After the Break is Over

Work commitments and a brief city break have kept me away from writing and social media for nearly two weeks, but I am not complaining. It is often good to have such absences to recharge the batteries, so to speak. Although I say that I had a break the fact is that although I did not sit down to a keyboard I did an awful lot of thinking about my work.

I am one of those people who can spend an awful lot of time in their head. I tend to think literary things through before committing pen to paper; hence I don’t tend to have copious notes lying around concerning plots, characters, or supporting information. In fact I tend to ignore the latter until after I have at least a first draft developing nicely.

So while I was away I spent time thinking over ‘For Rapture of Ravens’ and trying to decide what, if anything, needed to be added or removed to make it a better read. I plan on submitting the book for publication sometime between the end of July and the beginning of September and in all honesty I have only one more review to do as I complete the formatting of the text. I did this previously with ‘The War Wolf’ and it proved quite successful.

The result of all this cognitive exercise is that there seems to be precious little that I need to do to the current version. I ma happy with the way the characters have developed, especially some of the personages who were somewhat in the background in ‘The War Wold’, people like Aldfrid, Aethelmaer, and Thrydwulf, all of whom come to the fore at last.

With regards to the plot this was somewhat more difficult as certain key-points are literally carved in stone, the historical events I mean, and I could not deviate from them without risking the integrity of the book itself. This is a fact of life for anyone who writes historical fiction and it is something that you have to accept when you start or else you are not writing historical fiction but fantasy along the lines of what if the Battle of Stamford Bridge occurred two weeks later? The ‘what if’ alternative history idea is something that I am saving for my next project, it has no place in ‘The Sorrow Song Trilogy’.

One area that an author can develop with more freedom is the sub-plot. The tension surrounding the characters like Coenred is obvious; he is a warrior who is going to fight in the last three battles of the Saxon world. For characters like Mildryth this is a little different. As a woman she can only be a spectator to such events, but that does not mean that she cannot also be a fighter, albeit in a slightly different way, which brings me to the character of Wulfhere.

Wulfhere is a bad man, there’s no two ways about it. A thief, murderer, and liar; in fact the perfect counterpoint to Coenred. It seemed inevitable that they would both become enamoured with the same woman if for different reasons. Women are so often the victims in life but I did not want to portray Mildryth that way. I wanted her to be strong, courageous even, a woman who could rely upon herself in most situations. It seemed that by casting Wulfhere’s shadow over her those qualities could be developed as the greater story of the Saxons’ conflict with the Vikings grew in weight and intensity.

There is a scene in ‘For Rapture of Ravens’ where Mildryth once again comes face to face with her nemesis Wulfhere. This scene is a further development of the one at the end of the battle in ‘The War Wolf’, but whereas young Edwin was on hand then to help drive Wulfhere away this time Mildryth must do the task herself. At first this encounter was just an episode in the story of these two characters but it has since developed into being a catalyst in changing Wulfhere for the worse. Having spent some time thinking about it I believe that this is the right path for them to follow. It makes Wulfhere more dangerous, that is true, but also gives Mildryth an opportunity to display her own courage and fortitude before the kind of men who once ruined her life.

The outcome is not the conclusion of their relationship, that will come in the third volume, but it sets up their final encounter nicely to be the kind of dramatic event that you might expect from a brave woman who refuses to become a victim once again and a man who is now obsessed with destroying the woman who is a constant reminder to him of what he is not but has so often longed to be.

If my schedule runs to plan then hopefully you will be able to read both this and the main story of the Saxons’ epic struggle with King Hardrada of Norway when ‘For Rapture of Ravens’ makes its’ appearance very soon.

Can writing make you Schizophrenic?

I started a project in historical fiction and it went very well, so well that I started thinking of other subjects even though I had not completed the first project (it’s a trilogy and I am working on the second novel). I am contemplative by nature so this is not a problem, my mind occupies itself with all kinds of imaginings, except that something has taken hold and refuses to let go.

In fact this little germ has proven so tenacious that I even started writing a couple of thousand words about it the other day. It was not much, just a few opening lines to see how things went…they went well! In fact it went so well that I opened up a project book and started developing characters, themes, plot lines, etc.

The next day I started to feel a bit guilty because I still have the first project to complete so, as if in a fit of penitence I drafted up two scenes to write into my historical fiction story. They worked really well too, so I felt much better.

Of course that was not the end of the matter, I soon found myself thinking about my new story and the ideas started coming thick and fast! I have read a couple of works on alternative history, William Gibson’s The Difference Engine’ for example (which he co-authored with Bruce Sterling of course) and I quite like the idea of bending reality a little to create something new; this is where the new story was heading. My imagination was quickly filling up with all kinds of possibilities for this new project, but was I losing touch with my Saxon epic?

Jumping from one time period to another can be quite tiring. I have a friend who cannot read two books at the same time if they are the same genre but different time periods, they claim that it gives them a kind of mental jet-lag! Strangely, they do not seem to be alone, I’ve read similar comments from people on the internet who state that if reading more than one book they like them to be as different as possible, so one might be a horror story and another might be historical fiction and the third might be a non-fiction book. It seems a common enough trait in reading.

I suppose that in a creative fashion this might also be a problem for a writer with two projects on the go at the same time, dashing from the 11^th century to a period some 900 years later where everything is different in so many ways?

I definitely want to complete both stories! The first one must come to completion because I have spent so long on it already, what with the research into a period that I did not know all that well when I started, and because the first novel has been reasonably well received. The second one is just so different and touches on a subject matter that has always fascinated me the way some people are fascinated by fire.

The commonsense path would seem to be that I divide my time up between the two of them, similar to what I would do when reading several books. Of course I often found that I had barely enough time to write the first book, what with work and family commitments, so how do I manage two? Well, fortunately the second instalment already has some 72,000 words written so I can say that it is well on its way to completion, hopefully to be published next year, this gives me some room to manoeuvre with regards to the new story. Time management is the key!

In some ways this might actually prove a saving grace in that there will be clear lines of distinction between the two projects, a bit like an actor appearing in two different roles on the same day. With a little preparation I should hopefully be able to switch comfortably from Saxons fighting Vikings to a subject much darker and more disturbing without losing my grasp on who I am at the same time!

Insertions do not have to be painful!

I suppose it depends what type of writer you are, whether you are a planner who gets everything sorted well before the creative writing starts or if you are more like me, someone who prefers to get the heart of the story onto the page and then go back and sort things out a bit?

There are pro’s and con’s to both systems, of course, it really comes down to a personal choice rather than one being right and one being wrong; it really is whatever works for you!

That said there are times when I wish that I took the more structured approach as I think that it might just save me a bit of time and work in the long run.

I am working on volume two of The Sorrow Song Trilogy and I have about 72,000 words written. There’s a dynamic relationship between two major characters that needs developing to bring a bit more excitement and drama to the narrative whilst the story heads towards an almighty climax.

Now when I was writing the 72,000 words I knew that I would have to go back and develop certain points, events and characters. It is not so much a problem as a need to insert a passage with a little consideration, perception and skill.

When I reviewed the draft manuscript I saw an opportunity to insert an episode that would build up the tension and make the reader (hopefully) care about one of the characters in particular. It also gives this character, her name is Mildryth by the way, a chance to prove her strength of character in dealing with a very dangerous situation instigated by a man who has already been revealed to a murderer and thief.

As this is historical fiction I have to be aware of the chronology of events in both a historical sense and with regards to the chronology of the plot, which all means that finding the opportune moment to introduce this new episode is crucial. It has to fit seamlessly, a fact all good writers understand, into what has already been written, which is where the consideration comes in.

To achieve this I picked a likely spot in the manuscript, marked it, and then read every chapter leading up to it. This gave me a fresh memory of what I had written and confirmed that I had picked the right moment in the story to insert the new work.

Again, because of my preferred style, this was not a one shot deal. I wrote the piece quickly to try and get all the excitement down on the page. Then I rewrote it almost immediately, only this time conscious of the material already written earlier in the novel, the historical background and the fact that female ninjas did not exist in 11^th century England!

Next came the proof reading, spell checking, the enriching of the cultural background and the editing to rid the piece of any pretence of being a historical essay; I sometimes find that my urge to retain a degree of historical integrity can lead me into writing in a very dry and academic style; something that must be amended at all costs!

Finally, if I am happy with the final written piece, I go back and re-read the manuscript again, making notes where necessary, and carry out a final judgement; did it work? Do the characters interact sufficiently? Is there tension? Did I achieve what I set out to do? Was the insertion invisible in consideration of the rest of the manuscript?

Happily, I can say yes in each instance. It did not hurt at all really. I enjoyed the writing and the editing, but you know what, a female ninja might make a good character for a more contemporary novel!

When the finish line is in sight!

 Taking a break for a family holiday seemed like a good idea at the time but now that it is over and I am back at my desk I have to admit that I feel somewhat under pressure! Perhaps that is not so surprising when I look at my notes and realise that I started this project in September 2009!

4 years ago!

Wow! That’s a lot of exclamation marks! (There’s another one!)

To be fair a large portion of that time was spent in learning all about my chosen subject, the Anglo-Saxon period of English history. Also, there was time taken to develop the story into a trilogy, several re-writes, and 2 major surgical procedures to recover from as well. Tempus fugit as they say.

I also spent a considerable amount of time trying to get a literary agent interested in my project, to no avail. That is all water under the bridge, another popular saying. Having given up on the traditional route to publication, at least for now, I decided to go through the experience of e-publishing.

I only have myself to blame!

Ha, no, not really. It is not a question of blame. The thing is, I like this story that I have written, I like the characters of Coenred, the Saxon warrior forged in battled and honed by a sense of honour that would put a modern-day ‘right honourable’ politician to shame, and Mildryth, a woman fighting to recover what’s due to her and then hang onto it and then avoid the rapacious thief Thrydwulf and then wonder at the sense of falling in love with a warrior like Coenred and then....well, you’ll have to read the book! I believe in this book. I think that the story has human interest and that it plays out against an interesting backdrop featuring a people who have been much maligned since 1066, probably because the victors get to write the history and sadly the winners were not the proud Anglo-Saxons.

The whole world of 1066 has become a part of my world and enriched it as a result. Will ‘The War Wolf’ become a massive international bestseller? I don’t know (although I can dream) but I have set the bar a little low, all I want is for 1 person I do not know to contact me and tell me that they enjoyed my book, not too much to ask for really is it?

I will, of course, be doing the rounds to sell my book, after 4 years work it would be plain stupid not to, especially considering that ‘The War Wold’ is the first instalment in ‘The Sorrow Song Trilogy’, I mean, it’s not likely that anyone will read volume 2 if no one knows about volume 1.

First, however, I have to get my book ready for publication. Actually, it is 98% ready, I am sure of that, but there is still that niggling 2% to sort out. A friend is currently speed-reading through the manuscript to try and offer yet another insight into how I might make the story better, very many thanks Mike. I have joined Kindle and from today I will start the countdown to launch day, which I hope will be on September 20^th, the anniversary of the Battle of Fulford Gate as this is both the main event around which ‘The War Wolf’ takes place and also the anniversary of the actual battle.

I have crossed my Rubicon!

How far should accuracy go in literature?

When writing a book a certain degree of research is necessary. When writing a book in the genre of historical fiction an awful lot of research is necessary. The question is; how accurate should you be in your depiction of the facts that?

I have mentioned preciously that the author Bernard Cornwell once said that a writer should not let the facts get in the way of a good story. I have also mentioned that I agree with this statement. The point is that when you are writing story that is what you are writing; a piece of fiction. Not an academic study, not a treatise on a particular incident; you are writing fiction!

Of course if you want the readers of a particular genre to like what you write then there has to be a degree of accuracy in the facts as you present them. The actual percentage of accuracy is not written down anywhere, it is something that you have to figure out for yourself.

Does it really matter?

Let’s look briefly at two case studies. First Patrick O’Brian’s ‘Master and Commander’, a very popular book based on the exploits of a British Royal Navy captain’s adventures during the Napoleonic Wars.

O’Brian’s knowledge of the nautical culture of 19^th century ships was impressive and every page is full of technical references to ‘sheet’ and ‘yards’ and ‘beams’ etc. My knowledge is actually pretty limited, so when I came to read this book I quickly found myself thumbing to the back in the expectation of finding a lexicon of naval terms – only there wasn’t one. I found myself trying to figure out what each term meant; which slowed my reading down and ultimately left me feeling frustrated when I got to the end of the book.

It was okay having all this wonderful detail but the author had failed to consider that one or more of his readers might not have the knowledge that would have made it plain sailing. In this instance I found that the facts got in the way of the story.

Second; Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. A very popular technological thriller exploring the very original idea of cloning dinosaurs from preserved DNA.

Michael Crichton studied medicine and had a good background in science but his most famous book suffers from poor research. The Velociraptors that he wanted to use were actually too small to play the part but there was another dinosaur that fitted the role much better but it was called Deinonychus; Chricton simply used swapped them over but kept the name Velociraptor.

Another famous, or should that be ‘infamous’, oversight concerned the Tyrannosaurus Rex, which in novel is stated as having eye sight that responded to movement. Crichton had seen a paper from a young palaeontologist who had rushed his research into print claiming just this fact but it was later refuted by senior scientists. The idea suited Crichton’s story, however, so he left it in.

In contrast to Patrick O’Brian’s novel anyone without much prior knowledge of dinosaurs could read and enjoy Jurassic Park without any trouble whatsoever; the same cannot be said for anyone who did, however.

I think this illustrates what I mean about accuracy being a balancing act.

As a writer I think that there is an ethical obligation to get the core facts of your story right. Essentially, whatever you are writing about, almost irrespective of genre, should be accurate to the degree that the reader can have confidence in you knowing your stuff. That is not to say that every single reference, every statement by every character, every line you write, has to be dripping with authenticity, because that would turn your story into an academic tome. It would also mean that you would have to find some way of explaining to the uninitiated reader each and every esoteric term, which would slow the story down immensely. Also, I think the reader also has an obligation when commencing a book to be able to suspend their factual belief to a certain degree as well. A novel is not wrong just because it presents an event in a slightly different fashion to how historians present it, for example, it is just offering an alternative interpretation of the events in, hopefully, an interesting way. As long as they key facts remain unchanged, such as in my work on 1066 where none of the major events change in anyway but where the agents of certain actions, whether fictional or historical personages, might differ from those recorded.

In other words, what I am saying is that there is a need to respect those facts that are germane to your subject matter and there is an option to gently alter others so as to make your story all the more exciting, all the more readable, and all the more believable to your reader.

The Social World of the Anglo-Saxons: The Peasants

One of the features of the Anglo-Saxon social structure was its’ obsession with class. There were three basic classes, the ceorls or peasants, the theigns or landowners, and the eoldermen or nobility. These classes were further subdivided again creating a ladder for the socially mobile to climb.

The ceorls were the most numerous and, therefore, the lowest class. They lived and worked almost exclusively on the land although some also lived in cities like York and London. The ceorls were divided into smaller sub-classes again beginning with the geneatas who were usually the richest of the peasants. They were ‘free-folk’ who gave service to the fyrd, the Anglo-Saxon army on a regular basis, and could speak at public meetings.

The geneatas paid a rent to their lord for the land that they occupied but they could also receive land as a gift if they gave good service. Lords might also demand other services from their geneatas, such as maintenance work, carrying messages, supply carts for general usage and even entertain their lord. The geneatas were also expected to pay church tithes. They may also have been required to give their theign a percentage of any crops that they farmed or even one of their animals such as a pig. However, any profit that they did make they could keep.

Kotsetlas formed the second subgroup. They paid for their land through supplying their lord with labour whenever it was needed so avoided any levy of rent. Like the geneatas they could profit from their own hard work but how often they got to spend any time on their own land depended on how frequently they were called to work their lord’s land instead, this seems to have varied from one to three days a week and would probably have been more during harvest. They also paid dues to the church although it was acceptable to pay in produce rather than coin.

Finally came the gebur. Of all the classes of free folk they clearly had the hardest bargain as they were entirely dependent upon their lord for food and protection. They paid for everything with their labour and would not have had much free time with which to improve their lot.

The relationship between lord and coerl worked both ways, however. There was a prescribed duty on the part of the lord to ensure that each of his ceorls had enough land to work according to their class and they were even to supply the peasants with animals such as oxen and sheep.

The line of distinction between the three classes seems somewhat blurred to us now. Social progression was a fact of life for the Saxons and ability, as well as other such qualities as bravery and loyalty, were often rewarded; sometimes handsomely. It was a tradition in the shared culture of the various peoples that made up the different strands of the Anglo-Saxons for their lord, whether a chieftan or a king, to be a giver of rings. Ring giving dates back beyond the time in which the epic poem Beowulf is set and was considered an important aspect of lordship. It probably originally began as a means for a lord to reward his brave warriors after a battle, a means by which the booty could be shared out amongst the war-band. As the Saxon civilisation became more sophisticated ring giving also included the gift of parcels of land and the promotion of certain individuals to become companions of the lord (this being a companion in a military sense). Able ceorls could see themselves promoted by the recognition that their hard work earned them as a result, indeed if they owned enough property they could enter into the next class, the theigns, and enjoy their rights and privileges.

There was one class below the gebur but it was not strictly speaking a sub-division of the ceorls and that was the theow. Theow were not free-folk and lacked all of their rights as a result; they were slaves. No one was born into slavery in Anglo-Saxon England; it was a state a person entered into through misadventure in most cases. The commonest reason would be through being captured in war. Some people entered the estate of the theow in order to escape destitution; they were the bondsmen. Whatever the reason a free man or woman could sell their service to another Saxon for a fixed term agreed in bond. Although slavery seems objectionable to us now it was considered a normal part of life amongst the Saxons, so normal even that they even had laws governing the treatment of slaves including how much food they should receive and even an entitlement to a piece of land to plough for themselves. Theow could even own property and were allowed to earn money in any spare time that they might have. It was even possible for them to earn enough to buy back their freedom.

Life must have been hard for the peasant classes of the Anglo-Saxon world but they were also an important part of that world. They had rights and means to pursuing grievances under the king’s law. Although they paid much to their lords they did so knowing that they received something in return. The lords were obliged to keep the peace, enforce the law, and protect settlements against raiding parties, both Vikings and other Saxons. There was a tradition of charity so that even the poorest were looked after to some degree and when the great long hall was used for feasting there was even a system of feeding each class according to their rank so that no one was left out.

As the Saxon world progressed many ceorls took up trades rather than the usual working of the land and became successful traders or craftsmen. Indeed, the Saxons appear to have been wonderful workers of precious metals and produced some items of genuine beauty as seen in the recently discovered Staffordshire Horde. Their social world must have been vibrant and robust as people of ability worked their way up to the next class, sadly it was all to come to an end in October 1066 when the Normans effectively robbed the Saxons of their inherent freedom and reduced the peasants to little more than slaves through the imposition of serfdom.