Righters' Club

Free Republic discussion ^

[Eleutheria5]

Squarebarb:

There were some of us including GOPpoet who were thinking of starting a writer's thread here on FR. There's a horse thread, a football thread, a Hobbit Hole thread, so why not a thread for us writers?

And mainly sticking to fiction otherwise the discussion tends toward politicsa iinstead of the craft of writing.

Okay Eleutheria5, YOU start the thread."

Eleutheria5:

On it. Could use some help from someone who knows how to do HTTP and other techy stuff, though. Tried to learn, but drat that right hemisphere dominance we creative folks have. I've actually been running a board on the aol writers' club since 1996 called Conservative Writers' Club. Mostly it simply fights flame wars with liberal writers, though, and all the conservative contributors, including me, burn out. It'd be great to get away from that and just swap ideas with people who DON'T wish every one of us a flaming death.

[squarebarb]

If I were Queen of the World I would have my own zebra! Besides the two horses I own at present. I write fiction and I am lucky enough to have published. I am pretty well acquainted with editors, agents and publishers. I also know what works for me as a writer. I know when I am bored with my own inventions, there is something structurally wrong with it and it has taken me some time to figure out structure. You'll find that very, very few creative writing teachers know anything about structure. They weren't taught it themselves, and as our education system goes downhill, they really know less and less about what makes writing work. so they aren't helpful. And often enough, neither are editors. What am I working on? Well, the last mss. is now in production and so I am now fooling around with a folk-tale narrative. I have been reading all the post-apocalypse novels I can, to see what other writers have done with an alternative world --- a futuristic tale of what happens after civilization collapses. So I have recently read The Road, The Earth Abides, A Canticle For Liebowitz, and some others. And what about yourself? What sort of story are you working on?

[carton253]

I am working on an alternative history novel about the Civil War. I have changed an event and following the ramifications of that event.

I have written one musical and have had several plays produced locally (in a very small town). I like to do comedies.

If I were Queen of the World, I would make sure that I got to move to ahead of the line in traffic, at Taco Bell, and at the donut shop.

Do you not find that when you read other authors in the genre that you are working on that you get unduly influence. I read alot but shy away from similar works because I am afraid that 1) they might inadvertantly influence me or 2) they may sap my confidence.

[squarebarb]

I do become influenced, but I go ahead anyway and then when I do another draft, I re-write it. Then it becomes more my own style.

I would say that if you feel you are imitating, go ahead anyway. It's a way of learning.

Then later you can go back over it and re-write in the areas where it seems to you that you've been too imitative.

But McCarthy certainly taught me to write narrative summary and Dickens taught me description.

Where in America is your Civil War story taking place?

[Eleutheria5]

I am working on a fictional autobiography of a child found floating in a rubber inner tube off the straits of florida. He's all grown up, and has broken with the communist regime that was grooming him for a leadership position. Now that Castro's sick, I'm forced to write him out of most of the story.

[carton253]

That sounds really great. That's a book I would read. Why do you feel you have to write Castro out? Maybe you could invent a Castro clone?

[Lurker]

There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized or even cured. the only solution known to science is to provide the patient with an isolation room, where he can endure the acute stages in private and where food can be poked in to him with a stick.

Also:

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.

Robert A. Heinlein

L

[carton253]

By clone I meant like another leader in the spirit of Castro and not an exact duplicate. :)

[Eleutheria5]

"That sounds really great. That's a book I would read. Why do you feel you have to write Castro out? Maybe you could invent a Castro clone?"

If it were sci fi, sure. But I'm trying to stick with verisimilitude and a sardonic first person narrative; sort of like Gras' Oscar without the glass-breaking powers, drum, or growth problem.

Perhaps a replacement demagogue, like that chick Juan Domingo Peron married just because she looked like her dead, mumified wife Eva. I think I'll go with that! Thanks.

[MHGinTN]

When I decided to try writing in my early retirement, I came up with a story line, made an outline for the plot, then began writing. Within four pages, the story began writing itself and the first novel spewed out in a completely different direction than the outlined plot.

The first novel led to two more in the series ... freelance, vigilante crime fighter plots. The work wasn't too good in the beginning, when the central characters came alive, but by the third one the writing thing was flowing nicely.

After the third crimefighter novel, I switched gears, to do something more literary. Hah! The best laid plans and all that.

My seventh novel is now being readied for a publisher, if I can find one who will publish a conservative theme.

[MHGinTN]

Please add my handle to your ping list. Thanx

[MHGinTN]

Ping to you, writer, something you might want to join.

[MHGinTN]

Is this thread supposed to be a running thread, or a dead end thread?

[Eleutheria5]

The idea was to make it a regular Freep thread like Hobbit Hole. I would assume that that makes it a running thread. Every day, the daily thread is demarked by graphics of a knot. I'd hope that at some point Freep administrators should show only the posts for that day, with a link to archives. But we're not there yet yet.

[carton253]

You probably didn't get my next post that explained I did not mean a "clone" but more of a substitute figure. I like your new idea.

[carton253]

Couple of questions for the experienced writers.

1. How much should you put in your first chapter? I am writing an alternative Civil War fiction where Jackson survives the Battle of Chancellorsville. In the chapter I have Jackson survive, a description of the Army of Northern Virginia, the terrain in Virginia in which the two armies are struggling and how they arrived in their present circumstances, and finally a brief history of Jackson.

2. How much history should you add?

At first, I tried to write it for the Civil War buff who did not have to have things explained to him. But, I had two friends (non Civil War Buffs) who read the first two chapters and said that because there is no history, they can't understand what is going on. So, I added history. Now, I had another friend (a historian) say that the history is "rote". That a Civil War Buff would be bored and not continue not because it was not well written but because he already knows these things. The history is not long and I really did not think it was "rote." (My seven drafts were rote but by time I got to the 10th, I thought it pretty darn good)

3. I was told I needed to infuse my knowledge, findings, and interpretations into the book. What the person suggested was that I step out of the narrative and add my insights. But, am I not doing that by changing history and having the narrative continue? Everything that happens after the 18th North Carolina misses is based on my knowledge, findings (lots of research went into the story) and intepretations.

Can't I have the characters do that for me. Speak my findings and interpretations?

I have read many, many books and I do not mind if a book takes two or thee chapters to get going. But mine does not do that... by page three Jackson is not wounded and the Battle of Chancellorsville changes too.

Thank you for answering these questions. I value your input. You are published and this is really my first serious attempts at writing. I have done plays for a local theater and one musical as well, but this is a book that I want to write.

[carton253]

Just some information I read about First Chapters. Margaret Mitchell wrote the opening chapter of Gone With The Wind 28 times. After the book went through extensive editing and was published, she did not like it because it dwelt too much on the Tarleton Twins, who, through the edits, had been reduced in importance in the book.

So, maybe the first couple of chapters are the hardest to write.

[MHGinTN]

Hmm, interesting problem ... and an interesting idea you've developed. I have an old friend who loves Civil War History. He would buy your novel in a heartbeat and devour it!

I think I faced a similar dilemma with one of my novels which contains a flash back in time in the middle of telling the story. To prevent confusion for the reader, I actually decided to start the novel with a prologue which set the stage for the alternate History ... since the theme of the novel is a 'what if' for the reader.

Perhaps you could begin your novel by relating the historical events of Chancellorsville, sort of like a journalist relating it to newspaper readers of that era, as a prologue to open the novel and set up the notion of an alternate History. Then, start your first chapter with the alternate History immediately confronting the reader.

[carton253]

Have you ever had a dilemma that you struggled over and someone said, "why not do this" and you think... doh! why didn't I think of that?

Thank you!

What kind of novels do you write?

[MHGinTN]

Freelance vigiliante and adventure/mystery; always try to maintain a conservative perspective (as in social conservative, religious). Good luck with your work.

[carton253]

Thank you. Good luck with yours.