 For Authors: June 29, 2005 Issue [#449] |
 
For Authors
This week: Edited by: phil1861
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1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
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Unlike a computer or a machine, we are not the sum total of what we know. A machine requires a reconfiguration before it can do something other than what it was intended. Ever feel that you cannot do something only because you lack knowledge or experience? We have the capacity to add to ourselves that which can enhance who we are or what we do. Unlike a soda commercial, we will not become something else by drinking their product. We can change our outlook, add a new skill, work towards a different life, and increase our experience base. Unlike our computers, we will never become obsolete.
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I thought I would depart from the norm of my newsletter topics this time around. Thankfully for both you and me we have three other NL editors to keep the weekly topics varied and interesting. I’m especially thankful that my cohorts are full of expertise to pass on to this community which in turn allows me to at times wax philosophic about my own writing journey. I’m not a nuts and bolts person and the journey is always more interesting to me than the practical of how to go about packing or what routes to take to get there. I can tell from reading the newsletter comments each month that this multiplicity of editors allows the readership to be spoken to each in turn. Some of you want to see the how to’s and run off and apply them to your craft. Others like to participate gregariously through the writing journey to let you know that you are not alone in what you have experienced.
I wanted to focus on a narrow front this time around on something that I can say that I do have an expertise in. Since childhood history, and especially American Civil War history, has been a passion of mine. From before I even graduated High School I knew what I wanted to major in when I started college. Not only my academic studies centered around history but my pleasure reading and hobbies as well. Adding reenacting to my knowledge allowed me to span the two dimensional framework of a book and facts to a small part of what that history meant to be lived out. Though as a writer I write fiction and only a smattering of it so far as been historical in nature. I suppose I read enough of it that I do not feel compelled to write it exclusively.
So, from both my academic training and my apatite for historical treatises on anything relating to the Civil War especially, I wanted to pass on a few things to those who do find themselves writing historical fiction or writing anything of historical value into their works. Even if you do not consider history as anything but boorish dates or dry interpretation there are a few things to look at when writing anything where you find yourself harkening back into time. One can hardly write without referencing something from our past unless you are writing fantasy, but even here there are careful progressions to be followed.
Below is a list of what to consider when weaving the past into the present in a work. As both fiction and non-fiction writers of stories, poems, or essays the principals of research apply evenly for all forms, for what makes historical fiction historical is its reliance upon the research.
Sources
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Myth busting
Keep it real
Draw your own conclusions
Sources
As a member recently commented to me, “writing history isn’t as easy as I thought” and she is right. There is an up front investment in research that has to be made and I would suppose for some that investment is too high a price to pay. The question becomes one of creative rewards verses accuracy. If you are telling yourself, “I’ll just Google it”, consider the source of information for anything you pull off of the web. Credibility is the name of the game. Though just because the book is published does not guarantee credibility, Historians know someone will be looking at their work with a fine toothed comb and will start working on their own rebuttal, so their information has to be accurate and their assumptions well buttressed. Whatever time periods you are considering make sure you have on hand a variety of sources. Now, this isn’t to say that one must read thirty books in order to satisfy this requirement, but the more in-depth your knowledge of the subject can become the easier it will be to synthesize an accurate portrayal. As any detective would tell you, primary sources are your best bet for developing a flavor of the period. Autobiographies or first hand accounts of events impart what cannot be gleaned from the almanac. But, as the detective would also warn us, first had accounts and especially Autobiographies are not to be wholly relied upon for accuracy. They are priceless for revealing the inner motivations of an individual in their own words, but it would be like relying upon the sole word of only one participant in an event. First hand sources also take the form of records of events or books written after the fact. These too can be excellent sources for recording events in a time line and gathering one person’s view point of those events. Think of first hand sources as one individuals turn at apologetics, which is to justify their actions at every turn for posterity’s sake, and always use them with an eye for stripping out the justifications for actions taken or decisions made.
Second hand sources, which are not the “he said, she said” of a first hand accounts, are not unlike eye witness statements at the scene of an accident. They may even be from active participants but describing the scene as they saw it. These take the form of biographies, analysis accounts, and Autobiographies when the subject matter turns to something witnessed and the writer is describing an interaction with someone else, historical treatise written by non-participants and general survey histories. Participant second sources may also have the problem as first hand sources; tunnel vision. Perhaps they mention that an event happened on such and such a day or at a certain time and it builds their entire focus on the event, and yet you discover that another source disagrees. Who to believe? To balance the variety of participant accounts one should rely upon the non-participant or historian treatise to glean the inaccuracies of the primary and secondary sources. The historian has also done all of the work for you and may even be familiar with the very sources you are investigatings. Historians base their own work upon the work of other historians for why reinvent the wheel each time you sit to write? However, be careful even here. History is more than a timeline with dates scribbled upon it. The records are scattered and incomplete even a day after an event. The real meat to history is the analysis and the conclusions drawn. These conclusions and presuppositions mold what the historian chooses to put into their work. It is the sifting through a mound of evidence to write the report at the end. No one includes every shred of evidence in their report but condenses it down. If the historian is worth their salt, they have been careful to not perpetuate errant conclusions and if there is one thing historian’s love more than history itself it is debunking the conclusions of their cohorts! Check the bibliographies in the back of any history book and you will find that the material in the work used was derived from another’s work. Just be cautious when relying upon the word of the word of the word of a historian for tomorrow someone might publish something that calls those old conclusions into question.
Do not be afraid to rely upon a multitude of sources and depending on the depth of the work, knowing political, social, and economic facts and trends for the given time will allow you to craft your piece and not make silly historical mistakes.
An example of synthesis and conclusion drawing is this:
In 1862 George B. McClellan was given the reigns of the Federal armies and replaced the aged Winfield Scott as Commander in Chief of the army. In his book Sword over Richmond, Richard Wheeler builds a storyline covering the start and finish of the Peninsular Campaign. He states that prior to this campaign, Abraham Lincoln was not an abolitionist and there is plenty of correspondence and his own recorded statements to back his assumption. The abolitionist element in the Republican Party is strong and they are vocal. The war has to this point been one of reuniting the union and has no official stance on slavery at all though many of its field commanders and soldiers hold their own views on both sides of the issue. Yet all are united in a determination to bring the rebellious states back to the fold. Wheeler then tries to show how, in the face of McClellan’s own delusions of grandeur and his humiliating defeats before a numerically inferior foe; Lincoln is driven into the arms of the abolitionists and makes plans to re-orient the war effort towards the abolition of slavery in the rebellious states for both political as well as international reasons. The Great Emancipator is thus the reluctant emancipator. This conclusion could only be derived from the filling in of the blanks as it where for no one knows the mind of Lincoln but Lincoln himself. Yet, there is the real possibility that Wheeler is correct based upon the evidence that he and anyone else has access to.
So, draw care in your sources lest the conclusions of one historian become fact as one builds upon the other.
Finally, you have the official records of any event as they have been recorded in reports. These are usually but not always cold and neutral. An Almanac for example is dispassionate about what it contains, another is an encyclopedia. These are good for getting a mean timeline and simple facts about something. You will not draw conclusions from these sources other than arming yourself with an idea of what happened and when it happened.
Next month I’ll get to the myth busting and the other sections.
If you typically write in a historic vein, how do you typically conduct your research?
If you do not usually write historical pieces but find need of doing research, how do you go about it?
Have you run into any of the pitfalls I’ve described?
There are quite a few pieces on site relating to history, either fiction or poetry and a number of non-fiction essays. I’ve picked out a select few that centered more on resources and ideas about history.
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The question from my last NL was:
If you have almost given up on writing because of a failure to publish, describe it.
If you have published, whether in periodicals or novels, how many stories did you pen before something was accepted?
billwilcox
Submitted Comment:
Pookster,
This is one of the most helpful newsletters I've ever read. From the opening all the way through the fabulous Editor's Picks. Write On!
Bill, always the flatterer
Puditat 
Submitted Comment:
Pookie, I think that is the most "speaking to only my ears" editorials I have ever read. Everything in your first paragraph sung to me as if I were the one scribing my thoughts. My novel born in the Daily Writing Challenge is going through the same process. I still believe in it, but will anyone else?!? Maybe that is a question to join those you've voiced so poignantly.
Thanks for a great read!
Thanks, I like to know that I’ve struck a cord now and again with someone.
bobneH .. aka.. just bob
Submitted Comment:
re-editorial
first..(A sentence should have no unnecessary words nor a paragraph unnecessary sentences)
that said...your first words are probibly the best ones. try too hard and you'll wreck the story. Let someone else look for errors..you'll never see them.
DuraH (unpublished..so far)
Meg: Writes Daily in 2006
Submitted Comment:
Great letter from the editor. On the subject of rejections, here's something extra. JK Rowlings was turned down by 15 publishers before she found a publisher for the first "Harry Potter". Lewis Carroll collected more rejection letters than that with "Alice in Wonderland". Puts it in perspective a bit!
The markets are really chancy things, hit the right person on the right day with the right submission and perhaps something will come of it.
demor
Submitted Comment:
You make an excellent point. We can only write the stories we are given. When we try to go outside that barrier, we get stuck in a mire of words that are impossible to escape from. Publication, as you so eloquently point out, has much to do with networking and connections. This fact must not hinder our art since those things we must write must be written.
There is a balancing act to play, some might be to write what is demanded while not losing hold of what must be written in order to satisfy our creative needs as well.
writetight
Submitted Comment:
Regarding your quiry in the last newsletter: "If you have published, whether in periodicals or novels, how many stories did you pen before something was accepted?", I'd venture a guess at twenty-five short stories, spread over several years, before something of mine was published.
Several factors came into play over those years:
(1) I was too immature/unskilled to write a decent story.
(2) I gave up too easily, putting my typewriter back under the bed after two or three rejections, and leaving it for years at a time.
(3) I had not learned that, even more important than the actual writing and editing of a story, one must learn to write for the market instead of writing something then trying to find a market.
Once I began writing toward specific markets, using the quidelines stated in The Writer's Market for various magazines, I had no trouble selling everything I wrote.
Iritegud
And you have hit upon the key very well.
Voxxylady 
Submitted Comment:
thePookie, very nice newsletter! As to your question, I write fiction for myself, because it's who I am, and I have stories and characters in my head that need to come out. I'm now working on non-fiction as a potential career goal, with two friendly "try again" rejections and nothing yet accepted. I'm not sure how many rejections it would take to make me give up non-fiction. Quite a few, I would guess. Irish stubborness.
I won't give up fiction even if nothing ever sells (more than it has). It's my escape and my own world that no one else can change. And I compete only with myself, but receive inspiration from others.
I suppose whatever one does do it with conviction so as not to get lost in the tug of war between what you want and what you need to do. If that means satisfying both in turn then know that it is what must be done.
PastVoices
Submitted Comment:
I realize I am far behind on my newsletters, playing catch-up. By the time you receive the feedback on this newsletter, I am sure your next issue is already in my mailbox.
This was a good newsletter and the pieces you selected to illustrate writing from emotion were outstanding!
You asked:
How have you used personal emotion in your creativity?
Artists are more highly in tune with emotions and are affected more deeply by same. I can't think of one thing I have ever written (excluding when I was writing objective news reports) that wasn't based on some emotional ilk.
If not of your own, how do you draw upon emotions power in your work?
I don't think I could.
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