From Family Secrets to Fiction: Ancestors and Ink

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#fiction #writing #genealogy #familydrama #familyrelationships #fostercare #fostercareaustralia #familyhistory #familyhistoryresearch 

What if the story you were told about your family isn’t the whole story—and the missing pieces are the key to a great novel? We open the door to turning family history into fiction by drawing on Diana Dirkby's (pen name Paula Tretkoff) work-in-progress about her maternal grandfather, a foster child in early-1900s Australia. From the first spark to shaping a satisfying arc, we map a path that blends rigorous research with creative freedom, so your pages feel both authentic and alive.

We walk through a practical, repeatable process: interview relatives with open questions, gather documents and photos, and dig into archives, newspapers, and genealogy databases to find the context that explains choices and exposes contradictions. You’ll hear how one unexpected discovery—a sibling who died in infancy and was never discussed—can transform theme, stakes, and character motivation. We talk tools, too: keeping a research journal, organizing sources in Scrivener, and using e-readers and notebooks to capture insights as they come.

Fiction, not memoir, becomes the container that protects privacy while honoring emotional truth. We explore composites, slight timeline shifts, and subplots grounded in verified details—clothing, slang, social norms, and policy history—to keep readers’ trust. Then we get tactical: hook your narrative with a family mystery, let research-driven reveals propel the middle, and land with a resolution that respects the record and still delivers an emotional payoff. Along the way, we address the emotional weight of rewriting family lore, offer ways to navigate sensitive revelations, and share how this work can deepen your connection to ancestors.

If you’re sitting on a box of letters or a half-told story that won’t leave you alone, this conversation will help you start small and build momentum. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves genealogy, and tell us: what surprising fact from your family tree should be a scene in a novel?

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Transcript

Why Turn Family History Into Fiction

Surprising Discoveries That Shift The Narrative

Step One: Build A Research Foundation

Tools, Archives, And A Research Journal

Fiction Over Memoir: Creative Latitude

Weaving Discoveries Into Plot And Stakes

Structure, Character, And Historical Texture

Managing Emotions And Preserving Legacy

Practical Closing And Listener Invitation

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hello, I hope that you are all okay and geared up for uh what for many of us will be another very, very cold weekend. So I'm way down in Texas, south uh south central Texas, and we uh having our own um record low temperatures. So but I know that many of you in other parts of the country are dealing with lots of snow and other stuff, so I I wish you well. So today's episode is entitled From Family Secrets to Fiction, Ancestors and Inc. And it's part of my podcast, Fractured Inc, Writing in Life's Chaos. So just to recall, my uh pen name is Diana Dirkby, and my real name is Paula Tretkoff. So, welcome back to my podcast, Fractured Inc. Writing in Life's Chaos. Today we're diving into something deeply personal and incredibly powerful. Writing a fiction novel inspired by your own family history. As I have already shared in another episode, I am currently writing a fiction novel based on the life of my maternal grandfather, Frank Cohen. Grandpa Coe, as our family called him, was a foster child in Australia as of about age six. Even that number may need revision as a consequence of my current research into our family. It's sure he was fostered in about 1900 to 1905. This novel is not just any family history novel. I am researching not only my grandfather, but also the historical context in which he lived, especially as a child. My research is also about foster care in Australia at the beginning of the 1900s. I am discovering so many new facts that I compare with my family's oral history, mainly passed down by my mother and my aunts, now all sadly deceased. We're talking about the kind of research that doesn't just fill in the blanks, it uncovers brand new, surprising facts about my ancestors that rewrite a lot of the story I thought I knew. If you've ever dug into old letters, census records, or that dusty family diary and thought, wait, wait, this episode is for you. We'll walk through the process that is working for me step by step, from spark to published pages, with real tips drawn from my ongoing experience of writing this new novel. Let's start at the beginning. Why turn family history into fiction at all? Family stories are gold mines. They come with built-in drama, migrations, wars, love affairs, scandals, quiet heroism. But real life rarely follows a neat three-ac structure. That's where fiction comes in. You get to shape those fragments into a compelling narrative with rising tension, emotional arcs, and satisfying payoffs. The magic happens when research reveals surprises. Maybe you discover an ancestor was secretly involved in a historical event, had a hidden second family, or defied expectations in ways no one remembered. Those aha moments aren't just facts, they're rocket fuel for your plot and characters. For example, I only discovered a few weeks ago by doing some genealogy research online that my grandfather didn't have just two siblings, as we'd always been told, but three. He had a brother, Walter, who died in his first year of life, and about whom no one, including my grandfather apparently, never spoke. I say apparently, as Grandpa Coe died the year I was born, all my knowledge of him was passed down as oral history, supported by a few old photographs, which have nonetheless a big part to play. So again, I have chosen fiction rather than memoir because it frees me up to invent dialogue, deepen conflicts, and explore what-ifs without family members objecting. That's not how Aunt So-and-so was. Fiction lets you honor the essence while creating something emotionally true and page-turning. I made the same choice of fiction over memoir for my first two published novels, The Overlife, A Tate of Schizophrenia, and Three Kidnapped, Three Siblings, Three Furies. They are available from Amazon.com at the links in the episode description. This is how I am faring so far by developing the following steps for the third novel about my grandfather. Step one, gather your foundation. Start with what you already know. Interview relatives if they're around. Ask open questions like, what do you remember about great-grandpa's job? or Was there ever a family secret? I have five cousins who knew Grandpa Co. when he was alive. So they are a great source. Collect photos, letters, heirlooms, oral stories. Then dive into research about your family. Use sites like ancestry.com, family search.org. I found that ladder very, very, very useful. Newspapers, archives, or even local historical societies. Look for census data, immigration records, military files, court documents. This type of research has already bowled me over with new facts about my ancestors that I never knew or that were distorted in the family oral history. Their surprises often hide in the context. You might know your ancestor was a farmer in 1890s, Kansas, for example, but researching the Dust Bowl precursors, railroad expansion, or local politics reveals why they made certain choices or uncover something shocking, like a land dispute or an unexpected profession. In my case, I am researching foster care in Australia in the early 1900s, as that's when my grandfather became a foster child. By incredible luck, I came across a research book that is well known, but that I had not known about until a few months ago. It's entitled The Slow Evolution of Foster Care in Australia, Just Like a Family, by Nell Musgrove and Deedre Mitchell. It covers the entire history, so includes in particular the period that pertains to my grandfather. One of the fruits of reading this book is my new interest in the institution of foster care in general. Tip Keep a research journal. I've done this for all my novels. Note every discovery, no matter how small, those brand new surprising facts become your story's heart. If you are working with the app Scrivener, there is a research section where you can collect all you discover. I take advantage of that, but I also have a paper notebook and I use the notebook section of my Kindle Scribe. Speaking of Kindles, as I love doing, for this book I'm researching, I have found my Kindle ColourSoft Signature Edition to be the most aesthetic read, but for the big research book I mentioned above, I prefer the larger screen on the Kindle Fire Max 11. Also, not all books download to the ColourSoft Inscribe, but as the Kindlefire uses the Kindle app, it downloads virtually all Kindle books. As a tablet, it also has lots of great apps. Step two, other reasons I chose fiction over straight memoir. If surprises change the family narrative dramatically, fiction gives you breathing room. This drama is unfolding for me. Change names, blend characters, composites are your friend, shift timeless timelines slightly for drama, invert subplots. So I'll go over that again. Change names, blend characters, composites are your friend, shift timelines slightly for drama, invent subplots. But grounded in truth, and for that you need to research the real nonfictional context of your story. Readers love inspired by a true story vibes. Keep the historical backdrop accurate, clothing, slaying, social norms, major events. That's what makes the surprises feel authentic. I'm starting with the central ancestor as protagonist. I'm asking, what do they want? What's blocking them? How do the newly discovered facts create conflict or growth? Step three, weave in those surprising discoveries. This is where it gets exciting. These new facts aren't obstacles, they're gifts. Say your research uncovers that your great-grandmother wasn't just a homemaker, she was quietly aiding suffragettes or hiding something from the family. That becomes a secret driving the plot. Or maybe an ancestor turns out to have been on the wrong side of a famous event. Suddenly your hero has moral complexity. A central question my family, including Grandpa Co., asked was why his birth parents deserted him and his siblings at such a young age. I am discovering why through genealogy, but won't say more now as that would be a spoiler alert. Use the surprises to raise stakes. A discovered letter reveals a betrayal. Build tension around who knows what. A hidden crime or heroism. Let it force your character to confront legacy. Balance fact and fiction. Well, I should say here balance fact and invention. That's a better way to express it. Stick close to known events for authenticity, then fill gaps with imagination. Dialogue, inner thoughts, sensory details, these make ancestors breathe on the page. Step four, structure and craft. Outline loosely. Beginning, set up and hook with a family mystery. Middle, research driven rising action and revelations. End resolution that honors the legacy while delivering emotional payoff. Develop characters beyond real trays. Give them flaws, desires, growth. Your ancestor might have been stoic in life, like my grandfather was. Let them wrestle with vulnerability in fiction. Well, his vulnerability was the anger he felt at being deserted by his birth parents and fostered with uh an abusive foster father. So that's part of the vulnerability that he had was the inability to control that anger at times. Research the area deeply, attitudes toward gender, class, race, technology, immerse yourself so the world feels lived in. Write a first draft freely, and this I do combining the scrivener app with using my Kindle Scribe. Then revise for historical accuracy and emotional truth. Beta readers, especially family if you're sharing, help can help spot where facts enhance or distract. Step five, the emotional side. This process can be healing or intense. Discovering surprising facts may challenge family myths or reveal painful truths, as they are for me in writing this novel. Give yourself grace. Many authors find it deepens their connection to ancestors. They become more than names. They're complex people who shape you. And the payoff? The novel preserves those stories for generations, blending history with heart. So wrapping up, if you're sitting on a family history itching to become a novel, start small. Pick one surprising fact or ancestor, write a short scene, build from there. The surprises you uncover aren't just plot twists, they're bridges between past and present. Your book could be the way those ancestors finally get heard. Thanks for joining me on Fractured Inc. If you've turned family history into fiction or discovered something wild in your research, drop me a comment. I'd love to hear it for a future episode. Until next time, keep digging, keep writing, and keep listening to the voices of the past. Don't forget to subscribe, like, and above all comment. Thank you for listening and watching.