[stylist] Irish novel, historical fiction and POV

Sun Apr 22 18:58:39 UTC 2012

Jackie I am with you on this Follett thing.  I was forced to read pillars
for one of my western siv classes as it didn't sound interesting to me.  I
red the big book in two days  because I put it off so long.  It was so good
to me and It made me read all his other work.  Bridgit I am sorry you didn't
like those books but all of his work is so different and yet similar.  What
didn't you like about the books, as that will determine if you might like
others of his work.  I love his character development and the way he makes
you understand all points of view.  It does not happen with the pillars
character William, I was defanatly not saddened by his outcome.  However in
most all of his other books you get a since of each character even the ones
you don't like.  He mostly focuses on world war 2 but he branches off even
righting one non fiction about the rescue of IDS workers imprisoned  in
Iran, though this is not my favorite Follett book.  The stories are all
different from one another but the way he builds his characters' is always
the same except his early work which was not as good in my opinion.  If it
was something about the story itself I might suggest reading another of his
works but if it was his character development then you will be disappointed
with all of it.  As far as form I do need to play around with different
styles I am not diverse in this way.  I have really only found success in
two forms but would like to play around with more.  Do you remember any
exercises you did in the classes you took that encouraged changing forms?

Andi

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jacqueline Williams
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 2:20 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Irish novel, historical fiction and POV

Andi and Bridgit,
I have not been following this stream about Irish material closely, but one
book title really grabbed. Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth.
I read it many years ago, and it made me want to read all of his books.
Medieval castles have fascinated me ever since, as I picture the time and
work that went into them, and how people lived during that long space of
time.
It was a time of delayed gratification, and mini-steps toward a goal way in
the future.
Jackie

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 9:50 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Irish novel, historical fiction and POV

Andi,

I have only read two Ken Follett books, Pillars of the Earth and the sequel,
World Without End. I love most historical fiction and sponge it up as well,
but I must admit I didn't enjoy these books so much. Long doesn't bother me
as long as I find the story interesting and compelling, but I found it
difficult to carry on with these two books, though I did finish both. I'm
not against checking out other Follett books however. Even my favorite
authors have books I don't find as interesting.

I'm really into the medieval time period as well so was surprised when I
just didn't enjoy these Follett novels, but again, I may enjoy some of his
other books.

Morgan Llewellyn is one of my favorite Irish contemporary writers, though
she tends to mix fantasy and magical realism within her historical fiction.
She often focuses on legend heroes such as Cuchulainn, Finn Mac Cool  and
Grania who have a real historical basis, but she also writes about more
solid Irish and Celtic figures such as Brian Boru. She wrote 1916, which is
about a lot of Irish issues revolving around the IRB and the eventual Easter
uprising. Not one of my favorite Llewellyn novels, but still good. Red
Branch is really good as are Druids and Lion of Ireland. She also writes
research articles along with collaborating on historical texts.

I myself constantly switch POV never sticking to one over another. I just
start writing and POV comes out as it wants. I tend to use first-person or
third-person limited, but I like to play with second-person and using the
POV  of different characters perhaps not always thought of as a character
who we would se the story through. For example, I wrote a short story
combining various fairy-tales, and though I never actually stated a name, a
Glinda-like character ( as in Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz)
was the narrator of the entire story. It was a tongue-in-cheek sarcastic
story.

With nonfiction though, I tend to experiment more with POV than I do with
fiction. I have written my nonfiction from a second-person POV to even using
a third-person limited or omniscient. I really enjoy playing with form, and
while at university, we were encouraged to do this.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/

"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 4
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:11:17 -0400
From: "Andi" <adrianne.dempsey at gmail.com>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Irish novel
Message-ID: <4f921761.e30b320a.0c97.1867 at mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Thank you Bridgit, I never know if one of my ideas is worth writing about as
what I think is fasenating may not be a shared interest by others.  I
realize this story will not be every ones cup of tea but I am glad you think
it might be interesting, that gives me hope that others might to.  I know
the Irish famine is a commonly told story but like I said I hope to
accomplish incorporating some of the things not as well known about the
time.  As far as character development goes I usually tell stories from the
prospective of the person but it is still in third person.  I think you get
a double perspective that way.  I like to switch prospective so you can
really get in each of their heads, really feel their emotions.  I guess it
is kind of like a Follett book if you ever read him.  I don't copy him but I
do take a lot of my lessons from reading his books.  I love how he can make
you feel empathy for all of his characters' even if you want to hate some
you cant completely.
Their was only one character of his maybe two in different books that I
found no sympathy for.  However in most of his books he has you loathing a
character only to root him on later.  It really brings a since of humanity
to his stories.  I love it because it is more realistic than a clear line of
good and evil.  In the real world there is no such line, because everyone
has a story.  I guess I want to make an impact in the way he does by both
having relatable characters' and yet get the history to be felt by the
reader.  Follett really is the reason I started righting historical fiction.
I have always been interested in history and soak it up like a sponge but
his books gave me a hole knew understanding of the times and places he
writes about because you live it through the characters as if you were
their.  If you have never read Ken Follett I recommend his books everything
he writes is amazing excepts his first few books but even he agrees they
were not as good.
His first good book was eye of the needle then they just kept being amazing.
The sequel to fall of giants comes out some time this year to.

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