I’ve Got Nothing to Write About!
Let me guess … you had an idea that it’d be great to start a genealogy blog and write stories about your family history to make sure they get recorded. But you’re not doing a lot of research, and aren’t inspired, and now you’re finding that “I have nothing to write about” and it all seems too hard!
Am I right?
For those of you who are at this point of genealogy blogging (or even those who are yet to start), this one is for you. Here’s a bunch of suggestions to get you back blogging, without a whole lot of effort.
There’s whole group of ‘day related’ theme posts (I’ll mention more of them later), but let me start with WORDLESS WEDNESDAY. Keep a post short and simple by starting with an old photo. Pop it on your blog, and caption it you choose, but you don’t need a whole blog post about it. That’s the whole idea of Wordless Wednesday. Short and sweet. And you’re recording a piece of history.
START SMALL
If you’re wanting to write about your family or ancestors, don’t aim to write entire life stories of them (well not in one post anyway). Break it down into stories. A place they used to visit, a job they did, pets they owned, when they bought a new car, a voyage they took, an heirloom of theirs you have – and what the story behind it is … and so on. So many ideas. So many great stories waiting to be told.
GENEAMEMES
You all know what a meme is? Well a geneameme is a genealogy themed one, and there’s been a number that have done the rounds over the years, but anyone can pick up and do any anytime they wish! The meme consists of a set of questions, which you then answer, and pop it all on your blog. Again, another simple way to share some history, and have a great post. While you can simply Google “geneameme” and you’ll come up with 1000s, here are links to those on Jill Ball’s Geniaus blog, and those on my own blog as well.
SHARE YOUR PROGRESS AND THOUGHTS
Why not write the details about an ancestor you’re looking for, and share the process as you go? Or if you’re just getting started with a new genealogy program (online or offline), share what you like (or don’t like) about it. Bought a new book to help with your research? Why not write a little review about it … or a website you’ve found awesome. Or a new trick on how to do something, which brings up different results. What about a visit to a library or archive? All of these would make great posts.
INTERVIEWS
Do you have older family members still around? Parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles? Why not interview them and ask them questions about the past – either generally or on a particular topic. I was fortunate that someone interviewed my grandparents about their time in WW2. My grandpa went off to war in Egypt and elsewhere, while my grandma stayed home and helped run the farm with the other family members. But so many details came out of that, that I never knew and would never find in a history book. Of course with interviews you will need to ask their permission to record it (and publish it), if that’s what you wish to do.
ON THIS DAY
I’ve used “on this day” posts from time to time. And they add something a little different too. Sometimes I use a specific day, the date my grandparents were married, and write about their wedding. Or the date a ship arrived in Australia, with details of my immigrating ancestors, and a little about the voyage. Or the date someone died, and a little about them. Another tack for “on this day” posts is to write about something that happened “on this day in history”, and I find this site great for that, and they have LOTS of Australian history events as well. Or “Days of the Year” is an great one too … I keep meaning to share my grandma’s recipes on “Recipe Day”.
DAILY PROMPTS ON GENEABLOGGERS TRIBE
If you’re stuck for prompts, the Geneabloggers TRIBE site is THE place to look.
They have Daily Prompts such as those below, but be sure to go to their site for mode details on each of these:
Sunday Prompts: Black Sheep Sunday, Census Sunday, Church Record Sunday, Sentimental Sunday, Sunday’s Obituary
Monday Prompts: Amanuensis Monday, Madness Monday, Mappy Monday, Maritime Monday,
Matrilineal Monday, Military Monday, Motivation Monday, Mystery Monday
Tuesday Prompts: Talented Tuesday, Tombstone Tuesday, Travel Tuesday, Tuesday’s Tip
Wednesday Prompts: Wedding Wednesday, Wednesday’s Child, Wisdom Wednesday, Wishful Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, Workday Wednesday
Thursday Prompts: Thankful Thursday, Those Places Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Thriller Thursday, Treasure Chest Thursday
Friday Prompts: Family Friends Friday, Family Recipe Friday, Follow Friday, Friend of Friends Friday, Friday’s Faces from the Past, Friday Funny, Funeral Card Friday
Saturday Prompts: Shopping Saturday, Sibling Saturday, Society Saturday, Sorting Saturday, Sports Center Saturday, Surname Saturday, Sympathy Saturday
NOTE: One omission that I would like to add in to the above Daily Prompt, is “TROVE TUESDAY”. This is a popular one among Australian geneabloggers, as we simply go to Trove (the Australian historical newspapers site), find a cool article, (it can be about your family, or just something else in history) … and you share it on our blog.
CALENDAR OF IDEAS ON GENEABLOGGERS TRIBE
The Calendar of Ideas is rather like the “on this day” link above, in that it is a recording of things that happened ‘on this day in history’, but this one is more US-centric which is fair enough, since that’s where it’s created.
BLOG CHALLENGE
If you’re looking for some ‘regularity’ to your posts you might like to take up a blog challenge. There are numerous “52 Week” challenges, so choose one that looks good to you, and just one post a week. You can find a post to a bunch of these and the “Family History Through the Alphabet” blog challenge too here.
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So now you’ll never be stuck for ideas again. And in fact I reckon you’ll have SO MANY ideas that you’ll need more time to blog! Well that’s what I find anyway.
Happy geneablogging!
12 Responses to “I’ve Got Nothing to Write About!”
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You have great ideas for writer’s who are stuck! One suggestion I would make is to plan out some blog post ideas. Then when you do want to write, you have some ideas to get started.
Yes, great idea Lisa.
Thanks for the info. I’ve been using the Daily Prompts for years. One of my own that I’ve added is Follow Up Friday, where I do just that, follow up on a recent story I’ve written. And I do like those On This Day posts as well. I’ll generally go through my Legacy database and find the births, marriages and deaths on a particular random day. I’ll state who this person is to me and perhaps mention the longest ago date etc.
My blog can be found at http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com
Ooh I do like the idea of Follow Up Friday. Thanks for that suggestion Diane.
Thanks for the suggestions 🙂 Though for me, it’s not so much having nothing to writing, but being a) overwhelmed with stories to tell and b) too tired after work to actually do the writing… I’ll be bookmarking this post regardless as it has some great ideas!
Hi Teresa, I’ve found I never run out of ideas … like you so many great things to write about! But for me it’s a lack of time to do them all. But I have found I need to make a list of topics I want to write about, then prioritise. That way some get done.
Hi Alona! I offer a monthly prompt called the Genealogy Blog Party. This month, we’re talking about which genealogy resource we’re thankful for: https://mydescendantsancestors.com/2017/11/genealogy-blog-party-thankful.html. All are invited to participate!
Sounds awesome Elizabeth. And your topic is perfect, as there’s so many resources that we are all thankful for.
I have yet to start a blog, but I found a free planner that could help. I am using it to keep track of ideas for when I finally do start one. The planner can be found at: http://www.productiveflourishing.com/free-planners/
Ooh that’s great link Jacqueline, thanks for sharing. And all the best when you do start blogging.
I have included your blog in INTERESTING BLOGS in FRIDAY FOSSICKING at
https://thatmomentintime-crissouli.blogspot.com/2017/11/friday-fossicking-24th-nov-2017.html
Thank you, Chris
Thankyou Chris 🙂