Tag Archives: Family History Writing Challenge

Writing Challenge: day 11

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UWSS story arcI’m so excited that I have a story arc! I hope my Dad approves. I’m meeting with him tomorrow. I feel like I got a flash of inspiration, what if there was just one class of students in the story? It wouldn’t be a real class but a fictionalized class so that all the fun, scary and challenging things that happened over 3 years could be compacted into one class. I think this could really work with the book ending with that class graduating. I would want to make it clear the liberties taken but it should make it all flow and be very interesting.

I’m so glad for the step by step help I’ve got from Lynn Palermo’s  “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge.” I went back over the part she has on the story arc and as I added more to her Story Arc Worksheet things just fell into place. If for some reason my Dad is uncomfortable with this approach my next suggestion will be to put together a collection of short stories about his time at the Underwater Swimmers School.

Either way, I think the next step is to come up with a bunch of questions to help him remember things about UWSS. Having them ready for tomorrow would be awesome but I’ll have to see how they day progresses.

Writing Challenge: day 10

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The Key West Citizen

Today I hoped to find some online newspapers for the Key West area from 1954 to 1957. I learned that the “Key West Citizen” has been around for a super long time. I found copies of the paper for earlier years but none for the years I want. I expanded my search to include the Miami area but the only thing I found for that time was a Jewish paper that seemed to be very tightly focused on World War II crimes. While certainly important it isn’t any help in my project. I spent almost an hour and a half and there may still be something out there. The closest I found were on microfilm in a library in Florida. I don’t think that is going to help either. I’ll keep my eyes open and maybe do some more checking but It is time to move on with following Lynn’s suggestions in “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge.”

Next up is the story arc. While my goal was to start writing on Monday, I think the story arc is going to take me some time to figure out. I’ve been thinking about it but don’t have any idea how I’m going to plan this out. So Monday I’ll be focusing on the story arc and hope for an aw-ha moment.

Writing Challenge: day 9

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I didn’t make my goal for today in my plan following “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge” by Lynn Palermo. I did get a chance to talk to my Dad about his Navy experience so not a complete failure. Plus I spent a few minutes looking for newspapers etc for the 1950’s in Key West but didn’t find anything yet. I’ve been thinking about the story arc which is the last step in preparation to write but haven’t got a clue yet how to put that together. I’ll try to catch up by putting some time in tomorrow and reporting on my progress here. Have a great weekend and thanks for sticking with me through this challenge.

Writing Challenge: day 8

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Key West Timeline

my timeline for Key West 1954-1957 created in Scapple

For today’s challenge I work on putting together a timeline as suggested in “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge” by Lynn Palermo. It took me while to do the social history part of it. My Dad was at the Navy’s UWSS School from 1954 to 1957. It was interesting to learn the types of events and advances that were happening then. I included the few years leading up to Key West as a reference for me.

At this point I don’t really envision how it is going to help me in writing but I trust that it will. I used Scapple to put together the very simple timeline above. I think I should see if there are some local newspapers or historic events for Key West to add to it, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I’m supposed to be doing the story arc tomorrow too. We will have to see how it goes. This is the first of the prep goals that I haven’t really met but I’m still feeling good about my progress. I put in 2.5 hours today, the most this week.

Writing Challenge: day 7

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from UWSS.org circa 1950’s

It has been more than a week since I started following “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge” by Lynn Palermo, to help me write the narrative for a history for my Dad’s time as an instructor at the Navy’s Underwater Swimmers School in Key West, Florida. My goal is to be ready to actually start writing next week. So far I seem to be on track. But I’m so new to this kind of writing that I might be way off. Only time and moving forward will show me where I’m lacking. So forward I go.

Today I finished up organizing my sources. Since my Dad is my biggest source this wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. We will see if I’ve done the job right down the road. The good part is as least the need to organize my sources is now on the radar. I found a website with information on citing internet sources. Maybe someone else would find it useful too.

Internet Citation Guides for Genealogists

I did a little work ahead today on tomorrows goal of putting together a timeline. Lynn suggests using a mind-mapping tool. I’ve been interested in trying one out for a while now so I downloaded Scapple by the makers of Scrivener and watched the tutorial. I hope that it is fun and helpful to use this type of tool. That is all for today. See you back here tomorrow.

Writing Challenge: day 6

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First UWSS Class – 1 November 1954

Day 6 of following the plan in “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge” by Lynn Palermo and on to organizing sources. I feel clueless about this but decided to start with the photos I have. Most of them are from my Dad’s personal collection so hopefully I don’t need any more information than that. I few of those are official Navy photographs that need to be credited as such. I have a few other sources for photos and so I decided to add that information to their metadata, so I’ll always have access to it. InDesign also has a captioning feature that you can use to put an auto caption from any field in the metadata. I’ve never used it before but I thought it might be very helpful.

If you are interested in the photos I’ve found on the internet, here are two sources.

There are some photos on flickr that I need to check out too.

That covers my work for today. I’ll check back in tomorrow and share my progress.

 

 

 

Writing Challenge: day 5

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“All Hands” from March 1959

Continuing my plan to follow the advice in “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge” by Lynn Palermo, today’s task was organizing my photos and documents. I was pretty sure this was mostly done but I checked through the folders on my computer and the hard copy materials I have and everything seemed in order. I might find that my organization scheme needs adjusting but it is the best I know how to do now.

I also spent some time searching on the internet for more information on the setting up stages of the Navy’s Underwater Swimmers School. I came across the “All Hands” magazine from March 1959. It has some information on the UWSS. I think it is interesting because it is contemporary to my Dad’s time in the Navy.

Tomorrow I’ll be attempting to organize my sources. I’ll need lots of luck on that one. I’ve allowed myself two days to get that done. I hope it goes quicker than that.

Writing Challenge: day 4

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For today’s writing challenge I went back through “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge” by Lynn Palermo, to check Chapter 4 – Creating a Work-Flow because the next things I need to do to prepare to write are part of the work-flow. Two of the three steps seem pretty straight forward but the third one is new ground for me.

First off is gathering my research. I think that I have most of my stuff already gathered and organized in folders on my computer. I’m going to make sure and check through my physical stuff for more items.

Step three is identifying where I’m going write. I had already decided to use Scrivener. I’ve heard about from several sources. A few weeks ago I downloaded the trial version and did the tutorial that comes with it. Lynn also recommends Scrivener. It is designed for writers and I’m excited to try it out.

The second step is bibliography and citations. Lynn recommends using a citation manager. But I just can’t wrap my head around it. So I have to do it by hand. Hopefully I won’t have too many sources outside of my Dad and his personal documents. I may have to change my mind on this in the future but at this point I’m not going to embrace it. Maybe it is just too much for this non-writer, designer brain of mine.

Next step is make sure that all my documents, photos etc. are logically organized and ready to reference during the writing process. I’ll check back in here on Monday at let you know how things are coming.

Writing Challenge: day 3

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Today for my writing challenge, I finished reading “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge” by Lynn Palermo. Then I called my Dad to ask questions and make some decisions about his book. We determined that this will be a Legacy type book with pictures and documents along with the third person narrative. It was interesting when I asked my Dad if he wanted it in first person on third person he said that if it was in first person it would sound like he was bragging.

We worked through Lynn’s worksheets on identifying the theme and focus of the book. One comment I didn’t expect and I wonder if it is common in his generation. When I asked him about the emotions he felt when thinking about this book, he assumed I meant negative emotions.

This book focuses on the time that my Dad was an instructor at the Underwater Swimmers School in Key West Florida from 1954 to 1957. He was part of setting the school up and it was the first time that the Navy had a formal school for training in using SCUBA. He hopes to share the many positive things that he gained from the Navy, the new experiences, people he met and the things he learned and taught to others. His experiences in Navy EOD are rather unique and they shaped his life for the better.

We also filled out the Story Arc Worksheet about why he went to Key West, his goals and the possible risks in doing so. I learned more about some of the challenges that they faced in getting ready and teaching the first set of students. I still don’t know how or what I’m actually going to write, but I’m moving forward with the hope that the ideas and words will come if I lay the groundwork and diligently work through the process.

I still have more work to do in organizing and gathering resources but I’m hoping to start the writing process by the first week of June. As long as a put in my time each day, I’ll be pleased with my progress even if it takes longer than that. See you back here tomorrow.

Writing Challenge: day 2

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imaginary readers of Navy history

I’ve made my goal to spend at least an hour working on the writing side of my Dad’s Navy history two days in a row. Yeah! To be perfectly honest not much writing has actually happened. I’m in the preparing to write phase but it is still good. I continued reading “The Companion Guide to The Family History Writing Challenge” by Lynn Palermo. This is my first time through so mostly it is just getting the big picture into my head. I finished Section 1 – The Vision for Your Book and Section 2 – Organizing You and Your Research.

I think I made some real progress in Chapter 3 – Getting to Know Your Reader. I even called my Dad to talk to him about who this book is really for. We had discussed that it was for his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren. I visualized that as a 8 to 18-year-old and he agreed. But when I pointed out at that an 8 to 18-year-old probably isn’t interested in the documents that we have he adjusted his thinking. We have also talked about that he wants to take this book to the Underwater Swimmers School Reunion in 2015. So his target reader is actually retired Navy personnel, similar to him. I think the grand kids and great-grand kids come into the picture only through the grandpa. The hope and vision are that this book will create an opportunity for the grandpa to sit down with a child and share his experiences and memories. My dad talked about something like that but I’ll need to clarify that vision with him. But it feels right.

In the book Lynn suggests imagining your perfect reader and actually drawing a picture and describing them, even giving them a name. My first drawing was of Wallie. Then after talking to my Dad, I drew Walt. Now I can visualize Walt siting down with this book is his lap with his grandson Wallie beside him. I’d like to someday write my Dad’s Navy history targeted to that 10-year-old but this isn’t that project. Though I think it will be the basis for that future graphic adventure story.

If you have stayed with me this far, thanks. I’ll be back tomorrow with day 3 of my writing challenge.