Writing History: Getting Started

Writing History: Getting Started

Is your family history just a list of names and dates? Or can you not get past the dreaded blank page?

Pick up tips on how to write history that your family will want to read with this introductory session to writing history. 

Historiography: the study of the writing of history

Suggestions on writing history from Lucian of Samosta (2nd century Assyrian satirist), from his book How to Write History:

• Focus on what is great and memorable
• Be of independent spirit, do not seek favours
• Write clearly in a way people can understand
• Leave nothing obscure, avoid abstruse expression and jargon
• Be just a touch poetic, employ impressive and exalted tones
• Make your brain a mirror in order to 'reflect events as they presented themselves … neither distorted, discoloured, nor variable'
• Brevity is always desirable
• Give only brief descriptions of 'mountains, walls, rivers, and the like'
• Be sparing with both praise and censure - 'historical characters are not prisoners on trial'
• Write for eternity, not only for the present

By the 19^th century, under the influence of German historian Leopold von Ranke, the writing of history increasingly came to be seen as a science, with an emphasis on source-based history and a rejection of artistic language.

Early 20th century historian George Macaulay Trevelyan argued that while historians used evidence to discover the facts, it then required insight, intuition and imagination to give those facts meaning.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, a new wave of historians began opening up the field in response to wider social movements, such as civil rights, women's liberation.  In Australia, the bicentenary of Cook's first voyage in 1970, and 1988's bicentenary of the First Fleet, led to an increased interest in Australian history, with funding available in the lead up to 1988 for community history projects.  With Land Rights gaining momentum, the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples emerged as an academic field and gained public attention.  As historical topics generally follow contemporary concerns, other fields to emerge in the late 20th and early 21st centuries have been migrant experiences, LGBTQIA+, and the environment. 

What to write about?

History encompasses the entirety of human experience.  From the beginning of time to the present, history includes the grand narratives of nations to the triviality of domestic life.  If it is of the past and some evidence survives, you can write about it.

You can choose something that is close to your experience (family) or something completely removed from your personal experiences.

Possible themes:

• First Nations history & experiences 
• Migration & immigration (convicts, free settlers, refugees)
• Adapting to the Australian climate 
• Environment (including natural disasters, e.g. floods)
• Establishing European settlements
• Utilising natural resources (mining)
• Agriculture
• Economy (employment, businesses, banks & building societies)
• Communication (postal, telegraphs, phones, internet, newspapers, television)
• Transportation & the movement of goods and people (railways)
• Manufacturing 
• Marketing & retail 
• Entertainment & performance (cinemas, festivals, eisteddfods)
• Housing (building, design, homelessness, experience of living in a style of house)
• Architecture (architects, builders, building materials, style)
• Urban planing (establishment of townships, cities, & suburbs)
• Fashion
• Health & medical services
• Military (war & peace)
• Infrastructure (roads, electricity, water, sewage)
• Work (organising workers, office work, domestic duties, working on the land)
• Education (primary & secondary schools, libraries, mechanics institutes & school of arts, tertiary institutions)
• Government (Council, politicians, Federation)
• Cultural life (sports, public parks & gardens, holidays, the beach, associations, churches, commemorations, music, writing)
• Technology (impact of changes on daily life)
• Phases of life (maternity & mothers' and babies' health, childhoods, youth groups, courtship & marriage, raising families, old age, death)
• Products
• Ideas

You could choose to write about one person, one family, one place, one event.  You could focus on a business or an organisation.  You can pick one theme from the above list or choose multiple themes to describe how they have affected a person's life.

Your history could cover a single day, a year, a lifetime, or be multi-generational.  You could focus on a suburb, a town, a city, a state, a nation, or go global. 

Start Researching: the literature review       

Give context by reading secondary sources connected to your topic:

•       If you are writing a family history, read books about where your family have lived
•       Look for books on the profession of your ancestors (e.g. coal mining or railways)
•      Use secondary sources as a way to find your narrative voice.  Read the works of historians, journalists, freelance writers and even your favourite novelists to find inspiration.  

If you want to write history, you need to read history

Identify and locate primary sources:

Useful hint: your secondary sources should give you clues to what primary sources might be available for you to examine

•       Trove (newspapers)
•        Picture Ipswich (photos, oral histories, written histories, documents, documentaries & webinars, local stories, maps & plans)
•        Ipswich History Room (books about Ipswich, microfilm & microfiche, newspaper clippings)
•        Ipswich Libraries databases (Ancestry, My Heritage)
•        Local history groups (genealogical databases, photos, books, objects, local knowledge)
•        Queensland State Library (photos, manuscripts & cuttings, maps & plans, databases, Indigenous records)
•        Queensland State Archives (rates books, valuation registers -- if your ancestor had an interaction with a state government department, QSA will have a record)
•       Fryer Library, University of Queensland (books, journals, theses, papers, architectural plans)
•       Department of Natural Resources (title deeds)
•       Church archives
•       National Archives of Australia (military & immigration records)
•       Australian War Memorial
•       Cemeteries 

Format

• Family history in book form
• Narrative or historical fiction
• Memoir 
• Oral history
• Short form (e.g. articles)
• Podcast
• Short documentaries 
• Timelines
• Family tree
• Recipe book of family favorite meals (include photos and stories related to the meals)

What type of writer are you?

Do you

• plan everything before you start writing?

• write as you think / think as you write?

• say it out loud before writing it down?

• write as you research?

• write everything down, then sort it out later?

• research first, write second?

• do a literature review first to see how other writers have approached similar topics?

• write an outline or key events and then add colour and context?

• write from beginning to end?

• avoid chronology?

• focus on facts over theory and speculation?

• prefer story telling rather than listing life events?

The writing process can be part of the research process.  Writing, as you research, can help to focus your thinking, and it can lead to new research questions whilst you still have access to the source material.

Who / what will you write about?

• Single line of descent

  • will you begin with the earliest known ancestor for a particular surname and follow them through to you?

  • will each chapter cover one ancestor or generation?

  • will you start with your self and work backwards?

• All descendants

  • will you start with an individual or couple and write about all of their descendants?

• Grandparents or parents

  • will you just focus on those people you knew?

• A single ancestor

  • a narrative of the life of one ancestor

• Thematic approach

  • immigration & migration

  • rags to riches / triumph over adversity

  • military service 

  • pioneers

  • sporting, artistic, or professional achievements 

Structure

At school, you might have been told to write your introduction and conclusion first and then use the body of your text to support these.  This denies the role writing takes in forming our thoughts.

It can be helpful, however, to have a structure guide, whether it be for a paragraph (like the example below) or for the whole work.

When writing your family history, you can play around a little with this structure, as you find your narrative voice.

Another way to add a bit of structure to your family history is to add a family tree to help readers navigate the connections and a map, to help readers locate journeys and the affects distance (both near and far) might have had on the family and individuals.

Opening Lines & Titles

Opening lines, like titles, need to grab the readers attention and make them what to know more.  We may have been told to not 'judge a book by its cover', but we do it anyway.

For a title idea, look at the titles of your favorite histories, biographies, and autobiographies.  You could try a short, arresting phrase or relevant quotation, followed by a longer descriptive subtitle that reveals a little of the books contents.  For example:

Somme Mud: The Experiences of an Infantryman in France, 1916-1919

E.P.F. Lynch (2008)

Some examples of opening lines from classic literature:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813)

All this happened, more or less.

Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

... I was glad, I never liked long walks.

 

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte (1847)

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again.

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier 

Writers Block

If you are having trouble getting started or maintaining the flow, take a break.  Do something that requires little thinking (e.g. ironing, dishes, shower, hosing), and use this time to organise your thoughts. 

Schedule writing time.  You may prefer first thing in the morning, the early afternoon, or perhaps you are a night owl -- find a time when you are most creative. 

Find your writing place.  This could be at the kitchen table or your home office, in a cafe, a library, a park, or your own garden.  Wherever your writing place might be, try and make it free of distractions (like the fridge, a TV, or family members).

If your writers block is due to procrastination, set a deadline.  This could be as simple as a daily or weekly word target or a approaching a trusted editor.  Ask a friend to read what you have written over the weekend and give them whatever you have, no matter how rough the draft is, by that time.  If you are not ready to give them an actual written draft, ask if you can discuss your project with them and take with you an outline of what you are writing.  Sharing your thoughts out-loud to a friend might open up new paths for you to explore in your research. 

Just write something -- anything.  Do not delete it either.  If you think it is no good, then put it aside, either at the end of the document (change the colour of the font so you know it is a draft) or in a separate document.  Go back and read it a few hours / days / weeks later -- it might be better than you thought. 

If you are still having trouble writing, ask yourself why?  Is there:

• fear of what others might think of your writing style / interpretation of the family's history

• an issue you are not ready to address (family history can be contentious and uncomfortable)?

• an idea not progressed enough?

Find someone you can trust to discuss these issues with, sometimes a friend's feedback and support is all you need.

For more information:

Ann Curthoys & Ann McGrath (2009) How to Write History That People Want to Read, UNSW Press, Sydney.