300 Articles! And my Gift to Wizzley's History Writers

I've just posted my 300th article on Wizzley; and I've made it a big one.

I wanted to write something that was unique, useful and drew upon something which I knew that I could bring to Wizzley.  Since December 2011, when I turned up, I've so often been diverted off into other categories, that I don't often return to my roots in history. 

The last three articles have been a little gift for myself, writing on what I know and I'm passionate about, to make up for so much hard work this year.

The first was The Women Who Fought the American Civil War, which I've recently become very interested in.  It was fun (with all due respect to those who died and therefore didn't find it anything like fun) AND work.  I have no right asking for sales on something that was fundamentally chill out time masquerading as work.

The second spiraled out of control.  I meant to have my history of Guy Fawkes all ready for Bonfire Night.  But it turned from a Wizzle into a small novel.  I've already got Sam backstage urging me to actually turn it (and the aftermath) into an eBook.  I did far, far more research into Unmasking Guy Fawkes: The Real Story of Guido Faukes than I had anticipated. I thought I could knock it out in a couple of hours.  It took three days.  I have WAY too many books on the 17th century here...

Then came the moment which I've been working on for most of the last week.  It's been brewing in my head for longer.  I've never had an article in draft form for quite this long!   I wrote it as a guide for myself and all other authors: Writing about History on Wizzley.  

It's not meant to be a final word.  It's little more than an educated, but subjective opinion, which I hope I've made clear throughout (and certainly in the section on Revolutionary America).  It will be up-dated and amended as other authors have their say. 

But in the end, I hope that it will be as I intended, something extremely useful and full of inspiration for articles for every Wizzley history author now and in the future.

Enjoy!

yours

Jo

xxxxxx

PS  Wizzley team, can we have the Middle Ages installed please?   <3

I'm so impressed - I'm speechless.

As we say in Texas: You're sump'n else, Lady!

('Middle Ages' installed.)

:D  I'm glad that you liked it. :)

I suppose that's my queue to take the 'Mind the Gap' out and add the Middle Ages then!

That's amazing :D

:D

I'm pleased that you think so. <3

Congrats Jo, Well done! 

JoHarrington: 11/08/2012 - 11:02 AM

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:D

I'm pleased that you think so. <3

I liked the one on the Vendetta guy (Guy fakes - that's what I say). I love the 5th of November thing. 

Thanks, Katie.  I'm still waiting for an American to read my section on Revolutionary America.  I have a barricade prepared to hide behind. <3

Brandon - Yay!  It's a story which I've grown up with, being British and all.  We used to learn about it in school every year around Bonfire Night.  I've made my Guys over the ages.  Then it kept popping back up, in a less sanitized version, throughout my adulthood. 

Sometimes you can know too much about a topic, hence the extra long stories.  But I'm thrilled that it was interesting for you too.   And yes, V for Vendetta really did elevate him.  I have the mask.

The 5th of November did make me think of it too

Remember, remember...

:D

PS   I should have added in the introduction that my biggest, single Amazon sale to date came from a history article.   I'd been ploughing away at all of those Halloween 'sales' articles and someone just came along and spent over $200 on every book mentioned in one of my history 'information' ones.

I guess that they really got into the story!

Congrats on your 300th article, Jo, and the Amazon sale. I'm looking for ward to reading them.

Jo, a big Congratulations! I wish I had your stamina. I can't wait to read about the revolutionary war through the eyes of a Brit. many of my ancestors came from Britain starting in the 1400's. They dallied with the natives when they got here so I'm not sure if I should call myself British American or Native American.

Hi Jo,

Some of your history articles are just epic. Would you mind telling is how long you would spend on some of them?

Thanks,

Mike

Amazing!

I used to be a History teacher, and still love everything history related.

Your articles are so good- and to have made 300 in such a short time..........

The only word that comes to mind is "EPIC". Sorry to be so unimaginative, but this page is one that actually befits this often mis-used term.

It felt like an honor to pin on the EC. Should be a triple diamond EC, if there were such a thing...

I read it, and do count as an American, no comment!  I do applaud your interest in our nations history. 

Jo, BTW was about to embark on a good teasing with you and then got called away, hit submit (premature) when I returned to complete it I could no longer edit the post.  Anyway a job well done on American History. I love history, I've visited many historical places here in the states. The most haunting being Gettysburg. The place was packed with energy. I spent three days past my anticipated stay absorbing it all. History is a great and meaningful topic to us all. 

Yes, and thrilled about the book sales!!! That's wonderful, now what was it I was telling you about AMAZON? 

Oh my gosh, Nightowl!  Thank you!  I'm bouncing all over the place here!  THANK YOU!  :D  

Sorry for the delayed reaction, I've had family here, so haven't been on. :D

Hollie - Thanks and I hope that you enjoy them. <3

Brenda - I wish I had my stamina too.  I'm knackered! :p  But it's going to be a decent enough start to kick off my on-line writing career; and I have plenty of options for what I'm going to do next.  Just busy reviewing them all.  And that's a long time for your family to have been in the Americas.  Congrats on tracing your genealogy so far.

Mike - It all very much depends upon the subject and whether it's in my usual field or not.  For example, the one on the Irish genocide didn't take long at all.  Pretty much the time it took to touch-type it and do a bit of fact-checking.  I had the knowledge and the history books already here; and I've studied it at Master's level. 

Ditto Eyam.  I went to the village itself and researched in situ.  Then knocked the whole article up in the time that it took to type.

However, I've never studied American history, so any of those involve a lot of reading and comparative reading first. 

With history, it's the research which is always going to take the time.  The best plan is to keep your subject quite narrow, so to speed up the research.  For example, the one on Victorian postmortem photography only took a couple of hours.  I knew the background, so it was only the specifics that I needed to research.

Bizarrely though, the longest was the Guy Fawkes one, which I knew a little too well.  I tried to keep it narrow (just Guido, not the whole Gunpowder Plot), but it still escalated.  That one took three days to write, whereas it normally takes me between a few hours or a whole day.

Let me extend an open invitation that if anyone here is stuck on anything historical, I don't mind giving advice via DM.  I might as well do something useful with these degrees!   And I really would like to encourage more history articles on Wizzley.

Whitemoss - Thank you very much, you're making me blush.  Getting praise from a history teacher triggers that child inside.  Gold star ftw!  

Katie - LOL  Love ya! <3  And you're welcome.  I love history full stop, so having a whole new country to explore historically is like giving a kid a candy box.

Katie Part 2 - (posted while I was writing this)  It really would be worth you writing an article about your visit to Gettysburg.  I'd love to read the fine detail.  It sounds like a fascinating place and absorbing time in history.    And yes, Amazon is certainly the biggie for Wizzley. :D