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Historical Novel Project

Firlefanz
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Historical Novel Project

Quite a while ago (a year?), I've been asked to co-author a historical novel set in Königsberg, in 1822.

Königsberg is offering nice possibilities because while the town was a cultural center in the 19th century, it was almost completely destroyed in WW II. Some postcards and paintings exist, but obviously nobody can go and check details on houses. This allows for some literary freedom.

On the other hand, the town has had a few years to calm down after the Napoleonic wars, and not much was happening there. So our story can use famous professors and such, but there is no juicy incident that we can tie in.

We're on a tight schedule, as the deadline is in December, set by the publisher. Required wordcount for both of us: 400,000 characters, or 67k words. Not too bad, to be honest, because that's only about 33k words for me. Easy to do in three months.

I'm mostly worried about my character's story and development, plus getting my facts right. That's the worst about writing historical fiction. All that research. emoticon

Anway, I'm excited about the project, and since my co liked what I wrote so far, I'm far more happy with it than yesterday night.

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- Firlefanz

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Hannah Steenbock
Hannah Steenbock's Forum

9/22/2009, 6:22 pm

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David Meadows
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Re: Historical Novel Project

It sounds very exciting, good luck

The difficulty with historical writing must be getting the tiny details of like to sound authentic... what people would eat for breakfast, what they might wear, etc. So the research should keep you busy emoticon

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"A good idea will keep you awake during the morning, but a great idea will keep you awake during the night."
Marilyn vos Savant

9/23/2009, 3:23 pm

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Reythia
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Re: Historical Novel Project

I agree with Meadows. Though at least you can more or less make up the design on the town, specific houses, etc. That'll make things easier. Mostly it'll be cultural details that you'll need to research.

Good luck with it, Firle! What's the subject of the story? A drama about daily life, or something more "exciting"?

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-- YAR!

9/23/2009, 3:34 pm

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Firlefanz
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Re: Historical Novel Project

Actually, it's partly a mystery. There is a monster killing people - and of course, my MC and her brother (my co's MC) are rather involved in that problem. emoticon

So, it's a nice romp in and about Königsberg, with both of them discovering things (mostly nasty things), and plenty of mysteries, secrets, secret clubs and some soulsearching. And lots of tragedy. emoticon