Write Your Family Story – Part 1: Recording your family’s history may have unexpected effects
In the promotion of her book, The Memoir Project, A thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life, author Marion Roach Smith cites a recent study that found “the Number 1 thing that Baby Boomers want to do in retirement is write a book….about themselves.” I...
Write Your Family Story – Conclusion and Additional Resources
I hope you’ve gleaned some insights from my Write Your Family Story series. We’ve covered a lot — the importance of collecting your elderly relatives’ memories; the “show vs tell” difference between fiction and non-fiction; writing in an active...
Write Your Family Story – Part 7: Immediate Scenes
In this article I’ll demonstrate how a technique called “immediate scene” can breathe life into your family fiction story. The writing approaches that I discuss in Write Your Family Story Part 4 – Details Details — simple narrative summary and detailed...
Write Your Family Story – Part 6: Essential Choices
You’ve got choices to make when you decide to tell your family story. Many of these choices should precede the writing of your story. Your story will feature many people, places, and events. The potential for those is limitless, but it does not have to be...
Write Your Family Story – Part 5: Tension
The ebb and flow of suspense in a novel is what keeps readers turning pages to the end. Tension is a must in a story. How do you create it and keep it going? One way is to make your main characters badly want something that’s difficult for them to achieve. Continually...
Harold William Thorpe novels are now included on Goodreads! 
