I'm currently trying to decide whether or not I feel ready for NaNo. I have a whole slew of scene cards done, and four of them are plotted and, for all I know, ready to go. I still have this feeling of not having done adequate research . . . and yet when I think of the invasion of Sicily, I have this concrete image in my mind of battle-scarred beaches, rocky pathways, and can almost inhale the strong smell of smoke and burning oil. I suppose I'm ready, then.
This story is turning out so different than I imagined, and yet I haven't even started writing yet! Research and plotting certainly changes an idea. It's like the process of baking a cake. The end result--a frosted, decorated cake--looks almost nothing like the lump of batter that it was at one time, though little has been added. It's just been shaped and molded into something different, but at the same time isn't much more than it ever was. Starting tomorrow, writing is going to be like eating the cake, savoring it piece by piece and learning if it really tastes as good as it looks. Hopefully, it will be better. (This may sound like a really lame simile, but I'm proud of myself for coming up with it so quickly.)
I probably won't get to start writing until tomorrow night. Strangely, I'm not all that excited yet. I'm wishing, instead, that I had more time to prepare. But I think it's time to write. I need to get these ideas out. What's it going to feel like, I wonder? I've never plotted out a story before writing it. This is sort of an experiment, but I've loved it so far. I'll be reaching a new door in this long journey tomorrow, and stepping through it into a wild place where imagination takes precedence over everything else. Will I survive? I have before, but only time will tell.
Unlike my previous posts, this one has become a rambling of jumbled thoughts and feelings rather than anything even remotely educational. Sorry about that. Tomorrow I hope to say much more--and in fewer words, perhaps. I'll be writing to you from Bizerte, Tunisia. Mail going back to the States is slow, but I have something that the military personnel don't have--the internet!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
A Pitch, More Research, And a Compromise
Well, I finally got that pitch done that I promised. The funny thing about pitches is that they take so little time compared to a synopsis. Not to mention, they read much better, too. I've only written one synopsis, and it was one of the most worthless pieces of writing I've ever produced. Anyway . . . here's the pitch. Maybe I'll get lucky and some editor from a place like Waterbrook or Bethany House will take a look at it. *cough*chokesonsarcasm*cough*
In The Other Battlefield, a work of historical fiction, U.S. Army surgeon Trey Whitney quickly learns that no amount of education could have ever prepared him for his work in a field hospital in the war-torn Mediterranean. It’s 1943, and when the Allies invade Sicily and then Italy, Trey’s mission to save lives threatened by violence and illness becomes a war in and of itself. Still grieving over the deaths of his wife and son four years before, he is in need of a different kind of healing—one for the festering wound of loss. Secretly sharing his need is a woman in the nursing corps, M.D. in hand, who becomes even more of an anomaly by rising to the status of his assisting surgeon. To further add to the intrigue of the 12th Field Hospital, a spy dwells among them. The dark plot of a maniacal villain slowly comes to light. As every thread weaves together to form the greatest confrontation of Trey’s life, he must learn before he loses everything that only God can heal the wounds of the heart.
I'm going to take a bet that there are some typos in there. I proof-read it, but those nasty little pests always manage to get in there anyway . . . so if you catch one, let me know.
Today had some more research in store. For instance, I learned that during the Sicilian campaign, tablets of something called Atabrine (technically called quinacrine hydrochloride) were given to Army personnel as a preventive measure against malaria. The tablets were yellow, and they had terrible side effects of nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting for the first several days of treatment. Prolonged consumption of these tablets also could cause the skin to turn yellow, according the one of the stories in Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee's And If I Perish: Frontline Army Nurses in World War II about a nurse who took Atabrine. Because of these side effects, the majority of soldiers didn't take their regular dosage and, consequently, came down with malaria.
Besides this research, I also finished character profiles for both the spy (all I can say of her right now is that her name is Emma) and Franz. Also, I did a couple mini-profiles for the supporting roles. Those profiles can be time consuming, to be sure. I'm glad they're done.
I've decided to make a compromise with myself. Since I doubt I'll have enough time to do thorough enough research for the entire novel, I'll focus on getting scene cards for Part 1 done before Thursday (the onset of NaNo). That would entail learning all that I can about Operation Husky (i.e., the invasion of Sicily). As I write througout the month of November, I'll have to designate time for research as well. So for this coming month, I'll be a student, a family member with responsibilities, a novelist, and a historian all at once. Somehow I get the feeling I won't have any free time--and not to say that's a bad thing. I'll be writing. In fact, for every one of November's 30 days, I should be happy as a clam.
In The Other Battlefield, a work of historical fiction, U.S. Army surgeon Trey Whitney quickly learns that no amount of education could have ever prepared him for his work in a field hospital in the war-torn Mediterranean. It’s 1943, and when the Allies invade Sicily and then Italy, Trey’s mission to save lives threatened by violence and illness becomes a war in and of itself. Still grieving over the deaths of his wife and son four years before, he is in need of a different kind of healing—one for the festering wound of loss. Secretly sharing his need is a woman in the nursing corps, M.D. in hand, who becomes even more of an anomaly by rising to the status of his assisting surgeon. To further add to the intrigue of the 12th Field Hospital, a spy dwells among them. The dark plot of a maniacal villain slowly comes to light. As every thread weaves together to form the greatest confrontation of Trey’s life, he must learn before he loses everything that only God can heal the wounds of the heart.
I'm going to take a bet that there are some typos in there. I proof-read it, but those nasty little pests always manage to get in there anyway . . . so if you catch one, let me know.
Today had some more research in store. For instance, I learned that during the Sicilian campaign, tablets of something called Atabrine (technically called quinacrine hydrochloride) were given to Army personnel as a preventive measure against malaria. The tablets were yellow, and they had terrible side effects of nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting for the first several days of treatment. Prolonged consumption of these tablets also could cause the skin to turn yellow, according the one of the stories in Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee's And If I Perish: Frontline Army Nurses in World War II about a nurse who took Atabrine. Because of these side effects, the majority of soldiers didn't take their regular dosage and, consequently, came down with malaria.
Besides this research, I also finished character profiles for both the spy (all I can say of her right now is that her name is Emma) and Franz. Also, I did a couple mini-profiles for the supporting roles. Those profiles can be time consuming, to be sure. I'm glad they're done.
I've decided to make a compromise with myself. Since I doubt I'll have enough time to do thorough enough research for the entire novel, I'll focus on getting scene cards for Part 1 done before Thursday (the onset of NaNo). That would entail learning all that I can about Operation Husky (i.e., the invasion of Sicily). As I write througout the month of November, I'll have to designate time for research as well. So for this coming month, I'll be a student, a family member with responsibilities, a novelist, and a historian all at once. Somehow I get the feeling I won't have any free time--and not to say that's a bad thing. I'll be writing. In fact, for every one of November's 30 days, I should be happy as a clam.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Medical Care in WWII: Organized and Effective
I put together more of my research on military medicine today, and it really is amazing how organized it was. In fact, while reading Fighting for Life: American Military Medicine in World War II (Albert E. Cowdrey) I came across these fascinating statistics: in the MTO, a quarter of those wounded in battle died before reaching treatment. However, of those who reached treatment, 96 percent lived, and of those who lived long enough to make it to hospitals, only 1.5 percent died. That says a lot for the efficiency and effectiveness of this system, especially compared to prior wars. (Think of the primitive medical treatment of the Civil War, for example.) Part of the large survival rates, however, can be attributed to the new discoveries of sulfanimide and penicillin that occurred just prior to the war, along with blood plasma and whole blood transfusions.
Here's how the chain of wounded evacuation worked: (the majority of my information is taken from this site, an extremely informative site about WWII combat medics)
1. A soldier is injured.
2. In less than a minute a telephone message is sent back to the forward Aid Station, about 300 to 1,000 yards behind the line. They send litter-bearers.
3. While waiting for the litter, the aid-man (medic) of the casualty’s company administers first aid—stopping the bleeding with sulfanilamide powder, bandaging, and giving wound pills (probably sulfanilamide) internally.
4. When the litter arrives, the casualty is carried to the nearest jeep—anywhere from 25 to 3,000 yards.
5. The casualty is rushed to the Aid Station two or three miles behind the line. The surgeon removes the first-aid bandage, makes a proper diagnosis and applies a more permanent bandage. Blood plasma and morphine are administered if needed (the latter only in severe cases). The patient is made comfortable and given coffee.
6. The casualty is taken to the clearing station, far in the rear, by ambulance. If his wounds are to his head, chest, abdomen, or thighbone (femur), then he receives emergency surgery at the field hospital. (Men who were only slightly wounded were treated at this point and returned to duty.)
7. Eventually (after several days’ stay in the field hospital tents, if surgery was necessary) the casualty arrives via ambulance at the evacuation hospital, where first-class attention is administered. If he’s likely to recover soon, then he remains there until he can return to duty.
8. If the casualty won’t recover soon, he’s sent to a general hospital, and then back home to the U.S.
Written in paragraph form, it was hard to get my mind around everything, so I turned it into this list. It's been helpful. I'm so glad there's a lot of information out there about WWII medicine--wow! My job hasn't been difficult, just really . . . involved.
*yawns* So ends another long afternoon of research. I just ordered the book Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. The guy who wrote it won the Pulitzer Prize for more than one of his other books, and this new one (it just came out this month) has great reviews. I stopped by Borders yesterday so I could look through it. The volume is pretty big, but it covers everything I need to know about for my novel. As a bonus, the narrative flows and it's easy to read. The Borders price was $35. Go figure. That store is SO elitist (hooray for liberalism). Luckily, I got it on Amazon for about $21, and it should be here on Thursday.
I have a bunch of books from the library that I'll probably end up buying, but I really don't need to purchase them until after November. A few of them are must-haves for revision--I can't keep re-checking them out of the library!
More updates to come soon. I'm thinking that I may not get my scene cards done until one or two days before NaNo starts.
Here's how the chain of wounded evacuation worked: (the majority of my information is taken from this site, an extremely informative site about WWII combat medics)
1. A soldier is injured.
2. In less than a minute a telephone message is sent back to the forward Aid Station, about 300 to 1,000 yards behind the line. They send litter-bearers.
3. While waiting for the litter, the aid-man (medic) of the casualty’s company administers first aid—stopping the bleeding with sulfanilamide powder, bandaging, and giving wound pills (probably sulfanilamide) internally.
4. When the litter arrives, the casualty is carried to the nearest jeep—anywhere from 25 to 3,000 yards.
5. The casualty is rushed to the Aid Station two or three miles behind the line. The surgeon removes the first-aid bandage, makes a proper diagnosis and applies a more permanent bandage. Blood plasma and morphine are administered if needed (the latter only in severe cases). The patient is made comfortable and given coffee.
6. The casualty is taken to the clearing station, far in the rear, by ambulance. If his wounds are to his head, chest, abdomen, or thighbone (femur), then he receives emergency surgery at the field hospital. (Men who were only slightly wounded were treated at this point and returned to duty.)
7. Eventually (after several days’ stay in the field hospital tents, if surgery was necessary) the casualty arrives via ambulance at the evacuation hospital, where first-class attention is administered. If he’s likely to recover soon, then he remains there until he can return to duty.
8. If the casualty won’t recover soon, he’s sent to a general hospital, and then back home to the U.S.
Written in paragraph form, it was hard to get my mind around everything, so I turned it into this list. It's been helpful. I'm so glad there's a lot of information out there about WWII medicine--wow! My job hasn't been difficult, just really . . . involved.
*yawns* So ends another long afternoon of research. I just ordered the book Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. The guy who wrote it won the Pulitzer Prize for more than one of his other books, and this new one (it just came out this month) has great reviews. I stopped by Borders yesterday so I could look through it. The volume is pretty big, but it covers everything I need to know about for my novel. As a bonus, the narrative flows and it's easy to read. The Borders price was $35. Go figure. That store is SO elitist (hooray for liberalism). Luckily, I got it on Amazon for about $21, and it should be here on Thursday.
I have a bunch of books from the library that I'll probably end up buying, but I really don't need to purchase them until after November. A few of them are must-haves for revision--I can't keep re-checking them out of the library!
More updates to come soon. I'm thinking that I may not get my scene cards done until one or two days before NaNo starts.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Research, Research, and More Research
That's sort of been my unspoken motto for the last few days. This afternoon has probably been the most grueling stint of research, though, and I was only working for two, maybe two-and-a-half hours. I think I'm close to finally understanding the chain of casualty evacuation in the army during WWII. Don't ask me to verbalize it yet, though--I'm still trying to work through all the details. But it's coming.
Now I can finally give you a little blurb about next month's novel: It takes place during the MTO (Mediterranean Theater of Operations--the campaigns of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy) of World War II. Trey Whitney, the protagonist, is a surgeon assigned to a field hospital that begins in Tunisia (North Africa) in 1943 and then goes on to Sicily and the Italian mainland. Still grieving over the deaths of his wife and son four years earlier, the novel's reoccurring theme and symbol is healing--both external (his duties as surgeon) and internal (recovering from the loss of his family). On a broader scale, the novel includes Sheila Blooming, a woman with a medical degree who joined the nursing corps because the army wouldn't take her as a commissioned surgeon. A romance between the two doctors ensues in due time. Nurses Maureen Reid and Julie Smith along with another surgeon, Ed Kipp--Trey's long-time friend--complete the supporting cast. The role of antagonist falls to a fanatical Nazi, Franz Vogler, the mastermind of a vicious plot that involves Trey's field hospital.
Sorry if that sounds too academic. LOL As you can see, I'm still trying to get everything worked out. My goal is that Sheila will actually be working as a surgeon near the beginning of the novel. How I'm going to turn her from a nurse into a surgeon, however, is going to be an interesting stretch. In 1943, the army DID start commissioning women doctors, but from what I can tell, they were only in the Women's Army Corps. Thank goodness that fiction has no bounds! I'll still need to find some way, though, to make the change--an inaccuracy, to be sure--sound plausible.
Also, I'm still not sure how Franz's little "spy network" is going to play out. That's one point of research that is, as of yet, untouched (learning about the medical corps and field hospitals has been an adventure in and of itself). I could tell you more about him, but if I did, I'd spoil one of the mysteries of the story. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll have a pitch paragraph to share with you that will tell you a bit more about the central conflict of the story.
Until my next update . . . Ta-ta!
Now I can finally give you a little blurb about next month's novel: It takes place during the MTO (Mediterranean Theater of Operations--the campaigns of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy) of World War II. Trey Whitney, the protagonist, is a surgeon assigned to a field hospital that begins in Tunisia (North Africa) in 1943 and then goes on to Sicily and the Italian mainland. Still grieving over the deaths of his wife and son four years earlier, the novel's reoccurring theme and symbol is healing--both external (his duties as surgeon) and internal (recovering from the loss of his family). On a broader scale, the novel includes Sheila Blooming, a woman with a medical degree who joined the nursing corps because the army wouldn't take her as a commissioned surgeon. A romance between the two doctors ensues in due time. Nurses Maureen Reid and Julie Smith along with another surgeon, Ed Kipp--Trey's long-time friend--complete the supporting cast. The role of antagonist falls to a fanatical Nazi, Franz Vogler, the mastermind of a vicious plot that involves Trey's field hospital.
Sorry if that sounds too academic. LOL As you can see, I'm still trying to get everything worked out. My goal is that Sheila will actually be working as a surgeon near the beginning of the novel. How I'm going to turn her from a nurse into a surgeon, however, is going to be an interesting stretch. In 1943, the army DID start commissioning women doctors, but from what I can tell, they were only in the Women's Army Corps. Thank goodness that fiction has no bounds! I'll still need to find some way, though, to make the change--an inaccuracy, to be sure--sound plausible.
Also, I'm still not sure how Franz's little "spy network" is going to play out. That's one point of research that is, as of yet, untouched (learning about the medical corps and field hospitals has been an adventure in and of itself). I could tell you more about him, but if I did, I'd spoil one of the mysteries of the story. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll have a pitch paragraph to share with you that will tell you a bit more about the central conflict of the story.
Until my next update . . . Ta-ta!
Friday, October 19, 2007
Just Two More Weeks . . .
Well, I'm trying to get the idea into my head that I only have two more weeks until NaNo begins. Yikes! I'm still in the midst of getting the plot figured out, and though I feel really confident about the whole thing right now, I hope I'll feel that way on November 1.
After all . . . what am I thinking?! I decided to do historical fiction this year because I wanted to write something that I could actually publish one day. Contemporary fiction was okay last year, but it ended up being blah, and I don't have any good contemporary ideas right now. I thought about fantasy, too, but I really don't want to publish a fantasy novel. I just don't think I have the right kind of an imagination for fantasy. I do better to keep myself in the real world.
That said, I'm still waiting on books from the library that will supplement my research. I have--I think--all the info I need on what was going on at the time of the story, but I don't have the little details that would pertain to what my characters are doing at that point. Also, I still need to develop the antagonist. Franz hasn't told me too much about himself yet, except that he's a radical. From my own observations, he's a little "tetched" in the head. But he's still smart . . . eerily so.
The major complications to the plot are worked out, along with the stakes--personal and public--so I'm not too worried about that. I'll likely get more ideas when I'm writing it, but that's to be expected. I'm not one to stifle creativity, though I'm huge stickler for outlines. And I still have yet to do index card stuff. In fact, I think I'll leave that for the last.
I'm so excited I can hardly wait, but I hope these two weeks go by slowly for the sake of a well-developed novel.
Oh! And I almost forgot. Soon I'll post a little synopsis so y'all can know what my story is about. I need to get the majority of it worked out first, though.
After all . . . what am I thinking?! I decided to do historical fiction this year because I wanted to write something that I could actually publish one day. Contemporary fiction was okay last year, but it ended up being blah, and I don't have any good contemporary ideas right now. I thought about fantasy, too, but I really don't want to publish a fantasy novel. I just don't think I have the right kind of an imagination for fantasy. I do better to keep myself in the real world.
That said, I'm still waiting on books from the library that will supplement my research. I have--I think--all the info I need on what was going on at the time of the story, but I don't have the little details that would pertain to what my characters are doing at that point. Also, I still need to develop the antagonist. Franz hasn't told me too much about himself yet, except that he's a radical. From my own observations, he's a little "tetched" in the head. But he's still smart . . . eerily so.
The major complications to the plot are worked out, along with the stakes--personal and public--so I'm not too worried about that. I'll likely get more ideas when I'm writing it, but that's to be expected. I'm not one to stifle creativity, though I'm huge stickler for outlines. And I still have yet to do index card stuff. In fact, I think I'll leave that for the last.
I'm so excited I can hardly wait, but I hope these two weeks go by slowly for the sake of a well-developed novel.
Oh! And I almost forgot. Soon I'll post a little synopsis so y'all can know what my story is about. I need to get the majority of it worked out first, though.
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