part of the setting up of the Underwater Swimmers School was important and it really mattered to the Navy and helping their men be better prepared for their jobs.

Last question for today: what is at stake for my Dad? I think he was at a point in his life where he wasn’t sure about his future. Did he want to stay in the Navy or get out and do something in the civilian sector. His future was at stake and his confidence was just starting to grow in his abilities and worth as an individual. He went on to greater confidence and success. He stayed in the Navy for another 10 years after the Underwater Swimmers School.