Writing Prompts: Genealogy

Writing about family, directly, can be fun, but it can endanger relationships. On the other hand, using your knowledge of your family to inform your writing and to create fictional characters communicates your humanity to your reader. One of the great resources the web has made possible is genealogical databases. Warriors and poets, good and terrible politicians, whalers, Cost Guard sailors, and curmudgeons abound in my ancestry. Their stories and the details of their lives become fodder for fiction and poetry. No need for writer’s block if you ask the right questions and then, answer them

For example, I went looking the other day and found a family crest I didn’t have on file. The crest was definitely designed when men were men, and women were the shoulders they rode upon. In other words, it didn’t have much to do with me. That got me thinking about what I would put on a crest. Would I modify the family crest or start from scratch? The next thought was that a family in one of my fairy tales needed a crest since they have a long history in Greenleaf’s magical land. In fact, every character in the tale should have a crest. Even the most persnickety character has traditions, albeit slightly warped. Would he or she get a warped crest to reflect their family’s view of the world? Or, is their crest actually the same as the royal family’s, implying a closer relationship than any would want to own up to?

I also looked into crest design, drew a blank shield, and ran out some copies from the printer. Then, I took them with me to an activity with kids at a local school. They loved figuring out what symbols represented themselves and their families. The designs they drew became their writer’s prompts. There were so many things they knew about people in their families, and most of what they had to say and to write was positive and beautiful. Some used the crests as a prompt for fiction , too.

Take some time today to design your crest, and the crests of your characters. What else does each crest tell you about your character’s potential? Would your character keep the crest as is, or create a new one? Perhaps, she or he would rather have it blank, or even to paint it black. to dim out the lights of ancestors and family.

Here's a link to the software my cousin, Pami, and I are using to assemble our family tree:
Legacy Family Tree

Katherine A Minden ©2009