Writer's Block or....?

Up until now, I've never really experienced writer's block. My imagination runs wild and usually gazing a few minutes out a window or taking a walk will solve my problem. Sometimes waking up in the morning and staying a few minutes in bed is another way to kickstart my creativity. With my latest attempt, however, it's been a different story.

The premise of the book was a woman from 2010 is transported back to 1774 Boston and finds herself in a situation where she has to marry a British soldier. There is all kinds of conflict simmering, from internal to external, and at first it was fun. The first chapter was easy to write. The next two chapters I rewrote two or three times before it was passable. Then, I wondered where was this story going? Will this really work? How can I weave the history and fiction together? How can it be believeable? I let it simmer for a week or so and came to a conclusion: I loved the characters, but the story felt more forced than anything else I'd written in a long time.

For anyone who writes, if something feels forced, warning bells usually go off in your head. I'm not denying that parts will be difficult to write, I've been there before, but there's a difference between difficult and forced. Parts of the second book of my Secondworld series were difficult, but never forced. The only reason I stopped writing that story (for now) is that if I can't sell the first book, writing the second is a little pointless. I have ideas of how to change it into a stand alone book if I have to, but I've put it aside for now, content to come back to it when the time is right.

My Boston story, however, feels forced. I don't mind rewriting scenes (I'm not one of those people who can just write it all out, never looking back until the first draft is complete), but having to rewrite two consecutive chapters two or more times is a warning bell. So I decided to shelf the idea for now, until the idea develops or the feeling of writer's block for that story goes away. I had one idea on a shelf for five years before I wrote something that was worthwhile, so there is hope.

All is not lost, however. I've taken the world of my 1891-1892 Secondworld books and put it in the context of the 21st century. The idea came while reading the two novellas in Deep Kiss of Winter and Stephen King's, On Writing (what if?). It's in the vein of the paranormal romance books I read religiously and if I read so many of them, and enjoy them, then why am I not writing one? I'm reveling in my no-plot mode and just typing away. Let's hope the story never becomes forced.

Liberating First Person

When it comes to writing, one of the most important decisions an author makes is which point of view to use. Most of the fiction I read uses third person, specifcially limited third person (also called single-third). The pronouns are "he" or "she", never "I" or "me".

In the past, I have always used third person. I vaguely recall using first person for a story I wrote in high school, but on the whole, I've used third person singular. This doesn't mean I had only one character, but rather that the character's thoughts are limited to a scene or chapter, switching to another character's third-singular point of view (POV) later.

You can imagine my surprise when I sat down to start my most recent story (set in 1774 Boston) and the words started pouring out in first person. I typed away Kate Johnson's thoughts (my character) and at about 1,000 words, I took a break, read what I had written and wondered if it would be safer to write the same scene in third person. So I opened a new document and started typing. After two paragraphs, I realized it was hopeless. If this story and set of characters was going to work, it had to be told through Kate's thoughts and personality alone.

At 7,000 words in, I find using first person challenging yet refreshing. I have the chance to make the story much more personal and bring the character competely to life. The entire story is told from one person's POV, similar to real life where we have one mind to interpret the world around us. Just like real life, it can be frustrating. We never really know what another person is thinking unless they tell us. A lot of times, as readers, we expect to know how two or more characters think, but this is impossible in first person. The dance between a solder and a woman out of place becomes more complicated and subtle; we must be convinced of their feelings through dialogue and actions alone.

I finished my first book last year, and know I am capable of finishing a 300+ page work. Now I have a new challenge: see if I can finish a 300+ page work told through the eyes of one person.

An Idea Strikes....

On New Year's, my brother-in-law gave me an extra HDMI cable he had and a few days later I hooked up my Blu-Ray player. Knowing this little cord was supposed to improve picture quality, I put in the only Blu-Ray I own: National Treasure. As much as I like the movie, I wasn't in the mood to sit down for two hours to watch it. Instead, I went to the extras and started the section that took a closer look at the Declaration of Independence (a key part of the film). It went line by line, with some additional mini-movies on the history behind it. When it came to talking about the revised Quartering Act of 1774 (where British soldiers could room in empty house, barns and inns if the barracks were overcrowded), an idea struck me: this could be a good beginning to a story.

At first my story leaned toward a merchant's daughter having to take care of, per the provisions of the law, the soldiers by feeding them and being thrown into a situation with a solider she'd end up marrying. I was excited and immediately started some research. Now, as a history teacher, I know the basics of the American Revolution but it had been some years since I studied anything about it (not since I took my subject knowledge test in 2008). I'm a stickler for details, and read articles, primary sources, watched PBS's famous Liberty! documentary, etc. The more I researched, the more I realized how difficult it would be to put this man and woman together. But what if the woman was from the present, knew what was going to happen, and was stuck in an unescapable situation with a British solider stationed in Boston? And what if it was 1774, right when the Intolerable Acts were fanning the flames, the year before the first shot was fired?

This idea was appealing, but how to get her there? I needed something semi-believable, with rules of time travel. Then I remembered my niece talking about a lunar eclipse right before Christmas, and I had it! The lunar eclipse fell on the Winter Solstice in 2010, for the first time since the 17th century. Here was something rare I could work with. After all, throughout history, and even today, there are a number of superstitions surrounding lunar eclipses.

Since I had constructed time travel via eclipses, I needed to find one in the beginning of 1774. According to NASA's predictions, the earliest lunar eclipse in 1774 was May, which was too late--General Gage (of the British Army) and his extra troops were already in Boston by this point. I looked up solar eclipses, and voila, there was one for March 12, 1774. Perfect!

So now I have a working time travel universe and I've just about completed my research. I have yet to decide if this will be historical romance or more historical with a twist, a la Gabaldon style. Whatever happens, it just shows that ideas for stories come from just about anywhere.