Now that my current work is in
the final stages, I’m looking for my next book. I have six ideas for novels:
three for contemporary women’s fiction and three for middle grade historicals. I’ve
also got other ideas percolating farther back in the cue. So how do I choose?
First, there is the genre: should
I go for contemporary women’s fiction or a middle grade historical novel?
Writing for the middle grades is harder than writing for adults, but I also
enjoy it more. So that’s the way I’m leaning right now.
But selecting the genre is only
the beginning. As I said, I have three ideas for middle grade historicals, and
they are represented in the pictures above. The top picture shows the students
at Carlisle Indian Industrial School around 1990. Although I probably would set
the book at a fictitious boarding school, it would tell the story of the Native
American students who were taken from their homes to be “Americanized,” or, as
Captain Richard Henry Pratt put it, to “kill the Indian and save the man.”
The picture at the bottom left shows
the first class dining saloon aboard the RMS Lusitania before the ship was sunk
by the Germans in World War I. The story would be about a girl on a sinking ocean
liner. It might be the Lusitania, or it might be the Andrea Doria. Not the
Titanic, though. That’s been done more than enough times.
The final picture shows the
corner of Dearborn and Monroe streets after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The
story would show the protagonist’s life before, during, and after the fire,
with the bulk of it centering on her escape from the flames.
All three of these historical events
have potential because there is sufficient information on them to create a
realistic story. And that’s important to me. Research is my middle name and
accuracy is my claim to fame.
Too many ideas can cause
complications. But I’d rather have that problem than the opposite one.
__________
The pictures at the head
of this post are in the public domain because of their age.
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