My Writing | Meg North's Historical Fiction: June 2009

Sunday, June 14

Diving for Treasure

I took this gorgeous photo at a beach about fifteen minutes from my house. A breathtaking sunset here in Maine.

Writing about the 19th century requires both imagination and reality.

What I write is grounded in real events, real places, and, occasionally, real people. Daniel's Garden, the novel I'm currently shopping around to agents, is set in the Civil War and features Frederick Douglass, General Joseph Hooker, and mentions President Lincoln.

The research part of Victorian fiction is like a treasure hunt ... digging through years of antique material, I'm uncovering facts that are both well-known and obscure. Researching a famous person makes it easier, so I sometimes put famous people in my novels. My new story has Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ... easy for me, since I tour guide at his boyhood home!

The imagination part - now there's where I start digging in my head. Or, diving, as I call it. I dive into my head and retrieve whatever comes up. I love the ocean, so I liken it to diving into deep waters to uncover the treasures at the bottom of the sea. It's a scary adventure and sometimes I get caught up in mental seaweed, am afraid of mental sharks, and go slowly through mental murky waters.

The payoff is definitely worth it, though - a scene, a character, a setting, a plot twist. All these treasures lie hidden in my oceanic mind.

How about other writers out there? Describe how you use your imagination to create your stories. Is it a nautical adventure like mine? Or, perhaps a road trip? A dream? How do you 'dive' and retrieve your stories?

Where does the Time Go?

Sorry about the extreme absence in posting ... I do have several things to report!

I've updated my banner and absolutely love it - what do you think? It's a beautiful painting called "Poppies and Wild Roses," done by Geraldine Jacoba Van de Sande Bakhuyzen, a Victorian artist born in 1825. I love her lush style. Gorgeous.

For those of you who know me personally, you may remember I've been shopping my completed novel around to agents this year. I sent it out the first time on February 2, and received my FIRST REJECTION LETTER on March 17th! Happy St. Pat's day to me! I sent it out again in April and received my SECOND rejection letter in May. I sent it out again May 18, and am still waiting to hear back from them. If I don't within a few days, I have a fourth agency waiting in the wings to send it out.

So what to do while I'm waiting to hear back? Start a new novel, of course!

I'm 30 pages into a new story. Those first 30 pages poured right out of me, but I haven't added anything new in a couple weeks. I love this story. The main character is named Esther, a practical and strong 18-year-old inspired by Elinor Dashwood and Jane Eyre. She has a younger sister named Lara, and they are orphaned in the first chapter. It's a story about secrets and love, my two favorite subjects.

I miss Masterpiece Theatre! I had such a fun time watching Oliver Twist and Little Dorrit this spring. Dickens has definitely inspired my new story. I won't give away the title just yet, but I'll call it, "HL" for short on this blog. I read once that writers shouldn't 'talk' away their novels. Gotta keep the creative juices inside my head.

On a funnier note, I'm reading Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban for the first - yep, you read that right - time. I must be the only writer on the planet who hasn't gotten through them yet. Oh, well. I'm always years behind everybody anyway ... ! Haha!