Historical Figures

So, it's really nice when writing historical fiction to be able to include a real life character. The trick is knowing your place and time, and whether or not its possible to stretch reality in such a way that will fit your story.

I have just finished doing just that, and it made for over 3000 words! All in about two hours time. Pretty freaking awesome! Neat trick too...

It all started yesterday when I was just doing some basic research on Cheyenne Wyoming, the Union Pacific Railroad, and that time/place in general. I came across someone who would fit very nicely, and thought, gee, how cool would it be if my characters met that person? So I had a vague idea of how it would happen, then proceeded to sit down and write it. See my other blog for the excerpt... but warning to your sensibilities, it did not end up so very nice.

I hope no one is offended by my representation of this historical figure, who based on my research could very likely have participated in just the sort of scene I describe, but is all too often romanticized. I like making people more real, with all their faults.

So here's the thing: Anyone reading this? Not gonna say who the figure is, you have to tell me, I'll give it to the end of the week, and then I'll say who it is. Just go read the excerpt and give it a go. :)

What next?

So this week has had its ups and downs, but between this morning's NaNo meeting and the one I'm going to in a few more moments, I will cross the 10,000 word threshold and hope to get to 12,000 before the end of the day. I need to stop talking and web-browsing and just write already... Bah!

New Inspiration!

Thanks to the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog (insert link later, see side panel for now), I have a great new side angle to write from.
Poor Anne and Kate, they are just having to go through hell.
I can't say this is going to be your standard romance, there's love and sex and definitely some Happily Ever After, but in the meantime, there's rape, racism, murder, revenge, miscarriage, you name it. Ouch.
So I read the question about the importance/lack of importance in romance of the main characters having babies. Lots of books deal with the heroine getting pregnant or wrap it up at the end with her getting knocked up and yay, everything's great.
Annoying. Don't get me wrong, I love babies, have three of them myself, and in a great number of ways, they are contributing to my very own real life Happy Ending, but in many other ways, they create whole other issues that don't necessarily need to be dealt with in "category" romances.
So I started thinking about my own stories... where's the babies? Do I have babies?
- Australia - nope, no babies, at least not in my semi-fleshed out idea for it
- Empress - Most definitely a baby, it creates a big problem for the heroine, not so much for the hero, who doesn't know until near the end, but is a big part of making it a Happy Ending
- Gyrfalke - she already has one child, so children are definitely discussed and later end up in the epilogue Happy Ending cliche
- Lottery - she has two children, undecided about adding another, probably not necessary, but not sure yet
- Salome - if children get mentioned, it will be part of the epilogue Happy Ending, not because its necessary for the story to work
- Anne and Kate - Well, Anne is raped towards the beginning, because of that, she can't have children now - she'll be adopting though - Kate has a miscarriage halfway through but is otherwise okay. If she has another, it will be as part of the Happy Ending as well. Definite issues to deal with here, so Thanks SBTB!

Progress...

So, NaNo has been motivational. I'm not on par with where I should be if I expect to actually WIN this year, but I'm at nearly 8,000 in a week's time, so that's respectable.
Again, I am working on Anne and Kate's story, with a twist in how I'm going about it. Plugging along one scene at a time seems to be going okay, just writing whatever comes out, not going back and editing or re-reading, and not inviting any readers until the end of the month when I see how far I get. So something to look forward to eh? Keep on writing, WriMos!

NaNoWriMo 2009

So yet again, I am going to attempt to get back to writing, and what better incentive than to sign up for NaNo again! At this moment, I am sitting in my coffee shop with a few other writers, companions in the agony that is pounding out a novel in a month's time. My word count is pitiful at the moment, and that is only compounded by the fact that I have such little free time to accomplish anything. But I am determined! I sat down to write and just went with the first scene that came into my head, so I am going to try writing that way for a little while, going with the most vivid moments as they happen. I am going with my "Twins" story, since that's what came to mind when I opened up the Word document, and will post excerpts as I go, so pray with me that I am able to reach my goal!