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The Details Are In The Calendar
Like many authors, writing a novel was always an aspiration. When I finally started the process, in Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace I had a great story that had evolved from real-life events. Still, the majority of my experience was writing nonfiction, a style that generally called for straight facts with less emphasis on descriptive elements. Exceptional fiction requires authentic details that pull the reader into the world in which the story takes place. I discovered that one of the best ways to do this is to construct the narrative around a calendar.
Wanting feedback on the story, I sent an early draft of the manuscript to an editor I'd learned of through one of my writing groups. While she liked the novel, she noted there was no specific timeline of years or events, and felt the story could essentially be taking place at any time. The editor suggested using a calendar with actual dates and specific years during which the story would be set. By taking this approach, it not only helped me plan the story better, but a historical reference of Jesse Ventura's election as governor of Minnesota in 1998 or making note of the Aquatennial Festival held in Minneapolis each July could be woven into the narrative and enhance the authenticity of the book.
Implementing her advice, I constructed a five-year calendar over which the story in Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace unfolds. The calendar not only worked well as an organizational and research tool, but it also served to focus the book over a definite time period. In real life, the events that inspired Shades of Darkness occurred over a much longer period of time, making for an unwieldy time frame that dragged on too long, offered no sense of closure, and risked boring the reader. By using a specific calendar, those events could be compressed into a much shorter and intense span.
Employing a real calendar also heightened the dramatic effect of the narrative. In a crucial incident near the end of book, Paul Pierson is arrested for domestic battery in a scheme orchestrated by his ex-wife. Threatened with spending the weekend in the county jail if bail money cannot be raised, the scene takes place over the New Year's holiday of 2000/2001. Only by using a real calendar did I discover that if Paul were arrested on Saturday December 30, 2000 he could be looking at several days in jail. In 2001 New Year's Day fell on a Monday, and banks would not have reopened until Tuesday, January 2. Utilizing real dates offered the dramatic dilemma of the Pierson family frantically pooling their financial resources to keep Paul from extended jail time.
Working off a calendar can also combat one of the hazards many authors confront writer's block. Once I had the basic framework of the novel laid out across a calendar, if I was having difficulty with a particular chapter or scene, I could write another chapter and return at a later point to the problematic area with renewed inspiration. For many authors I've known, it can be easier to write out-of-order when the energy strikes than to force a writer to compose a manuscript in linear fashion. A calendar not only helps an author render a vivid story, but can be a useful tool in tracking the progress and consistency of the plot.
The initial version of the calendar was bare bones an outline of the main scenes that comprised the novel. From there I began writing individual scenes, building on them and incorporating the crucial details, many of which were discovered through research. Those descriptions that make a scene real might be as ordinary as the weather on Halloween or the once-in-a-lifetime occurrence of the Millennium, experiences any reader could relate to.
Details should engage the reader and connect them to the characters, setting, and narrative. This editor taught me a great lesson that for fiction to truly come alive requires authentic details. For many authors, those details can often be found within the framework of a calendar.
BONUS : The Development Of Postcards
In 1865 at the 5th Worldpostkonference in Karlsruhe, Germany there was the first suggestion to induct a kind of postpiece with an integrated postmark. But this suggestion was rejected because of moral aspects.
At the end of 1869 in Austria there was an idea of an correspondence-card with an imprinted postmark. This card did cost 2 Kreuzer in contrast to a letter with 5 Kreuzer. In 1870 this idea was picked up in Germany. They have educed forms that had to prepay with a postmark though. Particularly in the German-French War in 1870/71 lots of cards were send via field post. These cards mostly showed landscape-motives of the conquered areas.
In 1872 the name postcard was born and for the first time firms did photos on the cards. One year later these cards were also available with imprinted postmarks. At the turn of the century postcards were offered in tobacco- and stationery shops.
Types of postcards:
Picture postcards:
The front-side of the postcard shows one or several photos of a holiday resort. On the back-side the sender has space for writing a few nice sentences to the receiver. The first picture postcard was send from a printer and bookseller named Albert Schwartz at the 10th July 1870.
Reply cards:
In 1872 the first postcard with an attached reply card appeared. Later these cards were also sold with imprinted postmark. That meant, that the sender also paid the postage for the receiver. In 1992 the production of these types of cards was stopped.
Film postcards:
On these cards you can find portraits of famous film stars and film-scenes. This idea came from the Ross-publishing house in the years between 1910 and 1920. About 40000 motives were published and today these cards are still popular collectibles.
Serrated postcards:
Since the 1st June 1913 postcards of an ordained series were delivered in form of stripes and later in sheets, too. Because the writing machine was more and more omnipresent in this time, you could write on these stripes one after another without changing the card. Later the serrated postcard was sold with a reply card, too.
World postcards:
Since the 1st July 1875 it was allowed to send postcards internationally. On these cards the imprints were of another language, for example in French. Later these cards were also available with a replay card. But it was more expensive because of postage increase due to a special handling like airmail or registered mail for example.
E-cards:
The electronic greeting card is the internet match to a real postcard. The providers of greeting card-sites offer several motives from different categories. Like with real postcards you can chose between, birthday, holiday or invitation cards, for example. The motives correspond to the virtual picture page of a postcard. The message as well as the sender and receiver data you enter in a webform. The card and the message are send via e-mail.
Furthermore you have the possibility to send animated pictures and music by this means. That makes the card more individual.
In 1865 at the 5th Worldpostkonference in Karlsruhe, Germany there was the first suggestion to induct a kind of postpiece with an integrated postmark. But this suggestion was rejected because of moral aspects.
At the end of 1869 in Austria there was an idea of an correspondence-card with an imprinted postmark. This card did cost 2 Kreuzer in contrast to a letter with 5 Kreuzer. In 1870 this idea was picked up in Germany. They have educed forms that had to prepay with a postmark though. Particularly in the German-French War in 1870/71 lots of cards were send via field post. These cards mostly showed landscape-motives of the conquered areas.
In 1872 the name postcard was born and for the first time firms did photos on the cards. One year later these cards were also available with imprinted postmarks. At the turn of the century postcards were offered in tobacco- and stationery shops.
Types of postcards:
Picture postcards:
The front-side of the postcard shows one or several photos of a holiday resort. On the back-side the sender has space for writing a few nice sentences to the receiver. The first picture postcard was send from a printer and bookseller named Albert Schwartz at the 10th July 1870.
Reply cards:
In 1872 the first postcard with an attached reply card appeared. Later these cards were also sold with imprinted postmark. That meant, that the sender also paid the postage for the receiver. In 1992 the production of these types of cards was stopped.
Film postcards:
On these cards you can find portraits of famous film stars and film-scenes. This idea came from the Ross-publishing house in the years between 1910 and 1920. About 40000 motives were published and today these cards are still popular collectibles.
Serrated postcards:
Since the 1st June 1913 postcards of an ordained series were delivered in form of stripes and later in sheets, too. Because the writing machine was more and more omnipresent in this time, you could write on these stripes one after another without changing the card. Later the serrated postcard was sold with a reply card, too.
World postcards:
Since the 1st July 1875 it was allowed to send postcards internationally. On these cards the imprints were of another language, for example in French. Later these cards were also available with a replay card. But it was more expensive because of postage increase due to a special handling like airmail or registered mail for example.
E-cards:
The electronic greeting card is the internet match to a real postcard. The providers of greeting card-sites offer several motives from different categories. Like with real postcards you can chose between, birthday, holiday or invitation cards, for example. The motives correspond to the virtual picture page of a postcard. The message as well as the sender and receiver data you enter in a webform. The card and the message are send via e-mail.
Furthermore you have the possibility to send animated pictures and music by this means. That makes the card more individual.
