I apologize for the cutesy
title, which isn’t even quite true. But it almost is.
Many Southern women kept
diaries during the Civil War, and they ran into shortages of paper and ink.
They improvised by writing on scrap paper and filling their quill pens with
berry juice.
So when I decided to
write a story about the Siege of Vicksburg, I considered using the diary format
that has been successful for many middle-grade historical novels. Scholastic’s
Dear America series, with books written by various authors, is the best-known.
Then there is the American Diaries series written by Kathleen Duey, who is one
of my favorite writers of middle-grade historical fiction. The first books in
both series were published in 1996, so it is unlikely that one copied the
other. (The time between conception and publication can take several years.) The
two series ran in tandem until the early 2000s and faded almost in tandem, as
well. Scholastic also issued a series for boys (My Name is America) and another
for younger children (My America) published around the same time. The Dear
America series recently saw a resurgence with both new offerings and re-releases
of some of the original books.
But that’s part of the
problem. Fashions come and go, and that is as true for writing styles and
formats as it is for clothing. Not that all trends are fads, and a well-written
diary story will never go out of style. But I prefer to write what works for me
rather than chasing a trend.
The main reason I
rejected the idea of writing my book in a diary format is simple: it limits my
options for dramatizing the story. First, although some real-life diaries
contain vivid descriptions, the writers rarely describe those places and events
that are part of their everyday lives. Even the backstory is simply assumed.
Second, real-life diaries rarely set up a scene or contain dialogue. To put it
in literary terms, diaries tell rather than show.
Obviously, that isn’t
always the case, and some authors have found ways around the limitations. Of
the many Dear America books that I have read, a couple have made significant
use of dialogue, but it only works with the right protagonist—one with a good
memory or a strong dramatic sense. Or there is the way Kathleen Duey does it,
where diary entries are fleshed out and accompanied by much longer sections
written in a more traditional third-person style.
Still, not every Southern
woman or girl wrote a diary, and I would rather have my protagonist spend her
time reading. That gives me more freedom to write the story I want.
And I don’t have to worry
that she’ll run out of ink.
__________
The photo at the head of
this post shows three of the Civil War diaries in my collection. From left to
right, they are My Cave Life in Vicksburg
(Mary Ann Webster Loughborough), The
Civil War Diary of a Southern Woman (Sarah Morgan), and Vicksburg, A City Under Siege (Emma
Balfour). Emma Balfour’s entries end on June 2, 1863, a month before the siege
ended. Her subsequent entries are probably just lost. But who knows—maybe she
ran out of ink.
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