So, people always say “write what you know”, so I started my
career writing about superheroes in high school. It evolved into supernatural beings in high
school or young adults right out of high school, and so on. So when I was inspired to write The Color of God’s Eyes, a period piece
about a slave that develops the power to teleport, I faced some interesting
challenges and learned some insightful things along the way that I wanted to
share.
Know
the Language. It is fiction, so I feel
like I have some liberty, but there were so many words that I’m accustomed to—phrases
and slang—that weren’t appropriate for this time period. I was constantly looking up the history of
certain words that I was concerned about. It was a bit frustrating at times. The biggest example would be the phrase “teleport”
because that’s what Charlotte can do. I
fought over what I should call it, and settled on “blinking”. Then there were other things like not using
the term “makeup” and “boyfriend”. There
are so many common
phrases that we use today that we just don’t
think about them not existing.
Know
the culture. My main character,
Charlotte, is a huge reader. She loves
books, but I had to choose books that she could have gotten her hands on
without using a time portal. I wanted
her to be exposed to some science fiction books (maybe something on
teleportation) but it was just too early.
The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers were a given, mostly
because Alexandre Dumas is a black like Charlotte, so she is inspired by
him. Charles Dickinson was also back
then. I also decided to make her in love
with Jane Austin, which fits in well with her desire to be a “lady”, and her
desire for a proper gentlemen. Hopefully,
my sisters appreciate that since they’ve seen Pride and Prejudice nearly one hundred times!
It was interesting learning about the
different forms of entertainment. It
wasn’t easy finding out exactly how blacks sang, besides Negro spirituals, and
finding out the dancing was not so easy.
I did learn that dancing was still hugely apart of the heritage, and
plantation owners would even have their slaves compete and dance battle other
plantations (that would be a weird Step
Up movie). Another interesting fact
was that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of
the most popular books and plays during that time. Charlotte was going to attend one of the
performances, but I ultimately decided not to.
Maybe in the sequel.
Know
the technology. One of the most
difficult things while working on this was probably deciding how long it would
literally take people to travel from one location to another. Trains were the fastest way of travel, but
they weren’t everywhere yet. Thankfully,
the internet is an abundant source of knowledge and people put together things
like travel maps from the 1800’s and mapquest pitched in as well.
Know
the history. I had to brush up on my
history, and I’m really glad that I did.
Finding out about the gang environment in New York during the 1860’s was
what attributed to Charlotte running away to New York. Ultimately, I thought it would be awesome to
see her as a superhero fighting against gangs in the Five Points and protecting
those in harm’s way. The dynamic between
the immigrants, the Yankees, and the blacks that just got caught up in the
middle of it was too intriguing to pass up on.
The Draft Riots will eventually play a huge role when I write my
sequel. If people thought Ferguson or the
Harlem riots were bad, prepare to be blown away.
Know
how much you’re going to change.
This is something I’m still debating, but the biggest question I had to
ask myself was how much Charlotte and people like her were going to change
history. If certain individuals have the
ability to blow things up with their mind, teleport, and fly, would it shift
the world into an earlier industrial age?
Are major events going to be altered?
Would the Union succeed? Would
Charlotte save Abraham Lincoln? There’s
a lot to consider. I think altering
history has even greater challenges than fitting everything into the history
like a secret past, because you have to know history enough to know what they
would have done. It’s like writing a
fanfiction of an alternate reality, but still keeping them in character.
I can’t admit to what I decided to do
though. That would be too huge of a
spoiler!
Thanks for sharing such useful pointers, Christina! It's always a pleasure reading your material. <3
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm trying to get back into the swing of writing blogs and putting up videos.
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