In The Flow of Time – December 11, 2024
I’m about to start a new chapter in this tale. For whatever meta reason, while I’m doing it I’m watching myself doing it. Something about this chapter seems particularly instructive, so here we go. Writers write. Each of us is unique, and each follow some process that works, from “embrace the mess” to pedantically carving out each detail in advance. I’m definitely closer to the latter. And it goes like this.
I do historical fiction, so factual history matters to me. Nonetheless, I am creating fiction. When I get the idea for a good story, I’ll start poking. Fairly high level research, ooh, yes this is worthy.
Major research, in multiple directions: people, events, culture, language; art; buildings; maps; street names; in effect, all of society. I go broad, and sorta deep. Some topics I go deeper than others, but before I plot I want a sense of what it was really like. This creates a timeline spreadsheet.
I plot. This is a detailed outline of planned chapters. For each of them I have day and date, day of the week, who are the characters in the scene (major and minor), whose point of view, and (this is key) from the perspective of the story I’m planning to tell, what are the key ideas to get across in the events in this chapter. Don’t spend it all at once. Things build, there is a pacing… and all of that factors into the thinking. This creates another spreadsheet, the chapters.
By now I have a good idea who the significant characters are. So, a document (could be a spreadsheet) on details for each one. Names, genealogy info, where they live, what they look like, a personality trait or two, back story and other background. So I can keep it fairly consistent.
I write. I tend to write (mostly) sequentially. I start with chapter one and head on down the line. The characters appear, they become real. Then the bastards start thinking for themselves, and the plot changes.
I’ve written about that process before. The rest of this is a look at a specific chapter, and what it was like to get started on a chapter. I’m staring at, essentially, a blank document. It has a title and a date. Both are subject to change. I review my timeline, and my chapter outline.
In this case, I thought:
- a Te Deum starts in the church
- Marie follows Père Antoine out to his garden, they talk
- they go up to the reviewing stand for the parade
And along the way, narrative points include
- what happens in a Te Deum
- Père Antoine is seen as a nobody nothing in the Catholic hierarchy
- that he and Marie are very close, he is her advisor, confessor, and mentor
- Marie sees her cousin, a racist white cavalry captain, our antagonist
- she knows him, he does not know her
- the presence of some elite white men on the review stand, who will pursue her
- the unexpected presence of a battalion of free men of color, WITH GUNS, in the parade
- the fear reaction among white people to this
- Jackson’s attitude towards slaves
All of that is “in the can.” this is done in the initial plotting. I know who’s there, how old they are, etc.
AND THEN…
I research again. Now I know where I am, there may be changes in who what when where why. (Those damn characters, thinking for themselves.) This research is detailed, deeper into the original sources or the references I preserves in my earlier research. What really happened that day? What was the weather like? What time was it? Who was there? Where was it? etc.
In this case, poking behind my research led me to two original sources, documents written by witnesses at the time. These are gold when you can find them. One is a narrative by a slave who fought at the Battle of New Orleans. He is gone by this ceremony, but he has a LOT to say about white attitudes. The other is a detailed period description of the event.
So I now have more history. The Te Deum and the parade, Jackson’s review, I already knew them. So is Père Antoine, this chapter really introduces his character. He will be part of the underground railroad of sorts in a coming chapter. So he matters.
Before I got here, I decided to limit the number of characters who have point of view. At this point there are only two, the protagonist and antagonist. The latter is in the parade. So that leaves Marie. Before that decision I was going to do this in Père Antoine’s POV. So that went away. It would have had the same problems.
To get all the above, I need Marie to hear the conversations among Jackson and the elite on the reviewing stand. She’s a 14 year old free woman of color, and there is NO WAY she would be there. No. Not. Ever. In the earlier round of plotting, I had essentially ignored this problem. Now I’m about to write, and there is no way I can do this. Uh oh.
On top of that, I discover the actual order of events was…
- Jackson is crowned with a laurel wreath in an over-the-top ceremony (I found an original source)
- then there was a parade
- THEN they have the Te Deum, last
So that crowning ceremony I had missed, and the Te Deum comes last. But the physicals of this mean, if I do the Te Deum first, there’s no way I can do the crowning ceremony. That discovery changes what I can do. I want that amazingly ridiculous but colorful bit of pompous crowning of the victor. But the real problem is how do I get this into Marie’s POV.
So I do what I always do. Hey Babe…. and have a conversation with my senior story assistant. These are the events. These are the narrative points. These are the limitations. Well what about… that won’t work because… how about… Hmmmm… In the end I follow history: crowning, parade, Te Deum.
The order of “narrative points” changes. It (as I think of it now) will be
- Père Antoine and Marie are very close, he is her advisor, confessor, and mentor
- this is now the start, and it works MUCH better here
- Marie sees her cousin, a racist white cavalry captain, our antagonist
- most of this has been set up in earlier chapters
- the elite white men on the review stand
- again simpler, a couple of names mentioned, no more.
- the unexpected presence of a battalion of free men of color, WITH GUNS, in the parade
- the fear reaction among white people to this
- Jackson’s attitude towards slaves
- Père Antoine is seen as a nobody nothing in the Catholic hierarchy
- instead of near the front, this is the very end
That which was first becomes last. We close a narrative circle within this chapter. This keeps the chapter about their relationship and who he is, more than it is about Jackson and racism. This works better. At least I think it will. Their relationship is far more important to the story than what Jackson thinks of slaves. Racism pervades this story, I don’t need to hit the reader over the head too often.
I had a much more convoluted idea for how to get their relationship across, and that got simpler. I think several secondary characters will no longer be in the narrative, so another simplification. The Te Deum will disappear from the narrative. In general, when things can vanish it means you didn’t need them anyway.
For all this to happen I have to change a bit of blocking, which is simply who is where when and what can they see and hear. That’s all. In the end, that was the conversation with “The Babe.”
ANYWAY, the point of all this is simple. Crafting a story starts with circling in the fog. As you get closer the details become sharper. Idea. Research. Plot. More research. Think again, and tweak. Those tweaks should be (mostly) simplifying. If they are, you’re probably on the right track. Everything is subject to change.
Other writers have other processes. From reading his piece on writing, I can tell you Stephen King doesn’t do this. And he has actually sold fiction. 🙂 So what do I know.
