2013 NaNoWriMo Prospect
Yoinked and altered from lorataprose. Assuming I do actually get started on this for NaNo, some thoughts...
Summary:
Meet Johanna Weisbaum, in a village in Hesse-Kassel, a German province. (Yeah, those Hessians.) Meet Hamish Cameron, in the highlands of Lochaber, Scotland. There's this little thing called the Seven Years' War going on that ends up killing Johanna's brother in the Battle of Hastenbeck in 1757. There's also this thing going on in the Highlands where life is really shitty since the Highlanders were pretty brutally put down at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. So, you know, poor, no good prospects for a couple of teenagers who are, at that age, right on the verge of 18th century adulthood. Johanna goes to America as an indentured servant. Hamish enlists in one of the new Highland regiments bound for service overseas. And then the real fun begins as they find out what the New World really is like.
History Nerdery Meter: I should seriously show you my reading list. And I just visited the battlefield for the Battle of Bushy Run this morning for the battle where Hamish is probably captured by the Shawnee in 1763. Suffice it to say, I'm the type that's a picky asshole about at least trying to get my history right with as much as is readily accessible to me.
"Times Were Hard Back Then" Meter: It's not going to be warm and fuzzy. It was a pretty brutal war. Indian raids for captives were grisly. Soldiers attacking Indian towns, and Indians attacking soldiers on the road or at their forts, were equally grisly. And even without that, people often died young. Disease and injury took a heavy toll. Sexual violence was unfortunately too common. The Highlanders were in the Caribbean in 1762 and a hell of a lot of them died of disease, and I'm sure they saw black slavery up close and personal.
Romance Ueber Alles Meter: Steadily staying low. If you've read HID/AFAF/etc. you know that I do write some romance but I usually feature a lot of other shit going on as well because I feel chars really get annoying when they're wrapped up only in their little love story. And considering H 'n' J meet once in 1758 and then not again until 1763, there's a lot of time they'll spend having individual adventures, development, and relationships with other people. Booyah.
Scottish Cliches Meter: Low. Hamish isn't a 6'3" strapping lad who's also a son/grandson/nephew/whatever of the clan chieftain. (Actually, a minimum standard of 5'4" up to 5'8" seems to have been the pretty typical range for recruits for the Highland regiment.) To begin the story he's very likely illiterate and like many Highland peasants, speaks almost no English. So, yeah. There's that.
German Cliches Meter: Low. I promise no cuckoo clocks or lederhosen. Johanna is also not a big, blond Brunhilde type. She's not a methodical, emotionless "Prussian" type either. She does not, like most stories involving fictional Indian captives, have blond/red hair and blue eyes, in order to awe the natives with how "otherworldly" she looks.
Culturally Appropriating Asshole Meter: Hopefully low? Anything involving a tribal angle is easy to mess up. I mean, you can be like Cassie Edwards and fetishize "untamed" Indian men as basically the sexual playthings of white women. And if you're writing the semi-"Dances with Wolves" scenario about the experience of white people interacting with that native society, there's the risk of marginalizing the actual people of that culture by showing them mainly or entirely through the eyes of others and implying only their experiences with that tribe are important. So while J 'n' H are the main chars, yeah, I do plan to have some of the Shawnee feature as well, and they may have some POV spots if I feel it suits the story better, and if I can write it correctly and not have it be a Disney-Pocahontas cliche.
BAMF Ladies Meter: High, one hopes. I'm going to feature a variety of female chars, and their relationships. Unlike most historical fic involving soldiers, the women aren't there mostly just as convenient puppets to admire the bravery and fighting prowess of the men and be available for sex.
Self-Indulgence Meter: I get to write historical stuff and hopefully not fuck it up. So yeah, pretty high.
Summary:
Meet Johanna Weisbaum, in a village in Hesse-Kassel, a German province. (Yeah, those Hessians.) Meet Hamish Cameron, in the highlands of Lochaber, Scotland. There's this little thing called the Seven Years' War going on that ends up killing Johanna's brother in the Battle of Hastenbeck in 1757. There's also this thing going on in the Highlands where life is really shitty since the Highlanders were pretty brutally put down at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. So, you know, poor, no good prospects for a couple of teenagers who are, at that age, right on the verge of 18th century adulthood. Johanna goes to America as an indentured servant. Hamish enlists in one of the new Highland regiments bound for service overseas. And then the real fun begins as they find out what the New World really is like.
History Nerdery Meter: I should seriously show you my reading list. And I just visited the battlefield for the Battle of Bushy Run this morning for the battle where Hamish is probably captured by the Shawnee in 1763. Suffice it to say, I'm the type that's a picky asshole about at least trying to get my history right with as much as is readily accessible to me.
"Times Were Hard Back Then" Meter: It's not going to be warm and fuzzy. It was a pretty brutal war. Indian raids for captives were grisly. Soldiers attacking Indian towns, and Indians attacking soldiers on the road or at their forts, were equally grisly. And even without that, people often died young. Disease and injury took a heavy toll. Sexual violence was unfortunately too common. The Highlanders were in the Caribbean in 1762 and a hell of a lot of them died of disease, and I'm sure they saw black slavery up close and personal.
Romance Ueber Alles Meter: Steadily staying low. If you've read HID/AFAF/etc. you know that I do write some romance but I usually feature a lot of other shit going on as well because I feel chars really get annoying when they're wrapped up only in their little love story. And considering H 'n' J meet once in 1758 and then not again until 1763, there's a lot of time they'll spend having individual adventures, development, and relationships with other people. Booyah.
Scottish Cliches Meter: Low. Hamish isn't a 6'3" strapping lad who's also a son/grandson/nephew/whatever of the clan chieftain. (Actually, a minimum standard of 5'4" up to 5'8" seems to have been the pretty typical range for recruits for the Highland regiment.) To begin the story he's very likely illiterate and like many Highland peasants, speaks almost no English. So, yeah. There's that.
German Cliches Meter: Low. I promise no cuckoo clocks or lederhosen. Johanna is also not a big, blond Brunhilde type. She's not a methodical, emotionless "Prussian" type either. She does not, like most stories involving fictional Indian captives, have blond/red hair and blue eyes, in order to awe the natives with how "otherworldly" she looks.
Culturally Appropriating Asshole Meter: Hopefully low? Anything involving a tribal angle is easy to mess up. I mean, you can be like Cassie Edwards and fetishize "untamed" Indian men as basically the sexual playthings of white women. And if you're writing the semi-"Dances with Wolves" scenario about the experience of white people interacting with that native society, there's the risk of marginalizing the actual people of that culture by showing them mainly or entirely through the eyes of others and implying only their experiences with that tribe are important. So while J 'n' H are the main chars, yeah, I do plan to have some of the Shawnee feature as well, and they may have some POV spots if I feel it suits the story better, and if I can write it correctly and not have it be a Disney-Pocahontas cliche.
BAMF Ladies Meter: High, one hopes. I'm going to feature a variety of female chars, and their relationships. Unlike most historical fic involving soldiers, the women aren't there mostly just as convenient puppets to admire the bravery and fighting prowess of the men and be available for sex.
Self-Indulgence Meter: I get to write historical stuff and hopefully not fuck it up. So yeah, pretty high.