Writing with AI - Chronicle Makers

Woodcut image of five books sitting on a shelf, each with a different cover and design.

Writing with AI

The Forms of Family History Writing

Try the Five Forms exercise to see which style of family history writing you drift towards. The chronicle is the sixth form and a new one for family historians.

Wood cut image of a robot head with a red X through it on the left. On the right a wrench and a screwdriver crossed over each other. AI is a tool in family history, not a collaborator

Writing with AI

I Stopped Calling AI a Collaborator. Here's Why.

I called AI a collaborator for two years and then stopped. The word was telling family historians their own research and writing belonged to something else.

Woodcut image of a fountain pen with green ink correcting a handwritten page.

Writing with AI

AI as Your Writing Coach for Family History

AI can coach the family history you have already written, without writing a word of it for you. What a coaching pass returns and why it works.

A finished family history next to a pile of research papers.

Writing with AI

What a Finished Family History Actually Looks Like

A finished family history is one a reader has read. Not a complete tree, not exhausted sources — a chronicle someone who is not you has actually read.

A wood cut image of a kitchen pantry shelf, well stocked, with jars, tins, sacks

Writing with AI

The Full Pantry Problem and How It Keeps You Stuck

You have enough to write. The Full Pantry Problem is the gap between having enough and believing it, and it hits the best-researched family historians hardest.

Wood cut image of a balance scale with an X on one side and a ink well with a quill on the other.

Writing with AI

Is It Cheating to Use AI to Write Your Family History?

Is it cheating to use AI to write your family history? No. Cheating needs a competition with rules and you never entered one. Here's the real answer.

Woodcut image of a open book with a path leading to a tree with leaves on it.

Writing with AI

Themes About Family: 20 Storytelling Themes for Writing Your Family History

Themes about family, from reunion ideas to the deeper threads that turn genealogy research into a story worth reading. 20 themes to shape your family history.

Wood cut image of a computer with a family tree on the screen, then an arrow, then a family history book on the right.

Frameworks

The Finisher Framework: Why Most Family History Projects Stall (and How to Change That)

The Finisher Framework: the identity shift from genealogy researcher to someone who finishes family history stories. Built for people with years of research and nothing written.

Wood cut image of with a box of family records and a ever expanding research list rolling into the sunset.

Writing with AI

Why Most Family History Projects Never Get Finished

An estimated 98% of genealogists who want to write never finish. The problem is not discipline or time. It is three specific patterns you can fix.

Wood cut image of a balance scale with a card file and books on the left and open book with a pen on the right.

Writing with AI

How Much Research Is Enough Before Writing Family History?

How to know when you have enough genealogy research to start writing. The Chronicle Compass tool and the evidence that "enough" is less than you think.

STORI letterpress block letters in vintage woodcut style — the five-step chronicle writing method by Chronicle Makers

Writing with AI

What Is the STORI Method? The Five-Step Process for Writing Family History

The STORI Method is a five-step process for turning genealogy research into a finished family history story. Scope, Thread, Originate, Reflect, Inspire.