I’ve had an on-going internal dialog on how to portray the women in my book, so I started writing it out. It’s a technique I tried to get my 1st and 2nd year students to use a few times because it’s a great way to figure out the problem. I encouraged them to write it down, so I’m following my own advise. Every time I go over it I’ve more ideas, examples, and the argument changes. Somewhere around line 6 it went from being the same ol’ internal dialog to… progress. It goes something like this:
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Me A: I want to be historically accurate, so obviously the characters should be as well.
Me B: Really? Are you sure? Historically accurate might not be so attractive to modern readers.
Me A: Why wouldn’t it? History is FACINATING! It would be like “Little House on the Prairie.” My daughter loves those books.
Me B: Uh, yeah. That might not be a typical 5 year old. But I thought I saw you cringing a few times the other night while reading to her.
Me A: Oh. Ya, that was because Native Americans were referred to as ‘savages,’ Laura wanted to keep a ‘papoose’ like she would a pet cat (Daddy! I want one!), and the girls are, like, trained to be little house wives from the time they’re born.
Me B: And you think that’d sit well with a modern audience? Great role models they’d be now.
Me A: But… it’s historic. That’s how things were.
Me B: Maybe if it was used in an educational setting where it could be put into context, that’d be great.
Me A: Well, I want my characters to be real. They’ll have flaws, but I’d like tweens to look up to them too. But it’s set in 1920s Alaska. If they act like modern people, that just doesn’t work.
Me B: That’s true.
Me A: So where’s that line between historically accurate and acceptably modern?
Me B: I don’t know. Maybe your characters will be those bucking the trend? The open-minded ones surrounded by out dated ideas?
Me A: *blank stare* Because that’s not a common cliché. Let’s look at it another way. What are the objectionable qualities I’d want to avoid?
Me B: Hmm. Racism for sure. Jim Crow laws were in effect, and there wasn’t much social movement against them yet in the 1920s. You definitely do not want a racist characters even if they were likely to be.
Me A: There were plenty of social expectations placed on women. Mother, center of the family, domestic manager and enforcer of morality. There weren’t a lot of job opportunities either. But instead of avoiding those, I could show the internal struggle of being so restricted.
Me B: Wasn’t the sufferage movement going on then?
Me A: Now we’re getting somewhere. Historical events married to a more sympathetic character. But is it really okay to just… gloss over elements that we disagree with now?
Me B: I don’t know.
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And that’s where I’m at. For the sake of the story, is it okay to skip over distasteful historical details that may have affected my character? It’s white washing, right? “Don’t look over in this direction… everything is fine! Just keep reading, nothing to see here!”
But at the same time I don’t want historical events and attitudes to hijack or distract from my storyline.
Part of me (admittedly, the hyper-critical and anxiety-ridden part) thinks that a REAL writer would know, instinctually, how to blend history with modernity. I wrestle with that voice. No sage words of advice on how to deal with it. It’s there every time I open my computer to write. Just push on anyway.
Northern Skies Publishing 