We have been talking about the need for simple low level novels for TCI classes in Latin. We actually need more of them in many languages. In this article, published so that I can make it available in the category list and not have it scroll out, David Maust asks Robert Harrell for advice on the process of creating a chapter book. It gives good insight, very valuable advice, for anyone contemplating writing a novel/chapter book:
David:
Robert, I recall that you have been writing a German novel. Do you have any tips for us Latinists who might be thinking about embarking on creating a novel or series?
Thanks! David
Robert:
First of all, I think you guys are amazing. (BTW, when I was in college I took Latin and used the Cambridge Latin Series when it was a set of paperback booklets; I still have them. Later I read the Aeneid, Germania, some of The Georgics and a few other things.)
Second, I think your project has a huge chance of being successful because 1) you are writing out of a felt need – in essence you are writing for yourselves – and 2) as TCI advances further and your students become teachers, the need for this is going to be even greater.
The rest of this is going to be a bit of a ramble.
Writing is the easy part. Proofreading, editing, revising, illustrating, formatting, etc. are the hard parts. A couple of summers ago I attended a workshop with Karen Rowan. She said that most people never publish, not because they don’t write, but because they never finish the editing, etc. Even with writing, it is harder to write for a lower level than for a higher level. I intended for my first book to be level 3/4 (closer to four), and it is there. I intended for my second book (the pirate story) to be level 2, but it’s really level 2/3.
One thing that Karen said with which I disagree – and it’s about the only thing with which I disagree – is that if you find the book interesting, it is too hard for your students. Perhaps it is because I enjoy language so much that I find the complexity and sophistication of the language less of an issue than the compelling nature of the story. I can enjoy a children’s book – not as a steady diet, of course – as much as an “adult” book. David’s list of elements is a good one, especially the connected storyline and interesting characters.
For what you guys are envisioning, I think you need an Editor in Chief who oversees the project (and perhaps doesn’t write much). Writing by committee will be more complex than writing as a single author, but it can be (and has been) done. I would suggest deciding on the main character(s) and what qualities he/she/they possess. Then lay out the plot line and divide it into chapters. Within the constraints of your vocabulary, each person can write one or more chapters. You might want to start with something fairly short just to get an idea of scope, working relationships, communication, etc. If you can have a unifying theme that will help. For example, when I wrote the medieval book I named each chapter for a knightly virtue and included one or more events or people that illustrated that virtue or its lack. The pirate story is not as “tight” in this way, but I was working with a compelling legend. Also, I thoroughly agree with Tolkien: a piece need not be an allegory or morality tale to have elements from which we can draw lessons – it just needs to be part of a “real world”. You are sub-creators (Tolkien’s term), and your creation needs to be cohesive and coherent.
Karen said that another reason many people never publish is that they don’t stick to the task. You should set as your goal to do something with the story every day. You won’t achieve that goal, but it will keep you from putting the story aside and never coming back to it, or from working on it only when the mood strikes you.
It will take longer to get this done than you think. Don’t let that stop you.
Proofread, proofread, proofread. And then do it some more. And remember that even after all of that, you will spot errors in the published work. That’s what second and revised editions are for.
Ask your proofreaders to comment on everything, including inconsistencies in plot, ambiguities in text, logistical issues, reasons for including or excluding something. I had good dialogue with my proofreaders, and they improved the text tremendously. One reader in particular would tell me if there was a connection she missed or didn’t understand, if something seemed overly redundant, if there was a way to use the limited vocabulary or not, etc. (Of course, it helped that she was a native speaker of German – not too many native Latin speakers available for you guys.) Sometimes her comments prompted me to add something; sometimes I deleted something; sometimes I left the passage in question alone and changed the lead-in or follow-up. Sometimes I would explain why it needed to be what it was, and she would tell me if my argument was compelling or not; often we wound up with something different from what either of us had originally suggested. In all of these cases, having the book read by people who were not part of the writing was invaluable.
Write about something you know. The medieval book was very easy to set because I was familiar with the area and the time period. I still did a lot of research to make certain I had various aspects of things correct, and I used disparate sources. For example, I used Google maps and other atlas and photographic sources for the land and terrain; I looked up weather and climate (for the pirate book I even researched the temperature for the North Sea in 1400 and how long someone can survive in water at various temperatures); I checked on rates of travel in varieties of terrain, weather conditions and modes of travel (Dungeons and Dragons books were helpful here, interestingly enough). Not everyone will want or “need” to go to the same degree of exactitude that I did, but since I wanted to use my book as a springboard to investigation, I didn’t want to have to keep saying, “Well, this wasn’t accurate, but . . . .” Since the pirate book was based on legend anyway, I didn’t worry as much about the minutiae of historical accuracy. Since John is already familiar with Roman Nimes, France, that would probably be a good starting place – but he would have to bring the others up to speed on the information.
I chose to do a time-travel historical fiction book so that I could begin with a modern setting with which my students were familiar and then move them to the Middle Ages. It helps, I believe, to get them hooked from the beginning. Yesterday as we were reading the first chapter one of my students laughed. We were reading about the main character and three friends who had just finished playing pick-up basketball. “Geoff” put his shoes away and put on a pair of flipflops over his socks. My student was laughing because this what all the jocks on campus do. He said, “You stand at the door and watch students, then you put it in your stories, don’t you?” Yes, there is a lot of that in the stories.
Which leads to another comment. Be an observer and write about “real” people. Take three or four people and combine them into one new person, but make sure the new person is real.
Also, work on finding the right balance among narrative, description, action and dialogue. If you can “show” it rather than describe it, that’s the better way to go. Instead of saying that your main character is generous, describe him doing an act of generosity. Of course, you can’t do that with everything; sometimes it is better to just say someone is honest. Another possibility is the use of epithets. You see that in the epics all the time. In my medieval book, one of the characters in the modern setting is “der kleine Jamaal” (little Jamaal); it sets him apart even though he is a minor character.
Try to find the right balance between detail and overview. There has to be enough specificity to make the place and people real, but too much detail soon starts reading like a 19th-century paid-by-the-word author.
Extremely important! Check your ego at the door. You have to choose between making the writing the best it can be and being defensive. Do it for your students and make it the best it can be. The payoff will be bigger than holding onto something because it’s your writing.
Be prepared to pare. You will be more likely to write too much than too little.
I’m sure there’s more, but that will have to do for now. It is an incredibly rewarding process, and you will learn a huge amount.
Oh wait, I just thought of one more thing: Copyright. Speaking of copyright, don’t be so self-effacing that you simply give away your hard work. People generally do not appreciate that which costs them nothing. Work out an arrangement that will bring something back. Chances are that any money “earned” will simply go into funding the writing and publication of the next book. You will never get rich off of this, but the labourer is worthy of his reward; and in ancient Israel they were warned not to muzzle the ox. If at some point you wish to release to a wider audience, you can always do so under GNU or Creative Commons licensing.
It will cost money. You also need to decide on publishing. Do you want to self publish or go through a publisher? Self publishing is more expensive, but you lose control going through a publisher. You should look into e-publishing. One of the things I keep hearing and reading about is the desire/need for reading material that can be accessed by e-readers like Kindle.
