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Dona Munker: Writing a Biography

~ Writing a Biography ~
 
STALKING THE ELEPHANT
 
A Blog About Writing Biography and Imagining a Life

MANAGING YOUR RESEARCH: A "DEEP CHRONO" TIMELINE CAN HELP

June 26, 2013
Tags: Beginnings, research, Telling the story
An example of very, very deep chronology; a river runs through it. (Photo: J. David Rogers)
I know I promised to get back to the subject of organizing primary research in biography, and I'll return to talking about data files and headnotes soon. Before that, however, I'd like to pass on an idea that comes to us courtesy of—get ready—the CIA.

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First, a brief but relevant digression. In a post last year, I discussed the essential "red thread" of narrative and how important it is to keep an eye on it at all times.  Read More 
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DEALING WITH BLACK HOLES, 1 (TBC REPORT)

June 19, 2013
Tags: Black holes, TBC reports
A Black Hole, as it appears to the biographer. (If this doesn't look alarming enough to you, click to enlarge. Image: Zeitnews.org. Book: courtesy of Neil Baldwin.)

        Last month, I heard a subject discussed that should interest anyone who has ever discovered that a chunk of the story is missing—meaning, of course, every biographer. Read More 
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    GETTING ORGANIZED, 4: LOCKING IN THOSE THRILLING DISCOVERIES

    June 11, 2013
    Tags: research
    A typical headnote (click to enlarge). It identifies and dates the document (in this case a letter), gives important textual information, notes the dates I saw it and how much I copied, summarizes the contents, and indicates what I want to remember.
    Call me a hopeless nerd, but for sheer mental excitement, I've never found anything better than discovering something new about my characters or finding a clue to their story. To me, that's what archival research is all about.

    In my first and second posts on organizing research, I discuss using MS Word to set up a chronologically-based folder system  Read More 
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    GETTING ORGANIZED, 3: WRITER-FRIENDLY SOFTWARE.

    June 4, 2013
    Tags: research
    Storage, sharing, and retrieval software for writers, not including Scrivener. Click to enlarge. (Courtesy of Victoria Olsen: modified from "Citation Management Software," Taubman Health Sciences, Univ. of Michigan)
    A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away—the one where I convinced myself that I could write a biography and still have time to blog regularly—I promised to continue with the subject of how to set up a seat-of-the-pants filing system for storing, retrieving, and keeping track of research  Read More 
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