dialect

I remember first reading Huckleberry Finn and later Pygmallion. How did Twain and Shaw know how to take the English language and make it sound like it is spoken? From my little bit of work in the theatre I have explored several accents and enjoy learning how to imitate them. However, I am quite a novice at making my characters on the written page sound like they should.
I realized last week that I was getting too worked up about this issue. Until I get more information about the dialect of the region during that time period, I need to proceed writing and then go back later to edit the dialogue appropriately. Especially important will be to reflect educational status in the character's speech. I don't want to fall into class or ethnic stereotypes but remain true to who the characters are as they would have existed in history.
I am hoping to reconnect with my historian who has promised some written dialogue. Currenly, my email and his do not seem to get along, so I may be trying snail-mail. Perhaps slower, but worth it to get this right.

A child's perspective

While writing I am acutely aware of the two youngest characters in my story, a set of twins. I want to paint them clearly and accurately, with respect for their unique perpective so that I never over-simplify or make them too complex. Also, I want to keep in mind that today's children are far different than their Victorian counterparts. During the Victorian era children were protected from many adult discussions, sometimes even excluded from the dinner table, though I doubt that to be the common in the South in any but wealthiest households. Seen and not heard was taught for manners sake, to teach children "their place" but in many households it did not steal their childhood. They were aware of death and hardship, these things were a way of life as was personal responsibility. However, they were not exposed to things of our era like mass media, which encourages very young children (who are born with the inclination) to emulate older children and adolescents before they have the judgment to understand the consequences of certain actions. My job is not to use my novel to judge between the two, but to accurately portray the twins at their stage of life in the right context. I hope I am up to the challenge.

reading

It is relieving to read the manuscript so far and find out that, yes, I like it. I have never written this much on any manuscript without sending it out to friends to find out thier opinions, but I also have never made this much progress on a manuscript in such a short amount of time. There are some things that I changed and some characters that still need more "fleshing out", but I am really enjoying the story. I feel like a little kid opening a present or going someplace new. What is going to happen next? What will be revealed? I need to do further research into the hotel/railroad and adjust things around those details to make sure I am telling things accurately. Again, I wish I could get away and go visit the historical society's research library. What a joy that would be! But until then, I am going to contact their research librarian and try to arrange an interview by phone or email as soon as possible so that I can start digging into books with more information.

Editing

The process by which a weak manuscript can be made strong, editing. Not that my manuscript is complete. I estimate that I am perhaps 1/4 of the way through writing; but as I have delved into my research, I knew this was the week to straighten, redefine, and rewrite. One main character needed renaming with a more Victorian name, Nadine is now Nora. Another main character needed an adjustment in his illness/diagnosis and subsequently his Vicorian treatment. Scenes needed to be added for characters that I had just suggested before, but now have a life of their own. I've actually enjoyed most of the editing, though I believe it will probably carry me into next week. Once I finish re-writing, I will have to do another re-reading to make sure it flows. As always, I am loving the process, and I think it will be stronger once I finish untangling these knots.

cuisine

This week has proved rather interesting and humbling. I have made discoveries about Old South cuisine, drawing conclusions about what recipes would have been popular during the time period and in the region I am writing about. Seafood would supercede any other wild game as it was readily available. Not that the possum recipes didn't look appetizing, but I'll save that for another book ... I have collected several recipes which I am not as familiar with and will be trying them out to make sure I know what my characters enjoy on a daily basis. However, I did have to look up suet to get an idea about that "delicacy" - funny how that is just not around anymore, hmmmm.
Unfortunately, several of my characters are ready to go crabbing. I know next to nothing of crabbing and live no where near where crabs like to hang out. I am hoping to locate a blog or short story about the experience (thinking of re-reading parts of Jacob Have I Loved), and then edit the story more fully when I get a chance to go myself. I am pretty sure I will be ridiculous in this endeavor, but it will add depth, realism, and most likely a great deal of humor to my writing.
Of course, if anyone has any ideas on better places for me to find some more helpful research (or opportunities to go crabbing) please contact me at
jacquelineroe@embarqmail.com
Any other comments are welcome, of course.

The Atlantic Hotel

I have found some images that might be interesting to those following this blog, it certainly helps me visualize as I write. As the hotel burned down in the 30's I could not go visit it, but I still look forward to one day walking around Morehead Ciry and getting a feel for its layout and imagine while there what it was like in before the turn of the twentieth century.

Promise-landers

In my research I have come across an interesting group of people who literally moved their houses by boat to the more prosperous Morehead City during the era I am writing about. They called it the Promiseland and became known as the Promise-landers. As one of my characters goes back to what he loves, the sea, I am anxious to see how he connects to this unique group of people. They seemed to set aside prejudice of North versus South, skin color, and gender in favor of "working the water" - if you could "work the water" you had value and worth. This is quite unique in this time period and I can't wait to see how it affects the other characters in the story.