Encourage me to write about my grandfather!!!!
I am going to write a biography of my grandfather. But first I must learn how to write such a story. So I look to my favorite author, David McCullough, for guidance. Why not learn from the best. He has twice received the Pulitzer Prize, for Truman and John Adams. So I got on youtube and entered David McCullough. What I found was a four-part series titled, “PAINTING WITH WORDS”. I highly recommend this for a good background in writing history. My second approach to writing brought me back to junior high school. Those creative writing categories; who, what, when, where, and why…..adding the five senses; smell, taste, touch, see, and hear…..completing this structure with words that convey emotion. Additionally, there are several web-sites that are geared to assist the structure/format of a biography.
So armed with this dormant knowledge, I will forge ahead and write about my grandfather. This will perhaps take me several months, since he lived in an incredible period of time….1890 to 1978.
Best to all of you that has a story to tell.
About the author
Comments 5
Bingo! Even the title of your posting tells me that shared encouragement is paying off. Go for it, Paul. If it helps, I will post a little story on Better Writing, the principles of which I kept for many decades as seminal lessons from a professional editor. The story I plan to post on Legacy Stories is a somewhat personal response to someone who was also gearing up for a self-published book, but the individual lessons about better writing have been compiled and kept in a PDF format. Please let me know how best to forward the PDF file to you. And good on ya' for forging ahead.
I'm going to be interested in how you organize his life story and publish it as you go. Doing it this way can allow you to drip to the extended family as you go chapter by chapter and receive more views. Congratulations for giving it a go. We can learn a lot from a full life from that era.
Tom:
Since my grandfather was a professor of electrical engineering, and left a treasure trove of documents relating to his life and career, I will slant the book/story to that of his life and the developments of electronics from 1890 to 1978. The nine chapters will cover approximately nine years each of history. The prologue will cover the early discovery of electricity, and the epilogue will summarize the advancements of electricity/electronics from 1890 to 1978.
Paul, I am fascinated with your approach and look forward to your tome. Having been involved with researching some of your family, I know of the many documents to which you refer. You are encouraged, and I look forward to the comments as well.
Paul, As the new year beckons, I am curious to know how your writing project is coming along.
