How do you begin a story in a blog post?

I usually don't begin writing my beginnings until I've written what  I like to call the guts of my stories or blog posts. However, on occasion, the beginning comes at, well, the beginning.

No matter, I've come up with 12 ways on how to begin a story or blog post. They work. I promise. I've used most of them on my personal family history blog, Family Stories, and if I haven't used them there, then I've used them on guest posts or in my column In2Genealogy in the digital magazine Shades of the Departed.

And these blog post starter ideas work for Cousin Hunters, for genealogical societies, for professional genealogists, and for genealogy-related businesses.  I've included some examples for the different types of genealogy bloggers.

I also wanted to point out that one of the most effective ways to have quality content on your blog, is to tell it in story form. And just because it's in story form does not mean that it is not factual. We're using storytelling conventions to communicate our thoughts and messages on our blogs. Did I mention it makes for quality content? So, here we go.

12 ways to begin a story in a blog post:

1. Ask a question. This can be research-related or a general question, and my example is how I started this blog post. However, I tend to use this method a lot because it lends itself nicely to researchers. We are always asking questions and searching for the answers, are we not? It's how our research stories always start. This is also an excellent method for genealogical societies. Instead of writing a ho hum blog post announcing your next meeting, try asking a question. Like, "So, what are you doing Saturday morning June 23rd at 10am? The yard? Cleaning the house? Why don't you come on down to the Amegy Bank, 2nd floor, in Tomball, Texas and join the Chaparral Genealogical Society for what is sure to be a fantastic time listening to and visiting with the genealogy author and speaker Emily Croom? And? You might just learn some ways to research your family history. Plus, there will be donut holes and coffee. And then some of us get together and eat lunch at a local Mexican restaurant afterwards. At the very least, you'll go home well-fed. So, will we see you there?" Or something like that. [This is my GenSoc and this is what I'll being doing this Saturday. And you're absolutely invited.]
2. Use an anecdote or short narrative. Basically, this means to have a story within a story. My favorite example is starting out a family story with my personal story of finding out the family story I was researching for. Confused? I just used this method recently when I blogged about my grandfather James Wesley Blacketer, but I also used it with my other grandfather Big Paw Paw.]
3. Start with a definition. This is a great technique for when you have something technical to go over. I don't suggest you go over more than one thing that is overly technical, but when you do go over one, define it so that your reader is starting on the same page, if you will, as you. If you don't, they might get confused and either stop reading or be upset. Neither of which is a goal with your blog. [Unless you're using suggestion number 5 below.]
4. Use a simile or metaphor. Okay. A simile is likening two things with the words like or as, and a metaphor is likening two things without using like or as. A metaphor is a little harder to do, but the whole idea for either one is to make your readers understand something better. You are likening something they probably know to something that you're trying to explain in your blog post. For example, "She smelled like summer." This gets the reader to think about why she smelled like summer and who "she" is. It compels them to read further to find out the relevance.
   
5. Say something outrageous or provocative. If you're looking for comments, this is a great way to get them. Trust me. And you don't even have to agree with your outrageous or provocative statement, but it makes for a great way to hook your reader in. Then you could either tell why you support the statement or why you disagree with it. For example, you could start with the statement, "I don't need to cite my sources. I already know where all my information comes from." I guarantee this will grab people's attention. And will probably cause your commenting system to shut down from all the comments. Unless, of course, you're using Captcha. In that case, people might write blog posts and tweet, Facebook, and Google Plus your comments. All of which is really good for your blog traffic if they link back to your blog post. [And hopefully they'll spell your name correctly.]
6. Use a quote. This is very similar to the idea of using a definition at the beginning. Find a quote online or in a book that resonates with you and the story you're trying to write or have written. Just don't forget to correctly cite the quote. [And a great place to go for quotes is the quote section of Dictionary.com because it gives you the citation for the quote. Bonus.]
7. Don't start at the beginning of your story. Start at the middle or the end. Actually, I remember from college being taught short stories should start as close to the end as possible. And what exactly does this mean? It'll make more sense when we go over how to end a blog post or story, but it's about starting at the end of your story and then flashing back to the events that lead up to the end. For example, if at the end of your family story, your ancestor dies, then start with their death, then jump back to the events and story that leads up to their death. Remember, a story is not necessarily a timeline of events. You can mix it up within reason. In fact, this makes it more interesting to the reader. And I kind of did this in my post about my grandfather James Wesley Blacketer.
8. Begin with a panoramic view then focus in on your story or blog post. For example, if you're going to be talking about your great-uncle from West Virginia who was a coal miner, you might briefly describe the life a coal miner or the setting of West Virginia. Briefly. Remember, these are somewhat short stories that we're posting on our blogs.
9. Start out with a mystery or a puzzle to solve. Okay. This is somewhat like the question method, but a little different, and this shouldn't be too hard to do since we're always trying to solve mysteries and puzzles about our ancestors. How can a business blog pull this off? Well, for a professional genealogist who takes clients, talk about a mystery you solved. For a genealogy-related business, present the mystery or puzzle that your product or service solves and explain how you solved it. If your potential customer or client has the same "mystery" or "puzzle" that needs solving, then this type of blog post might be what converts them to an actual customer or client.
10. Begin with dialogue. Done correctly, this can be very effective. You can't do too much dialogue especially since it's on a blog, but it can be done. I've done it a time or two when I wrote about my Dad and then again when I wrote about my daughter and my 2nd great-grandparents. It can be engaging because it makes the reader feel like they entered the middle of a conversation, and now they need to figure out what's being talked about. You engage them, and then they read on.
    
11. Use an onomatopoeia. You know, a word that sounds like the sound it makes when it's happening. Like "drip." When water drips, it sounds like "drip". If your story or blog post has a water element that possibly drips [the water, not the story or blog post] you could use this technique. Highly specialized, I know, but possible. And it makes for a great beginning. When someone reads, "Drip. Drip. Drip," they think why is it dripping? What is dripping? And why do I suddenly need to use the restroom? See? You've engaged them. [After they use the restroom, of course.] And I kind of did this in my 2-parter post about my 2nd great grandparents, except it's not really an onomatopoeia, but more of a repetitive cadence used as a transition. Sort of. But it's a similar idea.
    
12. State a statistic. Okay. This could get real boring real quick unless your readers like stats. And this could possibly fall under the outrageous and provocative method, but it's still an effective way to engage your readers. Here's an example, "10 out of 12 people hate genealogy and think it's stupid." [What?!?] Make sure your stats are carefully cited, and, remember, for ever stat that says one thing, there's probably another stat that contradicts it. But? You probably just increased your chances of getting comments because of it.

There are more ways to start a story. I'm sure of it. So don't be stingy and share some ways I didn't cover in comments below. How do you begin a story or a blog post?

~Caroline

While I was in Burbank, California, attending Southern California Genealogical Society's 2012 Jamboree this past weekend, I received a wonderful email from a reader who wants to share her family stories with family members, but she wrote that she didn't know where to start. Her problem was with so many stories, how does she start? How does she structure it? One written story for every person?

All very good questions and concerns. I have written about how to start sharing family stories in blogs. And I think a blog is a perfect place to do this, but I thought I'd delve into it a bit more. This technique applies to all genealogy bloggers, whether you're blogging as a cousin hunter, genealogical society, a professional genealogist, or a genealogy-related business.

Here's my recipe for family history blog posts:

You start with passion.
When you look over your tree, your work, your stories, your documents, your photos,  what moves you? What makes you cry? What makes you laugh? What makes you shake your head in disbelief? What makes you ask why?

Why did that have to happen?

To her?

To him?

What did they think about it?

What did their loved ones think about it?

Their neighbors?

Their friends?

What would you have done if you'd been in their shoes?

How would you have felt if it had happened to you?

Would you have made the same choices? Would you have reacted the same way?

Any one of these questions could be, at the very least, one story in a blog post for just one of your ancestors. You don't have to write an ancestor's complete story in just one written story. Take a small aspect of their story and blog about it.

Take your documents & photos and pore over them. The stories are there. I promise. You just have to slow down & remember your ancestors were just like you.

They had problems. They had issues. 

They had decisions to make from choices that were less than perfect.

Sometimes they got it right.

Sometimes they couldn't have been more wrong.

Add your ancestor.
Look at a death certificate. How did they die? Accident? Health-related? Disease? What kind of disease? Look into the history of the disease. Was it a long illness that preceeded their death?

The cause of death is at least one story.

Add a little of you.
Put yourself completely in the moment. Do you have any experience with someone who has died with this disease? Does it seem to run in your family? How about a similar disease? How did that make you feel? Do you think it's possible their loved ones felt the same way?

Likening something that happened to your ancestor with something you have intimate knowledge about makes it personal. And don't be afraid to let the past collide with the present.

In What Order?
Do you have to start your blogging and storytelling with you and work backwards like your research?

No.

While a blog itself is kept in chronological order, your stories can be out of order.

In fact, I prefer to think of them as vignettes.

As quilts.

As tapestries.

What holds them together?

Passion.

And now that you have the ingredients of what goes into the recipe of a story, stay tuned for the appetizer: how to begin a story so that you don't put your readers to sleep before they get to your passion.

~Caroline

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If we're blogging with purpose [and I think we've determined that we are, indeed, blogging with purpose], then we need to have an editorial calendar that supports and guides our purposeful blogging.

Sure, it's nice to have a traditional calendar that has general topics listed for every day of the week. It's even nicer if the traditional calendar is pretty to look at. Who doesn't like pretty things?

However, we're blogging with purpose and unless our purpose with our blog is to be just like everyone else and to be pretty while we're doing it, then we're going to need an editorial calendar that helps us map out our blogging strategy for a certain amount of time in the future. And sometimes that's not pretty, but this strategy will definitely help you to be more organized, will help you to be more purposeful, and will help to distinguish your blog from all the rest in the search engines. [Oh yeah.]

So here's a 3rd Quarter Editorial Calendar. There are no topics listed. [Gasp!] There are no pretty pictures. [Another Gasp! And quite possibly a heart palpitation.] It doesn't even have a very creative name. [Disgrace.]

What it does have are points that just about every blog post you write as a genealogy blogger should have in it. All points I've covered or points I will cover here on BloggingGenealogy.com [just as soon as my Editorial Calendar says I should].

The following are the points it covers with some explanation:

• Date to Publish ~  The date you plan to publish the blog post.
• Topic ~ The topic you've chosen to write on for this particular blog post or for a series of blog posts.
• Title ~  Yes, this needs to be done ahead of time. Can always revise later.
• Question to be Answered ~  Remember: You aren't blogging for yourself anymore. You're blogging for your audience.
• Call to Action ~ What do you want your reader to do after reading your blog post?
• Cliffhanger ~ Preview of what's to come next on your blog. [Why should the reader come back?]
• Format ~ Blog post, article, video, podcast, webinar, white papers, etc.
• Share ~ How do you plan to share your blog posts with others? Other websites, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, blog, email, Google Plus, etc.
• Lagniappe ~ Do you plan to give a little extra gift to your reader? What? Examples: white papers, templates, worksheets, forms, etc.
• Status ~ Planning, In Process, Complete
  

Additional Tasks
We could go on and on. For example, if we do webinars, then we might write up a blog post introducing it, and the blog post will be SO compelling that all our reader wants to do after reading our blog post is sign up for our webinar. So, in our editorial calendar we might want to have a column for extra work like needing to add the URL to sign up for the webinar to the blog post. Or we could add that in the Call to Action column.

Or we might want to make a Landing Page for our webinar and sign up. These are all extra tasks. Therefore, we might want to add a column for them. [I didn't because I'm trying to keep this doable for everyone ~ Cousin Hunters, Genealogical Societies, Professional Genealogists, and Genealogy-related Businesses.]

[And here's where I lose the proverbial mouse in my pocket.]

I use the word "column" because this Editorial Calendar is an MS Excel Spreadsheet [Stop groaning.], and my nod to "pretty" is that I added colors to differentiate between weekdays and weekends. Why? Because I don't blog on the weekends. [Usually.] But your blogging purposes might be [Read: Should be.] different than mine, and you can change that up if you like.

So. Are you currently using an editorial calendar? What kind of editorial calendar do you use? Is it helping you to write...like everyone else? Does it help you to write purposefully? [That's the Call to Action.]

And? Oh yeah. I almost forgot. If you'd like a 3rd Quarter Editorial Calendar in MS Excel format with an example sheet [just cuz I love ya'] then download it below. [That's the Lagniappe.]

And? Will you be going to Southern California Genealogical Society's 2012 Jamboree? Well, on Saturday I'll be one of the panelists on Thomas MacEntee's Blogger Summit Panel, Blog Your Ancestors: Read 'Em and Find 'Em. Come join us!! [Kind of a Call to Action. And kind of a Cliffhanger cuz I'll be blogging later about my experience. And kind of a Lagniappe. And definitely a warning. Oops, I mean an invitation. ;) ]

~Caroline

UIpdate: If you don't have MS Excel, then I converted it to Google Docs [which is now Google Drive], and here is the link to that version which is fully editable [That's editable, not edible. Though, I think it's delectable. ;) ]: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsGGFtC_UviedFNZY0tSSmlQUy0xUnJ5NXVvcWtJa3c&hl=en#gid=0