Month: July 2010

Posted in Historical Fiction

Thoughts on History and Historical Fiction

Posted on by beckylevine

So many times, as I sit down with a history book these days, one I’m reading for WIP research, I get this mixed feeling of…

  • Wow, things were really different back then.
  • Wow, has anything changed?

Okay, maybe this is because I’m reading a lot about things like women’s roles in society, working women getting less money than men, poverty and crime, anti-immigrant sentiment.

See what I mean?

Sure, I could get depressed. Sure, I could get frustrated, and impatient, and–oh, yeah–just a bit angry. And, sometimes, I do.

But…I think this sameness, actually, is what’s at the heart of good historical fiction and is the extra element in a well-written story that really hooks a reader. Especially, maybe, a teen reader. (Yes, that’s the sound of fingers crossing that you hear.)

It’s pretty hard, I think, to have our emotions triggered by things that are truly in the past, completely over and done. I think we do, at least, respond in a milder degree about injustices or tragedies that are finished, taken care of, “fixed.” When we read about something, though, that was wrong in 1913 and is still pretty much happening in 2010, then we get pissed. The reaction that says, “This is horrible,” is doubled, maybe even tripled, by the recognition of its continuity, its sameness nearly 100 years later.

One of the things I hope to have resonate for my MC is some of that feeling–that the world her mother lived in when she first came to America still exists–the tenement slums, the work conditions, the fear–even if her mother has escaped from it. I want my readers to see this sameness. I also want, though, for them to see the continuity between my MC’s problems and choices, and their own. The narrow world she grows up in–the choices she must make about building her own life and separating herself from those who would stop her from doing that–I want this to “click” with the teens I’m writing for.

Because when I think about having no control of your life, about being pushed in a direction that is not right for you, about constantly hearing you “shouldn’t” and  you “can’t”–I don’t think these things were specific only to the teens of the early 20th century. I think they’ve pretty much stuck around for our kids today, obviously to varying degrees of force and wrongness. And I think the choices teens faced in the past, the times when the pushing went too far, are very, very close to the choices they face today.

So, I guess, for me, this is what young-adult historical is about. The goal…somehow…is to layer in the history, tell the specific story, and make that connection.

Posted in Deadlines, First Drafts

Writing: The Gift of Little Pieces

Posted on by beckylevine

I may have mentioned before that July seems to be a month of (wonderful) deadlines, and August is setting itself up to be that way. It would be easy, but depressing, to just let my fiction go and give into the panic worry that maybe there isn’t enough time for it all.

I’m trying to respond to that temptation with one word: Nonsense!

Not nonsense as in I’m Wonder Woman (whose new costume, I LOVE, btw!) and being able to do it all. But nonsense as in reminding myself that if I just take that hour of panic worry that I can easily use up in a single day, and give it to my fiction, well, hey, look: presto-magico…progress! And no depression. 🙂

And-as usual-I’m making a discovery along the way. This first draft I’m working on has its own moments of panic (yes, this time, PANIC) about where I’m going and how much I don’t know and how much I will have to weave together even when I DO know it and, oh, I could go on and on…. But guess what? The panic drops when I’m just working in little bits of time and pages.

I take one morning to plot out a new scene. All sorts of questions rise up to haunt me–“Oh, yeah, and where is THIS going to lead?” “You DO know this means you’ll be rereading those books about fancy-schmancy department stores?” “You’ve decided to write about a sabbath dinner after all, because…why?!”

Well, guess what? All I have to do that morning is plot that one scene. That evening, or the next morning, I can write it…or half of it. That afternoon, read just one chapter on department stores, for now. The next morning, plot that scene. And so on. When I’m not looking at hours of plotting and writing–all in one fell swoop–when there’s only so much time (and, oh, yes, panic) I can give to my fiction that day, it’s…easier.

Maybe it’s not the best way to immerse myself in the story, maybe it’s not the best way to get hundreds and thousands of fiction words onto the page. On the other hand, maybe it’s exactly how I need to be doing it this month.

Do you work best in small chunks or in long, dedicated hours? Are there times when one style works better for you than the other?

Have a wonderful writing week!

Posted in Uncategorized

Friday Five: What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Posted on by beckylevine

Or at least on the last few days of it.

On Sunday, we dropped our son at the drop-off point for his two weeks of sleepaway-somewhere-in-the-Sierras-(we-think)-camp. And then we took off for our own trip. A few months ago, my husband had suggested a few days in the gold country–which is Californian for the cute little towns in the foothills of the Sierras, originally populated by gold-prospecting miners. I love this area–I had a great-aunt who lived here for years, and it’s the closest geographical location that gets some sort of season–leaves change color in the fall, it gets pretty warm most summers, and that same great-aunt put her back out at 90 when she decided to shovel the winter snow out of her driveway. I haven’t been there for years, though, and my husband’s suggestion sounded like the perfect trip.

And it was. Here are a few of the things we did.

1. We stayed here, at The Outside Inn, a restored motor inn at the top of the hill that is downtown Nevada City. This is our room.

Celestial Room

Yes, those are glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. I can’t recommend this motel enough, if you’re ever visiting this area. It was seriously inexpensive, spotlessly clean and wonderfully quiet, had Adirondack chairs in a lovely little garden space, and a bowl of jelly bellies in the office. Plus, they leave chocolates in your room, but good things like mini Snickers and Milky Way bars, not those skinny little mints on your pillow!

2. We hiked. The first day there, we went DOWNhill almost to a river (husband went all the way down, but my knees said, “Wait here,” and I listen to my knees) and then back up. I sat for close to an hour at this beautiful spot just at the edge of the path, with no poison oak and no mosquitos, looking out at the river and up at the cliff and watching butterflies play in the breeze. I had my book, but I barely opened it; it felt so good just to rest. The third day, we drove partway down a dirt road toward a trailhead, but after getting stuck once in the snow (yes!), we parked the car and just walked the rest of the way in, had lunch, sat some more, and walked out again. Walked may be the wrong description, since mostly I schlurshed–which is my word for what my nice, thick hiking boots do on big patches of snow and ice. This was our lunch view.

3. Ate. And ate. And ate. Nevada City is a small town, maybe three blocks long, with sort of one and a half main streets. We didn’t make it into every restaurant, but we did make a nice big dent in the eating establishments. My husband and I don’t always agree, but our consensus was that the very best of the great meals we had was at Lefty’s Grill. What’d we eat? Crab & Shrimp Cake Louis; Pear, Balsamic, Gorgonzola Pizza on Flat Bread; and Bourban Pecan Pie. Triple-nom.

4. Wrote. Kind of. I have a sort-of-in-the-drawer novel that I know I can’t and shouldn’t work on right now, but that I’m not ready to let go of completely. And I had a critique from a very helpful set of fresh eyes that I hadn’t been able to spend any time with. So on the morning that husband went off for his first mountain bike ride, I took the manuscript and the critique and a notebook to the coffeehouse, and I read and I thought and I scribbled notes. And there is hope. I’ve read it out here so many times–the idea that there’s a time to put a book away for a while and a benefit from doing so, and whoever all has told me this, you’re right. No perfect solutions yet, but ideas and ideas and ideas. And some insight to the most important questions that either I thought I had answered, or that I had over-optimistically swept under the writing carpet. I’m not sure where I’m going with this, or when, but it will be somewhere. Meanwhile, I’ll put some more hours into reading and thinking & try to write myself a pretty strong, directed revision letter. For future use. 🙂

5. Relaxed. The older novel was the only writing I took. July is going to be a busy month with several have-to projects and continued progress on my current WIPs. I needed those few days with nothing that had to be done, nothing that carried even a whiff of schedule or deadline or pressure. I read two books–but slowly and in small pieces, and I sat with my eyes closed, and I lay down, and I napped.

Pretty much what vacation should be about, as far as I’m concerned.