From Outline to First Draft: Writing Family History with Confidence
If you are new to family history writing, this step-by-step approach helps you move from genealogy facts to written story.
In surveying over 350 family historians, I discovered that the hardest part of writing for most was just getting started.
They spoke of a swirl of emotions and decisions keeping them stuck:
Feeling overwhelmed with the amount of writing
Wondering if enough research had been done
Debating how much historical detail to include
And, making the writing sound both natural (without being formal)
The best way to break through this hesitation is by creating an outline, which I’ve covered in this post and this one. An outline helps cut through the overwhelm by providing a clear structure to follow. Once that foundation is in place, the next step is turning it into a draft.
In this post, I’m breaking that process down into three simple steps:
How to know when an outline is ready
What types of historical and social context to include
How to turn that outline into a first draft that sounds like you—not like it was written by AI.
Is the Outline Ready?
In my past posts, I walked through building an outline, starting with basic facts from genealogy research and then layering in more details from records. Now it’s time to step back and assess whether the outline has everything needed to start writing.
Here’s a simple checklist:
Check the Core Facts – Are the names, dates, locations, and major life events accurate and complete?
Add Personal Details – Include family stories, letters, or memories from relatives. These unpublished details make the narrative unique.
Identify Research Gaps – Notice any missing information, but don’t get sidetracked by research. This phase is all about writing.
"There will always be more to find, but right now, the focus is on writing."
Adding Historical and Social Context
Our ancestors didn’t live in a vacuum. The world around them shaped their lives in ways that aren’t always obvious at first glance. Here’s how to add depth and dimension to their stories:
The Local Environment
What was their town or neighborhood like? Old maps, newspaper archives, and county histories can help reconstruct their world.
Social Norms
What societal expectations influenced their daily lives? Their experiences were shaped by factors like gender, ethnicity, and social class. Resources like historical newspapers, community histories, and even AI tools like Perplexity.ai can help uncover these details.
Sensory Details
What did they see, hear, or smell in their surroundings? An industrial town would have been loud and sooty, while a farming life might have been dominated by the weather and seasons. Including sensory details makes their world feel tangible for readers.
"Bringing in sensory details grounds the story. It turns names and dates into real people with real experiences."
Writing the First Draft
Getting the first draft down is often the hardest part, but perfection isn’t the goal—momentum is. Here are a few ways to make the process easier:
Find a Natural Starting Point
Rather than staring at a blank page, begin with a scene. Describe a moment from the outline as if it’s happening in real time.
Write Like You Talk
Imagine explaining the story to a friend. Keeping it conversational makes the writing flow more easily and keeps it engaging. If typing feels like a struggle, try speaking the story aloud and using a transcription tool to capture your words.
Don’t Edit—Yet
It’s tempting to tweak sentences as you go, but stopping to edit can break momentum. If something feels off or needs more research, leave a note and keep moving forward.
"Your first draft isn’t the final draft. It’s just the first step. And getting started is the hardest part."
Breaking the writing process into steps—outlining, adding context, and drafting—makes it manageable. If you’ve been an “anti-outliner” your whole life, like me, this means all those English teachers in school were right!
I find it helpful to keep telling myself: The first draft doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to exist. Once the words are on the page, refining and improving them becomes much easier. The sooner the draft is written, the sooner it can be shaped into a compelling family history.
Now is the time to get started.
Keep writing!
–Denyse Allen
Great advice for ALL writers regardless of experience
This is great advice for history writers. My own method is formulaic in a sense that six elements should ideally be included.
1)Rich high quality photos, even if you have to re-create them with A.I.
2)maps, and place orientation
3)big picture overview of economics, politics, catastrophe
4)small picture, personal accounts diaries, newspapers, etc.
5)numinous object - what were people fighting for? Gold, salt, land, power, water, etc.
6)Timeline-the Nobel prize in economics one year went to someone who said, "If you want to understand something do not aske why it happened. Ask why it happened at that exact point in time."
Now I add would add a 7th - Sensory, especially smell.
What did the coal oil lamp and boiled cabbage in that small shack smell like? How did it feel to rub the brown goo from hands after handling tobacco leaves all day?