google-site-verification: google65e716d80989ba07.html Get Ready to Take the Challenge! | The Armchair Genealogist

Get Ready to Take the Challenge!

It seems the one thing most family historians procrastinate on is writing their family history. They put off the task of writing the family story in exchange for more research. The research is ongoing but they forever delay sitting down and constructing the family facts into a readable story.  It seems everyone has various reasons for the procrastination.

What’s stopping you?

For me; it was time, the stories were rumbling around in my head, I had to find a way to carve out some time each day to commit to putting their stories down on paper. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t quick but it was rewarding and valued by many in the family.

It is through my experience of committing to so many words a day that I was able to write my family history.  I had a deadline to meet, a book to print in time for a family reunion.  That deadline forced me to meet smaller deadlines of so many words each day in order to meet my deadline. A tactic many writers use when writing novels. 

Therefore, I encourage you to join the Family History Writing Challenge. Take the pledge to write everyday about your ancestors. Commit to 250, 500 or 1000 words a day. You choose. Whatever you feel you can make a little time for in your day.  Turn off the Internet, the TV, lock yourself away for 30 minutes, 1 hour and commit to the most rewarding project you will ever undertake.

At the end of the 28 days, not only will you have a clear knowledge of the focus and direction of your family history story, you will have written anywhere from 5000-28,000 words.  The learning and knowledge can only be gained through the process, the process can only happen through a commitment.  The more you write the better you will get. Therefore, these 28 days will not only be a learning experience but you will have made a huge impact in putting content on paper in a readable format.

What is holding you back from writing your family history?

Time? Writing skill?  Don’t know where to start?

Share your roadblock. We will address all possible obstacles as we move through these next 28 days in the  Family History Writing Challenge.  The key to roadblocks or brick walls as we like to call them in genealogy world generally are torn down through education. If you educate yourself on the specific problems, then you can generally move forward with much more ease and clarity. The same is definitely true for writing your family history. All obstacles can be overcome with the right learning.

Join us in the Family History Writing Challenge, and conquer those roadblocks to creating a well written family history.

What obstacles are stopping you from writing their story?

Share them below in comments or in your own blog post and link them here.

For more details or to join the Family History Writing Challenge click here