Historically Accurate Fiction?

Look!  Can you believe it, another post!  I'm working ahead on some post because I currently have some down time in my life, actually I'm ahead on everything.  I just needed some documentation on that, because it'll be a long time before it happens again.  Now, that I'm done with this intro, onto the meat of this post!

Fiction (noun)- the class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, especially in prose form (dictionary.com).
History (noun)- the branch of knowledge dealing with past events (dictionary.com).
Historical fiction (noun)- the genre of literature, film, etc., comprising narratives that take place in the past and are characterized chiefly by an imaginative reconstruction of historical events and personages (dictionary.com).

Hm, looking at those it's hard to see how they could ever fit together.  I mean one is made up things and the other is pure fact.  Opposites.  However, some how our mind can fit those two together and create an oxymoron is just beautiful, or at least in my opinion.  The question is how accurate does the story have to be?

Here are a few links that I think are a good summary:
Hilary Mantel and the Limits of Historical Accuracy
Historical Fiction o Fictionalized History?

Now, to my opinion on this (yeah, I know, you're celebrating;)).  I think that historical fiction is a sketchy area to tread.  Personally I like staying away from well known people that are large historical figures.  By that I mean the Tudors, any president of the USA, Martin Luther (the one in the 1500s, not the 1960s), and others.  I don't just don't like reading things about them that aren't true, I find that like writing about current people such as Kim Jong Il, Barack Obama, One Direction, Pope Benedict XVI-fictionally.  I know that many of the gossip magazines write fictional stories about those kind of people (sorry, but that's my opinion), but as authors I think that you should owe it to your readers to check your facts a little more.

Just a nice picture of the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii)
at my zoo/school, don't know how they tie
into historical fiction...

I say to add facts to your story and make sure that it's historically accurate, but don't make it a non-fiction text book.  It is a story, meaning fiction.  Try not to bore your readers to tears.  Here's a little story of mine about books that are more non-fiction than fiction.  It was back in middle school, 8th grade to be exact, I had to read a fictional book about the Civil War and write a review on it to add to my poster about the Civil War.  I will tell you, I have only gone on SparkNotes once in my life and only once have I ever not read a book for a report-it was that book.  The first 20 pages were filled with facts upon facts upon facts, with little movement, just facts and descriptions about Gettysburg!  I couldn't read it.  Please, oh, please, do not overfill your novel with information.  Tie it into the text, say that you know that during the 1930s that people in the United States would sit down in the evening to listen to President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his fireside chats.  Don't just go:  My dad sat down in his leather chair and listened to the fireside chats that FDR gave.  Try ingratiating into the story, make it not stand out in the text, blend: I passed by the den, tip-toeing around the door trying not to alarm my dad.  From inside the room the soft, comforting voice of FDR projected through the room, my dad slumped in his old leather chair pressed his ear near the radio trying to hear the fireside chat better without interrupting the rest of the house.  Do you see the difference between the two passages?  Things are more in a story form in the second piece, but there are still elements of the fact in there.

Just one more little thing:  research matters when it comes to historical fiction, if you write it then you have to research it!  Just wanted to throw that out there!

What are your opinions on historical fiction?  What do you like, more info or more fiction?  What do you think about the fictional stories about important/famous historical figures?

Character Depth

Hello all!  I'm so sorry for my lack of updating!  There were computer issues and then there were life issues. At the end of August school started and has been a lot of work this year, but at least I get to go to the zoo everyday:)I'm going to try to start updating more regularly again.  Things are starting to calm down and I'm beginning to have a little more free time than I'm used to.

Picture of the Playbill

Okay, so onto the bulk of what I want to discuss: Character Depth.  I think that this really got my attention this past Friday night.  I was watching Broadway's Beauty and the Beast, which is my FAVORITE Disney movie.  I was watching the play and singing along to every song.  Everything was going great until right before the intermission; that's when it happened.  The Beast was up on one of the platforms singing "If I Can't Love Her" and my heart melted.  This was what the movie had been missing; this was the scene that I had unknowingly been waiting to see.  Everything about the song, the lyrics, the music, the voice, just made everything come together.  I was seeing what I had been longing to see, a sensitive side of the Beast.  His voice and words made me care for him deeper than what I had originally thought I should have.  I heard what he was thinking, what he was feeling.  I was seeing another side of him.  No longer was he this, almost, minor character to Belle's character transformation.  The Beast was a person, a person who felt scared to be falling in love, a person who didn't want to change, a person who just didn't go around roaring at everyone, he was a fully fledged character and one that I could relate to.  I don't know why they could have just allowed a little bit of the scared Beast show up in the film.  I know that they showed his changing after the wolf scene in the movie and during "Something There" but I don't think that it adequately portrayed the bruised and confused man inside.  Then again, those are my thoughts.  Just a little side note on Beauty and the Beast; it was amazing!  If this play comes to a theater near you I'd suggest that you try to go.  It was beyond amazing and the songs were fabulous, along with all the witty comments that I just adore!

Going on to the Character Depth part, I think that characters need depth.  Yup, that's it.  I'm sick and tired of all of these flat characters.  I mean, authors give the characters faults and quirks but I still don't think that is enough.  I love reading books where I think that I know each and every one of the characters.  People have pasts, people have wants and desires and strange ways of thinking things through.  People change sides, they make mistakes, they do stupid things to hurt themselves.  And those all have thoughts and decisions behind them.  Too often do I read characters that are just overblown stereotypes that do things for no apparent reason.  I'll admit it too that I have also written out characters that don't make much sense when I read back through my writings.  I like to think that I am becoming better at adding depth, but I know I still have a long way to go.

Relating back into the world of YA, defending your work by the pathetic excuse of "Well they're hormonal teenagers" is not acceptable.  I've read that excuse a few times before because of a random kiss or a random debate.  I can tell you for a fact that the excuse of being a hormonal teenager doesn't work for parents, teacher or any adults in the real world, why should it be an excuse for a fictional world?  It's not.  We teenagers are great strategist, well at least the ones I know.  We plan our outbursts, our date invitations, our kisses, our sex, our actions in general.  Occasionally we'll have a slip, especially after one of our plans blow up in our face and leaves us with an unsavory aftermath.  But in general we're pretty controlled group with a few outliers that mess up our image for everyone... (Sorry, homecoming was last Saturday and my distaste for my peers has only elevated, because I do NOT need to see that!)

It's a deep picture... I just thought that
we needed another picture for this post

Moving onward.  What can we do about this whole lack of depth?  I say we plan.  Bring out the index cards and notebooks.  I say we write down every little thing that we want to include about our characters and then write how things came to be that way or how they got there.  Does the character have a scar?  Where did they get that scar?  How did they get that scar?  Who was with them?  Did they go to the hospital?  Do they no longer do the activity that gave them that scar?  Is it visible?  Are they embarrassed?  Do people still make fun of them for that?  How do they think of themselves because of the scar?  Answer these question and any other ones for each little thing about your character.  It may seem tedious and a waste of time, but I think that it helps with the planning of characters.  Allow the characters to have many differetn layers, like an ogre ;).  One other idea is to bounce it off another person.  Ask if the scene your working on makes sense, if the character does what a normal person would do.  See if the character seems superficial or flat.  Ask someone for their honesty, no niceness needed.  You’ll be surprised how much information you can get from a fresh pair of eyes, especially in small details like this. 

I do believe that is all I have got to say on this.  Do any of you have any ways that your able to create Character Depth?  Do you have any good examples of this?  What are your opinions?  I'd sure love to hear them!

I Repel Technology

My computer died on Wednesday.  I was to the point of almost crying when he shut down.  I had Osvaldo for the past 2 years.  We had so many good times together.  The worst part about this is that I have lost all of the story that I had been working on.  Grrr!  I guess that it was my fault-partly.  I was actually loading it onto my new flash drive when it crashed!  Ugh, and I hate this new computer too!  Anyone have any suggestions?  I would write longer but I can't with this keyboard!!!!  UGH!!!!

M.M. ii: Incentives and Rocks

I was going to open a big can of worms today with some interesting things I found on the web.  But I'll wait until tomorrow to do that (plus it's my last day of freedom!).  Today, I'll just stick with ehh stuff.  Things that later on in the life of this blog that you'll skip over to see the juicer posts.  But hey, every sandwich needs some lettuce.

I have two lovely things for today's Motivation Monday!  Writing/Reading/Going through Hell Incentives and a DIY Rock that keeps me focused.

Writing/Reading/Going through Hell Incentives:

According the the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the word incentive means: something that incites or has a tendency to incite to determination or action.  I'd have to agree with that, I mean it's right.  Currently I have two days (including today) until I get back to school.  What do I have to do?  Read another 50pgs of The Scarlet Letter and annotate that thing to pieces, oh and fill out two worksheets for AP Biology.  Yeah, I know that I procrastinate...  So what do I do to keep myself annotating and pushing forth?  I use incentives.
I'll tell myself: If you can make it to page 170 you get 30 minutes of freedom!  If you read the next 12 pages then you can go have breakfast.  If you finish the book you get a new book, one that you actually want to read and don't have to annotate!

How can you apply this to writing?  Easy!  I know that some people are going to think "Hey, you don't have to do this, it's called determination!"  Well I'll tell you one thing, determination dies after a while which is why I don't do cross-country any more, okay that and the fact that I have a weak knee...  I've done this before with writing stories, essays, letters, etc.  Tell yourself that you'll get that cup of yogurt at the grocery store if you write 2,000 words today.  If you edit your outline that you'll edit two pieces of clothing in your closet/tools in the garage.  Allow yourself to have breaks occasionally as well.  They don't have to be set, spontaneous-ness it necessary to keep current level of sanity when doing things that you really don't want to do.  If you have a great day of writing treat yourself.  Bad day?  Don't hurt yourself over it, just look what you could have done to make it better and continue on, just strive to get better.

With these little things your teaching yourself that good things can come from writing/reading when you use this repeatedly.  You're training yourself with little gifts  like you would train a dog with puppy treats.  This may seem silly to you, but it works!  I used to tell myself that I had to get things done or else I would not be able to do things.  It didn't work.  But once I tried rewarding myself to accomplish tasks it became easier and easier!  Go ahead, give it a try!

DIY Rock Paperweight:

I enjoy writing outside.  I have a nice table on our patio which looks out into the woods.  I also enjoy going to parks and my sister's games.  However I also enjoy writing on loose leaf notebook paper... And it gets windy around here... See my issue?  I have usually just used rocks when I go outside.  However I found this rock right after my little epiphany of a new novel.  I have it my head that the colors that represent this book are similar to a peacock feather, but a little darker...  I don't know why those colors, but the came to me with Cecily.  I new that I had to paint this rock!

What you'll need:
1 rock
Paint
Brushes
An Idea
Patience

Find a rock and clean it off if it has any dirt or ickiness on it.  Then get an idea of what you want to paint.  I was using a peacock feather for my influence.  Find the paint that you want (The WalMart and Meijer around me have art paint for around $0.75 each, so I grabbed two of those and used some other paint that I had laying around the house).  Now take the brush and paint!  Allow the paint to dry at least 20-30 minutes between each layer, for the first two or three it only takes about 10 minutes at least for mine it did...  Once your done let it dry overnight.  Voilà!  You have your very own paperweight.  Mine keeps my mind focused on what I want my story to tell, what I want to show to the reading world.  It is a great driving point for me.

I think that's all folks!  I still have 25 pages left in the novel, yeah, this has been my incentive.  What do you use for your incentives if you have them or what will you use?  Do you have any little things that remind you of your story when you write?  If so, please tell me:)  I'd love to hear!

Until next time!

Darn Creativity!

I hate my mind sometimes.  It thinks that it has a mind of it's own.  No, I'm not insane-well not doctor proven insane...  For the last few days I've been having this lady come into my head and start rambling on about her life.  Stuck in a tower.  And how she hates singing.  Yeah, weird, I know.  I've never had this happen to me. I mean that I've had moments when I am writing and I know that a character wants to say something, but never a random character come into my mind and force herself on me.

I'm aware that many authors have this issue when they're not writing, apparently it "gives them the need to write, they're not whole without it" stuff.  I've never had that.  I'll let you in on some things from my past about writing, be warned-it's dark;) (okay, not really, it's just a little off).

Here's my story:
I write.  Not well and for sure not known.  None of my family or friends know that I write anything, and I don't want them to.  I don't want to have to explain it to them and deal with that embarrassing ordeal because let's face it my family is not one of the most accepting group of people around.  (My neighbors are from Uganda, I mean they moved here about 10 years ago, my grandmother felt the need to inform my aunt and uncle (who have lived in Chicago and New York) that my neighbors are black, and not just regular black, but black black.  Oh and their dog who is black little Schnauzer barks at them... and they encourage it... yup, my familia!)  They all just think I have an overactive imagination, which I do but it would be more so if I didn't write, but they don't need to know that.

I started writing in 7th grade, where most all people start their writing: FanFiction.  My friend introduced me to it.  She wrote her's and I wrote mine, and we would 'edit' the stories together.  I was a spuratic updater, and now I realized I was writing for her and not for me.  I actually never finished the story.  But I'm a little scared to, to tell you the truth.  I really don't want her to see me four years later still updating that High School Musical story that is awful!  I created another story under another username and that's where I fell in love with writing.  I had always enjoyed reading stories so it was fun writing a story.  But that's pretty much where my writing went to.  There have been a few chapters that I had wrote out or perhaps a very detailed outline, but those have all been lost to history.  In school I never really applied myself to story writing because I hated, etch that- hate, English class.  I'm more of a science person, hence me taking mostly science classes this year and going to the zoo to get extra schooling.  But the teachers had always told me to try a little harder and it would be amazing.  My teacher once took one of my writings and put it in a contest, it got 2nd place, but I was so upset by her that I didn't even recognize what had happened.

I've been trying to get back into writing as of lately.  I'll start writing and then 'Opps, I have to volunteer today' or 'Goodness, I really need to clean up around here'.  I'm aware that everyone has these issues, and that's usually what seperates a never-will-be author and a true author.  I've always imagined myself as the former.

That's where my story ends.  Yup, that was great wasn't it?  No, this was not a bragging party or pity party (also I love the phrase pity party, although I don't know why...)

 I've been trying to ignore the lady because I don't need anymore distraction this year.  I don't think that I am going to get away from her.  Plus she keeps telling me, "I don't sing, I absolutely hate it.  I will hum, but no singing."  Grrr!  I think that I'll give into her a little, let's see where that gets me.  Oh wait, perhaps I will be a 'true' author...

Have any of you people have this happen?  What's your writing back story?

And since I don't have a picture up about this lady or my past, I shall indulge in another betta that I'm in love with...

If anyone wants to get me him, I'd be A-Okay with that!  You've got to admit that he is one attractive betta!

The Scarlet Letter- Opening Act

Hello wonderful people! I am so sorry that I have not updated in so long. I was on vacation and then realized that I had 2 books to read and annotate before August 22, and this realization came four days ago... Yeah... I procrastinate. In honor of my summer readings I would like to address the wonderful book of The Scarlet Letter, and how we can add old writing to make our writing better.

The Scarlet Letter: How to Open Like Hawthorne

Have you opened a book lately? I mean a book wrote within the past 10 or so years.  Let me open up a few of mine and let's look at them.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer : "My mother drove me to the airport with the
            windows rolled down."

Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich : "Just because I know hoe to change a guy's oil doesn't mean I want to spend the rest of my life on my back, staring up his undercarriage."

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen : "At the stroke of eleven on a cool April night, a woman named Joey Perone went overboard from a luxury deck of the cruiser liner M.V. Sun Duchess."

What do those all have in common?  Well, the first thing that I pick up is that they all start with action.  It is a jump into the story, there is no background and there are very little details about them.  There is some mystery behind all of them, such as why is the mother driving the main character to the airport, how does the main character know that she doesn't want that/what does she want, and why did she go overboard?  They're all great introductions, but let's be honest: I'm not gripping the edge of my seat to know what happened.  I'm a little interested but not I cannot put this down interested.  Perhaps these are just my musings, but these openings are common throughout most literature today. (If you have an example of one not like this, romance novels not included-those are a whole different ballpark in my opinion- please comment on this and show me/inform me.  I'd like to see one!)

I'll switch to The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  After flipping past a good 50 pages of someone's opinion on the novel (which I don't read that... Sorry, too much other stuff to do) this is what you would come across: "A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and other bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice*, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak and studded with iron spikes."
* I had to look this up: a building, usually one that is large.


I may be one of the few that aren't English teachers that get chills from the writing, but you have got to admit that it takes some... uh how do I say this in a politically correct way, oh screw it... balls to put out your first sentence with so many commas and descriptions.  That's one reason I love this beginning, he takes a risk and it pays off because it is executed so well.  There are details about the people, the setting is partially established, and not too much is given away.  It takes a grand three chapters before we know exactly what Hester had done.  Nothing is given directly, it takes time and steam to build up to this.  There are questions about this too considering how little Hawthorne gives away while addressing so much.

My favorite part about Hawthorne's opening is that he doesn't come out and say what is happening.  I don't know why, but, in my opinion, opening with too much information messes up your entire book.  You can have a great rest of the book, but people aren't going to stick around and read it if you give it up within the first paragraph or two.  Here's an example (this is from some random story off of FanFiction- I refuse to give away any information about the author and such, and yes I went on FanFiction I'll get to that in another post)
"I was just talking to Ron about what happened that day at lunch when Draco had me sit with him at the Slytherin table. Apparently Ginny, his sister, told him about it"
See, too much given away.  You can guess the entire rest of the story because of the beginning, which is why I put the opening as the hardest part of writing.

Here are some tips that I've created, and taken a few times, about opening a story in a Hawthorne-ian style:

1. Give some details.  Put out there a general feel of the setting, the characters and a small glimpse of the plot.

2. Give the point of view, and DO NOT CHANGE IT!

3. Create some questions in your beginning.  Make the reader think about what they are reading, you put all that time and effort in the novel, start them off with something strong.

4. It's okay to not start with action, sometimes details are better.

5. Give out small bits of information on your plot.  I know I put this up there in 1, but I feel that this needs to be addressed more.  Don't give in to the urge to put everything in the beginning, space it out, give them a reason to keep reading.  Remember that tiny hooks catch more readers that one giant hook;)  

6.  If you begin with dialogue, which is a great way to start, keep it down a bit.  You do not need to fill the entire page with a conversation between Jack and Jill, one this will confuse people with characters and two you'll be likely to give too much of the plot away.

7. Don't give the plot away, space it out!  Oh, wait.  I've already addressed this, but this is IMPORANTE!

8. It's okay to try around with different beginnings.  Maybe dialogue will work with one story and a detail beginning will work with another.  It's okay to change, it's the only way we can get better.

Great link for more opening tips: http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/write-first-chapter-get-started/10-ways-to-start-your-story-better

I think that addresses everything.  If you have another tip or two you want me to add, just leave a comment and I'll add it!  These are ones that I think are important.  Hawthorne does a great job opening up his story, learn from him and other great writers, and if you haven't read The Scarlet Letter shame on you!  Go get it now and read it, you won't regret it.  Reading is the best way to learn to write!

Farewell! <- Anyone get it?

MM i: Counselor/Letter Monday

From Here

It's Monday.  Whip out the caffeine, I can't say coffee because I don't drink it.  I'll let you all in on a little secret of mine: counselor-ing an orchestra camp for beginners=death.  I'm dead on the inside.  The children had just learned how to play their instrument with a bow and are moving on to more difficult things, which makes for a lot of complaining and whining and headaches.  On the bright side there is great food, and a really cute counselor ;)

For the first ever Motivation Monday, I will be sharing one of my methods of getting motivated/back on track.

Stop reading this blog.  Shut the laptop top down, get out of the chair, lock your phone, whatever you need to do to stop reading this post for a minute, do so.

Actually, wait!  Read all of this before you do that!  When you leave the computer go get a piece of notebook paper and a pen/pencil.  Take those beautiful writing skills that you own  and write a letter to yourself.

Write about what you want to gain from writing.  Write about where you see yourself at the end of the writing.  Put little details that you want to remember to include.  Add a little joke.  Write a quote that makes you happy or feel good.  Tell yourself about what you'll do once your done.  Write whatever you want to write, just make it fun and upbeat.

Take that great letter, fold it up, and put it in an envelope.  Put a picture of your dog/cat/husband/wife/anyone doing something silly in the envelope for extra fun!  Grab a silly sticker or boring piece of tape and shut it closed.  I like to write a statement on the front like, 'Only Open When In Dire Need of Motivation' or 'Intruders Will Be Feed To The Wolves of *insert the name of the writing*'.

Now put that envelope of motivation in  a place that you won't forget it.  Take it out when you need something to get you moving.  I love looking at the reason I started something.  It makes it seem like the whole thing isn't so bad if I accomplish what I wanted.  This may not be your way of motivating yourself, but I like it.

What's your way of motivating?  Do you write a sticky note?  Have a certain song?  Tell me:)

P.S. I have a Special Coupon Code for all you people for my Etsy Shop!  It is:
COUNSELORMONDAY