From ‘I’ll Start Someday’ to ‘I Started Today’: Get Personal Coaching to Begin Writing Your Family History
I surveyed over 350 family historians and their #1 struggle with writing is: getting started. If that is you, here’s an actionable, personalized plan for you to start writing today.
I want to write my family history, but….
Every family historian has had this thought. The desire to both share and preserve years of genealogy research is real, yet something stops 98% from writing anything.*
During and after RootsTech, I surveyed over 350 genealogy researchers with one question: What are some obstacles you face when starting to write family history?
Some common reasons I received were:
• “I need to organize my research first.”
• “I’m not a good writer.”
• “I don’t have enough details.”
• “I don’t know how to start.”
• “No one will care about this.”
I’ve told myself all of these reasons (and more). And at the same time, I knew that if I didn’t write-up my genealogy research, no one else would.
I was in a cycle of thinking and waiting and getting nowhere.
It was one simple shift in my thinking that made all the difference.
Why Is It So Hard to Start Writing?
The problem isn’t time. It isn’t lack of research. It’s something deeper.
True story: I once spent months organizing files instead of writing. It felt productive, and I kept telling myself it was what I had to do to start. Of course, as I was organizing, I found research I wanted to do, and I hopped off like Alice chasing the White Rabbit.
I really believed I needed both organization and more information before I could start writing. Those beliefs kept me stuck.
What got me unstuck was using ChatGPT as my writing coach.