I went to see my professor today, and he gave me some good advice. I didn't make my story concrete enough for my readers to be able to see the story. He told me that if I added things like events, places that people could see, that it would be better, and that I should research about it.
It's odd. Most people think that writer's can create things from the top of their heads and make it all factual and sound great, but in fact they have to research, a lot. I didn't know this until I read a manga comic that was suppose to help beginning mangakas with their stories. You might be thinking, but that's manga, it's not even from America. But just because it's manga doesn't mean that they don't put in as much time and thought as an actual writer. Some have to research even more than a writer because they have to also draw the pictures, but I digress.
Writer's have a responsibility to their readers to make their world just as real as it possibly can be, even if it's in another universe. In an alternate universe you still can't have a person to be able to walk 30 miles in a day, unless they have 7 league boots, but that's another story (Howl's Moving Castle, in fact).
Anyway, so after I researched the time of Charles the II a little, I wrote up my second draft. It's almost the complete opposite of my first draft. I didn't think to ask him, but now I've been wondering if even if you are making it somewhat historically correct (like setting, place, battles) does it have to be completely correct? In my other draft, I had the main character interacting with a king of an alternate universe, but now that character (a little different now, too) doesn't have to be close to the king. Really, all she's trying to do is get into the war to prove that women are just as capable of fighting as men, but does everything have to be historically correct? I mean, once Charles the II is enthroned there are no more wars. So do I even need this part of history? Can I have my own world that's just taking place during this time in our world? (17th century, if you're curious, but don't want to search Charles the II on Google)
In my original story, I wanted them to capture a duke's son who is neutral to whatever war is going on, and realizing that, they want to release them, but realize they could get some money out of this duke if they ransom the son. (They were a rebellion. They don't get much money, if they don't have a lot of supporters.) In the end, the duke's son is actually interested in the rebellion and decides to join, so the rebellion takes the money and keeps the son (I know, aren't they terrible! That duke is going to start a terrible rumor about them, and make all the other nobility iffy about helping the rebellion out.) In the other one, I'd even had a pretty good plot line going on.
The current ruler of the nation that rebellion is fighting against is actually an insubordinate of another country, whose ruler is patient as well as smart (a terrible, terrible combination). He gets his insubordinate to let the country fall to rambles so that when he comes to conquer this country, everyone would think he was saving them from a terrible king. The rebellion obviously doesn't know about this, so when the other land starts attacking this one after they had started their own war, it completely surprises them.
I thought it was an interesting storyline, but how am I to fit it in if I'm trying to make it historically correct? I've seen other authors do it pretty well. Create their own story line and make it (somewhat) historically correct, but I don't have any of those books on me, and I don't know any other way to figure out how to do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment