STORYTELLING IN
FAMILY HISTORY WRITING
Carol Baxter is the author of six internationally acclaimed "popular histories" or biographies. She now teaches writing skills to genealogists through her Writing Fabulous Family History courses.
In her writing classes, Carol explains that there are four main styles of writing:
- Expository — also referred to as the "encyclopaedia" style of writing, which is the main style used by genealogists.
- Descriptive — sometimes called "all that flowery stuff" (although it really isn't).
- Narrative — also known as "storytelling".
- Persuasive — used in advertising and in "how to" book blurbs.
Here we explore narrative writing. Follow the links below to the other literary styles.
Narrative writing
"Narrative writing" is another name for "storytelling". Most genealogists fail to maximise their storytelling opportunities when writing a family history or biography.
To assist genealogists, Carol provides the following on this webpage:
- Lesson link: The Once Upon a Time lesson teaches the skills of crafting a story.
- Book link: The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller is one of Carol's "narrative nonfiction" books, which maximises its storytelling opportunities.
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Writing examples: Carol has provided (below) a scene from the above book that's written in two different styles:
- Expository (not published).
- Narrative (published).
- Writing books link: Carol has written two books to assist genealogists in writing their family histories.
Narrative writing online lesson
Once Upon a Time: It's all about the story
In this online lesson, Carol explains how to tell a gripping story to include in a family history or biography.
At the end of the session, she includes a storytelling example from The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller, which is also provided below. In the lesson itself, she explains how this writing example reflects the different stages of the storytelling process.
More to come ...
Narrative nonfiction book
The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller: An Australian's true story of adventure, danger, romance and murder (Allen & Unwin, AUS, 2017)
Bored 1920s Melbourne housewife, Jessie Miller (nicknamed Chubbie), seeks international fame and fortune as an aviator until she finds herself the world's most notorious scarlet woman and a central player in a sensational American murder trial.
Publishers Weekly described the book as a "thrilling biography", which explains why it's being turned into a television series called The Aviatrix.
Expository versus narrative prose
Version 1: Written in the expository style (crafted for this lesson)
Bill and Chubbie flew across the English Channel but were unable to see the water because of the fog. Recognising that they wouldn't reach Paris before nightfall, they decided to land in Abbeville. It was a market town and a regular stopping point on the London-to-Paris commercial route.
To allow him time to recalculate his compass settings, Bill told Chubbie to fly the plane. Initially, she climbed too sharply, so Bill told her to lower its nose. Gradually, she gained confidence. By the time Bill took over the flight controls, she had discovered that she loved flying.
Version 2: Written in the narrative style (published in the book)
Heavy fog wrapped around them. By dead reckoning alone, they knew they had crossed England’s shoreline, the demarcation zone between land’s relative safety and the lethal sea. Yet a Channel crossing without a water sighting lacked any sense of magic. It wasn’t the exciting start to their journey Chubbie had been dreaming about.
Before they left Croydon, they had been advised to rethink their overnight stop as they wouldn’t make Paris before nightfall. Abbeville was a reachable alternative, a market town and a regular stopping point on the London-to-Paris commercial route. But Bill hadn’t had time to recalculate his compass settings. As the weakening light warned that dusk was approaching, he pulled out his book of strip maps for the region and turned to the relevant page.
Reading maps while flying in an open cockpit plane was a tricky exercise. Over the engine’s drone, he yelled to Chubbie, ‘You take her.’
Chubbie turned around in her tiny cockpit and gaped at him. Did he really want her to fly the plane? Already? Realising that he did, she detached her joystick from the cockpit’s side clip and slotted it into its socket, securing it with its pin. Grasping the knob firmly with both hands as if she would have to fight it for control, she pulled it towards her. The nose lifted and the plane shot up sharply into the fog-laden sky.
‘Put her down, you clot!’ Bill screamed.
She shoved the joystick forward and the nose dropped—too far. Gradually, by moving the stick forwards and backwards, she managed level flight. She turned her head to see Bill’s reaction. He wasn’t looking. Face down, with his head under the cockpit rim, he was examining his maps.
She kept flying, making joystick adjustments when air pockets bumped them. Bill had told the press she was a ‘natural’ and his lack of concern served as a confidence booster. As she felt the freedom of soaring weightlessly through the sky combined with the sense of power at being in control of such an extraordinary vehicle, a change swept through her. By the time Bill had taken control again, flying had taken over her soul.
NB. Note that the dialogue comes from Mrs Miller's description of their flight.
Books on family history writing
Let Carol help you in your writing journey with her two books on writing family histories. These two books are companion volumes.
