Now that I'm nearing the end of my degree, I'm finding I have more time to write, and have therefore picked up my long-running work in progress with the aim of finishing it by the end of the summer. Its sequel will hopefully be a goal for NaNo '08.
However this is no ordinary historical novel! My main problem is that the story has been handed to me on a plate. It's the most incredible tale, but the more research I do, the less 'original' plot material I am having to make up because the real life story is so compelling. It's a rare case of historical fact following a plot that translates directly to good fiction, including all the elements of a good tale: romance, tragedy, betrayal, adventure, war, and irony. Unfortunately, this leads to the problem of how much authenticity is appropriate.
Some background. The plot as a whole is massive, and starts in 1895 when Geoffrey Winthrop-Young starts his first term at Trinity College, Cambridge. It ends with the death of George Mallory on Everest in 1924. The story deals with many different characters and many settings but the one overriding theme is the story of how a few university students changed the long-established rules of mountaineering and created the first true 'society' of climbers, establishing many of the traditions, routes and items of equipment that British mountaineers use today.
It really is the most incredible real-life story--I'm just amazed that it is so little-known, other than its famous ending, with George dying high on Everest in his bold early attempt on the peak. I have decided to split it into three novels forming a trilogy ('The Everest Trilogy'). George is a prominent character in the second two and I hope to demonstrate that he does not deserve to be remembered only for his attempts on Everest, but also for his contributions to British climbing and his extraordinary character. Other famous historical figures such as Aleister Crowley, G.M.Trevelyan and Aldous Huxley are main characters. Due to their connections, the number of people involved at a secondary or tertiary character level is quite staggering. People such as Arthur Conan-Doyle, Oscar Wilde, Sir Joseph Lister, Alfred Mummery, Queen Victoria and a whole host of others are playing minor parts.
I'm lucky that the central character, Geoffrey Young, left a massive corpus of written material behind I can use. His books are invaluable and he wrote some inspiring mountain poetry from which my titles are derived: "The Great White Veil", "This Short Span", and "I Hold the Heights".
My main problem right now is that something of this scale requires a VAST level of research! My task as a writer is not so much to think up a storyline in this case, but to verify dates, check timings and figure out when people went various places to climb things. Luckily there is a lot of material on the group and their activities but I am finding I'm spending more time in research than I am writing the thing.
How do you cope with a novel like this? Of course it's not really a novel, more historical narrative written in the style of a novel, but in a few cases I have taken artistic license and embellished a few facts for the sake of a more streamlined story, so it can hardly be called non-fiction.
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50,143 / 50,000
mai 13, 2008 - 11 48
I as you am deep waist deep into research on my story; so much so that I spend days researching, analyzing all which I am reading and researching that I put off on writing for another day. I have found many answers to things I was not researching or I thought I had answers to.
What I have found in my experience is that at points during the research and reading, I need to stop with the research and take the information I received and write. I am one that if I don’t jot down notes and begin writing everything in my head gets stuff in a clothes basket of things needing to be ironed out but instead gets pushed farther down toward the bottom of the basket until I am ready to iron (so to speak). Now I have to go and reread some of the articles I’ve researched to remember some of the pertinent information. I suggest find time; make time in your day to write.
----------Mark Hope
6,700 / 50,000
mai 13, 2008 - 13 52
This sounds like an amazing tale! I can't wait to read more!
I wouldn't worry too much about historical accuracy for a fictionalized account- you can't make everything perfect. So fudge dates and embellish away!
I've written an historical novel and I did research for about nine months before I started writing. Then I started writing, which is absolutely essential. : > )
You could spend years doing research, and never get started on your novel!
I did continue my research off and on during the two years it took to write the novel. I found that, at some inner level, I knew when it was time to get back to the research. Also, I'd hit a wall- "I don't know anything about 1930s train service!"- and I'd have to go read some more about something new. I learned so much about my time period and about my topic, it was so valuable and I thank the universe for giving me the story idea!
I too had almost the whole story fleshed out by the historical facts- I made a timeline at one point, on a big roll of japanese watercolor paper, and really laid out all that was known. Then I could see clearly where I was going and where I needed to know more. I've kind of visual, so I think that was really helpful.
I've used research as a kick-start to the writing process as well. I just have to be careful to not use it as a procrastination tool.
My next novel is also an historical novel, and I've spent over a year on the research. It takes place around 1635 and I've had to really read and study to build a framework for the fiction. But now I'm ready to at least start- and at some point soon, I'll have to find a sailor to help me out with the ship lingo, but that's one very cool thing and my last point- I've found the people or information when I've needed it, kind of by sending out to the universe that I needed something.
Okay, that's it, good luck to you! Paula S.
50,965 / 50,000
mai 14, 2008 - 02 37
Your books sound absolutely fascinating! I wish you the best of luck with them.
I'm writing a novel set in the English Regency. None of the characters were real historical figures and I do not intend to base it around real events. References to real events, but it's not, say, written around Waterloo. Still, there is such a massive amount of research I feel I need to do--on every aspect of life. I know it won't all end up in the novel, but I don't feel I can produce a novel that is true to its time and place without a boatload of background knowledge myself. So far I have 3 notebooks full of notes and I don't feel I am near finished. I'm constantly finding new things that are intriguing and thus need reading up on or finding that I don't understand a particular thing well enough to write about it. I think that, of course, research can become a procrastination tool, but I think that research is vital for good writing.
It may be that you do need to carve out from your working time each day some time to write your book. It may also be that you aren't quite ready to write your book yet--you know your plot intricacies but not enough of the "minor" details that will bring your plot to life for readers. I think you'll know at some point that it's time to write. Even if you don't have all of the answers, you'll know you have enough to begin, to write particular scenes maybe or to get through a rough draft with the confidence that you can fill the rest in later because the plot itself runs sensibly (dramatically and historically).
I do sometimes get tempted into more research some days than I leave time for writing, but the research--while I'm doing the reading or while the reading is working through my sub-conscious--often sparks new bits of dialog or new scenes I wouldn't have otherwise thought of and that are, I think, quite necessary.
So, the research for me is quite good for my writing in a number of ways.
My real problem with the research is a desperate inefficiency of note-taking. I find that I do not take sketchy paraphrase notes as recommended; I copy out even long passages word-for-word because I'm convinced (even though it won't go into my book that way) that I can't say it as well as the first writer or that I'll later look at my notes and miss or have forgotten meanings, nuances, details that are important. I am a very, very slow researcher. Still, I think it is quite important and so I proceed.
It sounds to me like your research will help you to write an absolutely gripping, living series for readers.
----------"When you get stuck, don't think about the words. Imagine it better and keep going." ~ Jack Kerouac
160,056 / 50,000
mai 14, 2008 - 05 00
I don't do research before I sit at write.
I did, once. I read a book about creative writing which said that I should get all my research done first because then the actual writing would be easier. Instead I ended up spending all of my time reading reference books and no time writing. Not only that but I got bored and lost interest in the story, because the facts behind it weren't the interesting part, it was the characters and the way they interacted, and of course they can't interact whilst I've got my head in an encyclopedia.
Then I read Stephen King's - On Writing. Apparently he just writes the story and does his research afterwards.
So, now I just sit and write the story. If I come to a point where I need to know some historical (or other) fact I mark the place with an * and then make it up. Once the first draft is finished, I go through and look for all the *'s and make a note of exactly what I need to go and look up.
Only then do I actually go and do the research. In most cases, it's simply a case of changing the 'fact' that I made up and putting the real one in, but occasionally I'll have to completely rewrite a scene because the facts don't fit the scene the way it is. It actually takes less time to do it this way, even if you do end up rewriting huge parts of the story, as you have a much better idea of exactly what research you need to do to complete the story.
Alex, your particular story is slightly more complicated as the entire plot is based on actual events, so you have to know what those events were and the order in which they occurred to be able to write the story at all, but apart from that, if I were you I'd make it all up for the first draft and then correct it in the second.
The most important part of writing any story is to actually get words down on paper, and reams of notes don't count. I wish they did, as I have box files full of them myself. :-)
Before I started writing this way I'd started four different novels and not finished one. I've now finished three and am most of the way through a fourth, so I know that it works for me. It may not work for everyone though, so please feel free to ignore this. :-)
----------*Hugs*
Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
2007: Rising Angels, Falling Apes - ??
2006: An Ordinary World - 84k+
2005: Dreaming of Jack - 83k+
0 / 50,000
mai 24, 2008 - 12 25
My novel is set in the late '80s/early '90s (with beginning snippets ranging from the late '60s to mid '80s.) It doesn't seem like this would be historical fiction, but I'm hoping to intersperse the personal story with historical tidbits and vignettes on current events from the time period. Since it's a relatively recent time period, I use a variet of sources which are easy to find- personal anecdotes on the internet and from friends/family, my BIG, HUGE book The Timetables of History, which outline important events from every year since the beginning of time, and basically any fiction or true story I can get my hands on from the period.
The trick with this time period is that you think it's recent so you don't have to worry about the research- but you do. If I mention a brand name or a style or a movie or song, I have to date-check it. It's really remarkable how much time I spend making sure everything is chronologically appropriate. Maybe 50% of my writing is not writing but research. I enjoy doing the research though, and it makes all the events that much more poignant.
50,576 / 50,000
mai 25, 2008 - 14 19
Cope? I don't think some of us actually "cope" with the research. For myself, I know I'm slowly driving myself nuts trying to learn everything about EVERYTHING in British warships, Napoleonic wars,. Try learning how to navigate from an 1815 mathbook... especially when you are horrible with numbers(I'd take words anyday)! Its an entirely different world...
I had only done one historical fiction before starting my ship story and it ended up being so impossible-to-fix inaccurate that I had to scrap it. This time I decided to do both of them at the same time and go look up whatever I needed to know when I needed to know it. Yes, its time consuming, but if you take up too much time researching before you start you'll lose interest in your story.
BTW, your story sounds awsome!
----------When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on!
NaNo2007:WON! ... FIRST YEAR!!!
Screnzy2008: Lost... painfully