Hello, writers. I’m just getting ready to meet a deadline here, with a draft of a historical novel.
I had two months to write something for submission and somehow managed to crank through three drafts in that time… no wonder I’m tired. What I’m sending off is not really publication-ready, but after a round or two of edits hopefully it will be.
My main goals in this draft were to get all my historical ducks in a row, and to make sure my two POV characters had story arcs.
Here are some of the things that needed researching for this novel:
- actual historical events of the time period
- agriculture
- transportation
- clothing
- food
- language
- education
- politics
- prices, wages and coinage
- diseases
- household hints
- names
- laws
- contemporary maps
- etc
Fortunately that stuff is kind of fun. But once it’s done, the temptation to cram in everything I’ve learned is strong. I have to remind myself that if the reader wanted to know everything I’ve found out, s/he could just go read the books I’ve read.
So I have to be willing to just pick up the gooseberry custard and leave behind all the other historical desserts that my characters aren’t eating.
I know at least one writer of historical fiction says she does the research after writing the story, and I think there’s something to be said for that approach. I tried it myself, but found I was too attached to the story-element ideas I get from researching.
Tonight’s challenge:
Write exactly 150 words about anything. Two of the words must be “gooseberry custard.”
If you’re not sure where to set your 150 words, set them in a bus station in Hell.
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