Book Ideas

Book ideas come to those who look for them.  When I was researching Minnesota’s tuberculosis sanatoriums in 2016, I was particularly interested in the state sanatorium, Ah-gwah-ching in Walker.  It was the oldest, second largest, and especially isolated due to its location in northern Minnesota.  I had looked through many boxes of government records from the sanatorium that were in the Minnesota Historical Society’s archives. I was hoping to find something I could use for blog posts or maybe a magazine article. For my previous book, Interrupted Lives, I had been able to interview former sanatorium patients during the 1990’s, when many were still alive.  There were some oral histories in the Ah-gwah-ching files, but many were from former employees.  What I didn’t find was a diary or something personal that would give me better insight into its operation from a patient’s point of view.

I expanded my search beyond the government files and found something better than a diary — a treasure trove of letters written by a teenage patient at Ah-gwah-ching during World War II.  She was more than 200 miles away from her family and wrote 303 letters home during her three-year stay.  As I read further into the collection, I realized its value as a candid memoir and an educational  human interest story. I wrote a proposal to the Minnesota History Press. It was accepted.  The Girl in Building C: The True Story of a Teenage Tuberculosis Patient will be available from the press and other book vendors in September. I didn’t go looking for the letters, but because I broadened the scope of my search and wandered a bit, I found gold.

 

Persistence is a virtue

[updated: originally published in 2016]

I’ve read it in books and heard it in classes: Persistence is what often separates a writer from a published author. It just might be true.

Twenty-six years ago I became interested in tuberculosis as a topic. Fourteen years ago I published my first article on the topic. Four years ago I decided to leave full-time work and concentrate on writing a book. Today, I have a contract. Next year, my book will be published.

That’s probably a longer timeline than most people would tolerate. It worked for me, though. I finished a B.A. degree in writing in 2002, and then I received a paycheck while getting a lot of on-the-job experience in researching and editing. In the meantime, I sent out a few book proposals and received some encouraging feedback. No contracts. Now, I am glad that no offer materialized. The revised manuscript I produced this year is so much better than what I would have published a few years ago.

The best advice I can give to achieve publication is “do what works for you,” but keep those five points in mind. Write about what you love, seek support and inspiration in a group of like-minded people, read to learn as well as to relax, go outside your comfort zone to improve your writing skills, and do something every day to keep your brain engaged.

• Daily writing habits?  I have none. When I force myself to sit down and write, I produce crap that I have to rewrite. Instead, I try do something every day that’s related to the project. I read articles or books, sort through photos, or concentrate my research on someone or something that merits more attention. The topic is constantly humming in my subconscious, and I write down thoughts that surface. When I do sit down at the computer, it feels as if the preceding busywork has gestated, and words are ready to be born. Pages fill rapidly.
• Self-improvement?  The writing classes I have attended since I got my degree have been in poetry and script writing. I improved my prose with the former and my dialogue with the latter. I may never be a poet or a screenwriter.
• Books?  I gravitate toward non-fiction or historical fiction. If I set a book down after a few chapters and never pick it up again, I try to analyze why. If a book of a 1,000 pages is a must-finish, I study one chapter. It helped me to read Barbara Tuchman’s essays in Practicing History concurrently with her tome, Guns of August. Tuchman, like me, did not have an advanced degree in history. We agree that an academic voice often smothers an interesting topic.
• What about love? I am obsessed with my topic. Tuchman said that being in love with your subject is “indispensable for writing good history — or good anything, for that matter” (Practicing History, p. 14).
• Inspiration?  I belong to a research group, not a writing group. It’s kind of like a book club, except we aren’t all studying the same thing. We report on individual progress, ask for suggestions on resources, and rejoice in successes. We don’t critique each other’s work. We are mostly a bunch of introverts who emerge once a month to inspire and energize each other.

 

 

 

 

Writing pains

In February 2015 I wrote: “I have followed other non-fiction authors with blogs who declare they are going to document their process, and then they disappear after a few posts. So I am not attempting in any way to document my process.”  I don’t know why others have not followed through on blogging, but I know why I didn’t.  There simply isn’t time to research, think, and write, and then to write about researching, thinking, and writing.  During 2015, I completed a fellowship, submitted a draft manuscript to a publisher, gave three public presentations about sanatoriums, and performed some freelance grant work.. Now, halfway through 2016, I am rewriting the manuscript at the publisher’s request and preparing for two more presentations. The only advice I can give to anyone who wants to write a non-fiction book is to be prepared to have your thoughts and time consumed by your topic.  J.A. Jance, who writes crime mystery novels, said, “The other thing about writing books is that they take more thinking than they do typing — approximately six hundred hours of the former and three hundred hours of the latter.”  I would say to at least double that for writing a substantial non-fiction book. The task is not for the dilettante nor the procrastinator.

J.A. Jance quote is from “The Story Behind Second Watch,” the J.P. Beaumont series, Harper, 2013.

 

Make a copy

Advice for researchers:  When in doubt, make a copy.

In the past, when I found an article or clipping that captured my interest, I would think, “but what does that have to do with (fill in the topic)?” Believing that there wasn’t a connection, I would pass by the information and continue with my research.

I have regretted ignoring that subtle signal.  Now, if something catches my eye, I imagine my subconscious trolling through my memory banks and making a connection so obscure that I’m not consciously aware of it.  When that little spark of interest flares, I trust my instincts and make a copy. I have never regretted investing in the relatively minor cost of copying, compared to the time and energy spent trying to remember the source of information I now need. If the original document is difficult to copy or is copyrighted, I at least note the format and location for future retrieval. And I log that information into my research database, so I don’t have a trillion sticky-note reminders on my desk.

This advice is multiplied tenfold if you have been granted limited access to a collection or are far from home and may never have another chance to dig through a special archive.

Writing history

I am writing a non-fiction book. Someone who reviewed my work-in-progress wondered why I haven’t included more quotes from previous publications by authors who are considered experts on my topic. For one thing, I had chosen instead to study their bibliographies and go directly to some of those sources. I wanted to find fresh information, and, frankly, I suspected that more than a few of the authors’ quotes were cherry-picked to support pre-existing biases. You see, at the time they did their research, which was mostly in the 1980s and 1990s, there were thousands of people still alive who had first-hand experiences to tell. Yet, when I looked through the author’s bibliographies, it was apparent that they were satisfied with delving into 50-year-old archives and chose not to interview anyone themselves. I came to the topic later than they, but I still was able to find more than 25 people locally to interview. Who would want to pass up the opportunity to talk with a person whose life was represented by one of those little dots on a statistical chart?

Yesterday, I intended to take a break from history and read a mystery book, but fate must have led me to check Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time out of the library.  She placed her detective in a hospital bed to recover from an accident, and boredom leads him into investigating the supposed murder of the two young princes by Richard III.  Tey wrote the book in 1951, and she clearly supports the theory that Henry VII was responsible for the deaths. Her fictional detective reads some history books that really do exist, and laments that the writers “see history like a peep-show; with two-dimensional figures against a distant background. Perhaps when you are grubbing about with tattered records you haven’t the time to learn about people. I don’t mean about people in the records, but just about People. Flesh and blood. And how they react to circumstances.”

Wow.  What a great reminder to me. I want to avoid that trap.

Non-fiction writing and research

Lesson learned:  Never underestimate a source.

I was in no hurry to go to one of the local historical society museums.  It was small, open only one morning a week, and I didn’t think the town was closely associated with my topic. Besides, I’ve been gathering information about the tuberculosis sanatorium for 20 years and have delved into two other museums’ holdings in addition to the state’s archives.  With almost 50 boxes of material at the state history center, there seemed to be no pressing reason to visit the museum in Hopkins.

BIG mistake. In the early 20th century, Hopkins was on the same streetcar line as the sanatorium and was a convenient place for employees to live. The museum’s files about the sanatorium include material donated by townspeople, including some postcards.  Three postcards were dated 1919, and I had never before seen those photos. As a bonus, one of the postcards had been used for correspondence.  The sender, across the decades, solved a mystery for me about one of the buildings on the campus.  Now I am rewriting one of the chapters to add the new information and berating myself for not exploring this resource years ago. On my next visit I will read selected back issues of the town’s newspaper.

Moral of the story:  Spread the net wide when looking for information, and don’t write off a potential source based on size or current relationships.

Becoming a successful grant writer, part 5: Research

A passion for research and facts is a must if you want to be a successful grant writer.

Grant applications consist of historical fact mixed with informed speculation. A grant application must clearly and honestly report past and current situations, and follow with a prediction of a brighter future that will be created with help from the funder. If the project is funded, the project team must eventually evaluate its success at creating that brighter future. The only way to do that is by establishing a baseline against which to measure.  And that brings us back to historical fact. If you enjoyed writing research papers in school, this is the right job for you.  If you consider fact-finding to be the dullest exercise on earth, don’t think you can dazzle reviewers with brilliant wordsmithing instead. It doesn’t work that way.

The first question a grant writer should ask a client is “Why do you need the money?” An answer that consists of vague generalizations about doing good things is not satisfactory.  If the organization is large enough and well organized, it will be able to provide adequate data from which to develop a needs statement.  If an organized data library does not exist, you should add research time to the preparation plan (and your fee).  The following are some tips for finding reliable information. Always cite sources; use endnotes or a reference page if possible.

• Use the U.S. Census data.   The Census Bureau page has interactive maps and the American Fact Finder. www.census.gov
• Look at state and local agency data.  Many states have a demographer’s office that provides trend data on populations. Contact any and all state agencies that might have oversight in areas related to the project.
• Find out if the funder is an expert.  Most government agencies and some larger foundations publish reports. Mine them for data that supports your request.
• Use the Internet extensively, but cautiously. Much of the information listed in the first three bullets is available online. Never cite Wikipedia, but visit the pages related to your topic. Scroll down to references and external links, and look at any that are credible sources.
• Obtain a library card if you don’t have one.  Many public libraries subscribe to online databases that are specific to professions and social issues. Librarians will help you access those as well as back issues of newspapers that have been digitized.

Keep paper or digital copies of all data you collect. If a project team member or potential funder questions your information, you’ll be able to show your sources.

Next Up:  Part 6 in the series on suggested qualifications for grant writers — Familiarity with style guides

Part 1 Curiosity and specialized knowledge

Part 2 Ability to tell a story

Part 3 Ability to listen

Part 4 Writing experience or education in several fields

The Organized Writer

For more than 20 years I collected material about tuberculosis in Minnesota and the Glen Lake Sanatorium, thinking that one day I might write an article or two about the topic. Well, I have written two articles, and I decided there’s a book to be written. It is intimidating to begin writing a non-fiction book about a topic that spans more than a century. It is also intimidating to look at boxes and piles of paper, newspaper clippings, and video and audio tapes. I know that my plan may not work perfectly for anyone else, because we all have our personality types and space issues to consider, but I’m offering an outline of my approach in case it can help someone make that first step toward organization.

1. Sort by type of material and consolidate. I labeled containers (file folders and boxes, mostly) for articles, photos, newspaper clippings, and other media. I did a general sorting, trying not to sit and read what I was handling. I did not want to deal with content sorting at this point. I just needed to know how much I had and in what format. I also printed out lists of my electronic files.

2. Decide if the original format needs conversion or stabilizing.   I affixed the loose newspaper clippings onto copy paper so that I was handling uniform sizes of paper.  I estimated how many hours of interviews I had (more than 20) and researched transcriptionist pricing.  I couldn’t afford to pay to have it done so I purchased used units of two types of dictation equipment (regular and micro cassette) and dusted off my VCR to do the transcribing myself. It was time consuming, but now I am much better acquainted with the content than I would have been from merely reading it.

3.  Sort by content. 

• Transcribed interviews are in electronic files, and printed copies are placed alphabetically in three-ring binders. I have a master tracking list in Excel so I can use Find or Sort to locate interviews by last name, maiden name, date, or specific topics. The original media are numbered to match.
• Photos are arranged chronologically by decade in hanging file folders in a portable file box. I did this so I can bring them with me to oral history interviews or other appointments as memory joggers. I have scanned some but not all of the photos. I noted those that might be copyrighted and need permission for use.
• Brochures, newsletters, and similar printed material are arranged chronologically in hanging folders in a portable file box. I use them as memory prompts during interviews. These, along with books on the shelf, are listed in the master file in Excel.
• All other printed resource material is in three-ring binders, using a variation of the File, Don’t Pile method. Topics are placed alphabetically according to the primary content topic and assigned a number. They are indexed and cross-referenced in a master Excel spreadsheet so I can do a sort or  word search.
• Information about resources, such as museum and libary holdings on relevant subjects, are also in a three-ring binder for quick reference. I make notes on these so I know which have been explored and what material I have obtained or need to request.
• Oversized materials (posters, etc.) are in an art folder.

4. Back-up everything.  The most recent electronic copies of files and book chapters are always on my primary flash drive.  I back it up on a laptop and on my husband’s desktop computer.  I also back it up on another flash drive that is stored in a safety deposit box. There are many paper copies that aren’t saved electronically, but my master files note original sources. While re-creation would be an utter pain, it wouldn’t be an impossibility.

Most of this material is housed in an inexpensive desk/bookcase combination that I bought on clearance at a local store (some assembly required). I bought three-ring binders that have the plastic overlay so I can insert content information on the spine and the front cover.  As I add more material, I redistribute the contents and re-label as needed. I don’t file anything until I have time to update the master lists.  I don’t three-hole punch paper until I have completed the documentation, so I always know what belongs in the catch-up bin and what is ready to file.

So far, this method is working quite well. I knew that if I didn’t corral it from the beginning I would lose the critical ability to check facts and cite sources.

P.S.  File, Don’t Pile is a method originated by Pat Dorff in the 1980s. I admire this system. I have used it in an office where 15 people shared research files and in many of my own work situations. http://us.macmillan.com/filedontpile/PatDorff