The king looked cruelly on them, for greatly he hated the people of Calais for the great damages and displeasures they had done him on the sea before. Then he commanded their heads to be stricken off: then every man entreated the king for mercy, but he would hear no man in that behalf….
Then the queen, being great with child, kneeled down and sore weeping said: “Ah, gentle sir, since I passed the sea in great peril, I have desired nothing of you; therefore now I humbly require you in the honour of the Son of the Virgin Mary and for the love of me that ye will take mercy of these six burgesses.”
The king beheld the queen and stood still in a study a space, and then said: “Ah dame, I would ye had been as now in some other place; ye make such request to me that I cannot deny you. Wherefore I give them to you, to do your pleasure with them.”
We settled on ''The Barbarian Princess'' and I began constructing a plot. I use the word loosely because not even Aristotle could get a plot out of the fifth century. Besides, I didn't really need one; like the typical sweet savage entry, my novel was a sadomasochistic daisy chain of incidents based on the popular wisdom of the antifeminist hour: ''When in doubt, rape.'' (read more)Historical fiction author Barbara Kyle had an interview this week over at Mary Tod's blog. I was especially inspired by her writing process which enables her to put out one book a year--it looks like a game plan that would be beneficial for me to imitate in the future.
I spend about three months developing an outline, a detailed document that is eventually about twenty pages and covers just what happens. Research is concurrent with building this outline. For me, the outline is crucial: it’s where all the heavy lifting of creation gets done, the development of the characters and plot. When I teach writers I call this process Storylining, because as writers we can never forget that we’re telling a story. Once I have an outline I spend about seven months writing the first draft, then about two months on the second draft, leaving the last couple of weeks for a polish draft. (read more)Sam Thomas had a very interesting article about how he transferred from a tenure-track professor at a large university to a secondary teacher at a prep school. The latter provided more of a sense of community and a feeling that what he was doing was really making an impact on his students.
Because my ninth-graders have the basics down, I have the luxury of working with them on more difficult questions: What is the best use of historical evidence? How should they structure their arguments to be more convincing? And I do that knowing that with three or four more years of training, they will arrive at college far better prepared then many of their peers. I go to work knowing that I am making a difference in my students' lives, and that is no small thing. (read more)And what about the academic research that he kind of misses? He gets to use it in his historical fiction writing. Sam Thomas' first historical thriller, The Midwife's Tale, just came out this month.
“But what is historical fiction?” people also ask and I reply, “It’s fiction based on history.” More, it is a dramatic piece and must tell an interesting, hopefully gripping story. To do that it must have a plot and dramatic highlights; it must not be repetitive or meander. Real lives do both. You must trim and shape real life into fictional form. (read more)
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| "Harold made an oath to Duke William" But what were the terms of the oath? And was it under compulsion? |
