Crafting a Scene

Description

Scenes are a significant component of our family stories. They are the secret ingredient in creating compelling and engaging stories that our family will want to read. As a vital part of narrative nonfiction, they are a skill all family history writer’s need to learn. Crafting a Scene is our fourth workbook in our series Write Your Family History. This volume will help you turn summary into scenes and bring the events of your ancestor’s life to the page for your readers.

When you learn to write scenes, you show your ancestors in action. Your readers feel like they are experiencing their ancestor’s lives in person and are inspired to discover more about their family history.

In Crafting a Scene,

• You’ll put your ancestors into action.
• You’ll bring description and detail to your scenes.
• You’ll master the art of writing dialogue.
• You’ll layer scenes with a universal theme, adding depth to your story.
• You’ll understand how to overcome gaps in your research and deal with missing details.

Workbook #4 is overflowing with worksheets including a scene outline template that takes all the guess work out of writing scenes. Perfect for the beginner family history writer, this workbook when combined with our Scene Cards (Coming June 2017) offer you the ability to create your own storyboard ideal for outlining a family history narrative.

Table of Contents

Scenes in a Family History

Contract with the Reader

The Making of a Scene

The Authentic Ancestor

The Scene Goal

A Sense of Place

Crafting Description and Detail

Dialogue

The Ancestor Arc

Layering Theme

Outlining Scenes

Worksheets