2. What is the common length of a saga? 100,000 words and upwards. This length is to accommodate the various storylines that a saga plot usually encompasses. Anything over 150,000 words may become harder to sell, because of printing and paper costs. Usually, sagas are between 110,000 - 130,000 words in length.
3. What kind of viewpoints within a saga? Usually third person plural, often with a woman, or several women, as the main and ‘leading’ protagonists. Writers have written sagas from single third person viewpoint and from first person, but the third person plural, where the reader can enter the heads and thoughts of many characters, remains popular. Usually only the main characters’ viewpoints are explored - perhaps no more than 6 or 8. After that, readers tend to become confused and the story can lose power since the readers aren’t sure who are the main characters with whom they are expected to follow.
4. Time periods when sagas are set. ‘Period’ settings were and remain very popular - I.e. Victorian, Edwardian and World War I. These time frames have been done a lot, so it might be more difficult for a new writer to break into the saga market with those time periods. More recent time settings - WWII, 1950s, even 1960s are becoming popular.
If you want a good example of strong regional sagas based around WWII, take a look at Freda Lightfoot’s sagas. Freda specialises in regional settings, unusual occupations for her heroines and times of strife before, during and after WWII, when many women worked in jobs that had been previously done almost exclusively by men. This scenario and the time period gives Freda lots of scope for trouble and strife. In her novel ‘Gracie‘s Sin,’ she looks at women in WWII who worked in forestry land, doing what had been men’s work.
Freda researches her novels by talking to the women who worked in either the mills, or the timber areas, or whatever job her fictional characters have to do. From these talks she gains insight and the telling detail that she can thread into her work. Sometimes she is given photographs to borrow or keep. In the case of her novel ‘Gracie’s Sin,’ she was given a photo of a group of timber girls that appeared as part of the cover art of the novel.
Freda Lightfoot has a website at www.fredalightfoot.co.uk
Audrey Howard is another excellent saga writer, as are Benita Brown and Harry Bowling. Harry Bowling wrote London West End sagas full of strong, immediate settings and speech - not so much as to be impenetrable to those not from London, but enough to give a flavour. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles has written a long series of novels covering the fortunes of a particular family, (The Morland Dynasty) down from the middle ages to the present day. These are richly plotted novels that are excellent examples of the saga - the more ‘aristocratic’ type of saga. Cynthia has a website at www.twbooks.co.uk/authors/cheagles.html
For the outer reaches of the saga, and how you can adapt and extend the genre, take a look at Philippa Gregory’s ‘Wideacre’ trilogy. The first book ‘Wideacre’ has a wonderful Scarlet O’Hara ambiguous type heroine. The second novel, ‘The Favoured Child’ has many of the family elements of a saga - concern with family property, inheritance, birth-rights, family survival, births, marriages deaths - with a heroine who experiences an almost mystical union with the land that is her family’s. ‘Meridon’ completes the trilogy.
5. Conventions in sagas. These conventions have been done over and over and reappear, so if you are thinking of writing a saga you will need to apply them in a fresh way, find ways of writing about them in a fresh way.
1. Working class, lower middle class protagonists are common as the heroes and heroines of sagas, especially the regional saga. This helps reader identification. There is also an aspirational element in many sagas, where a working class hero or heroine struggles against overwhelming odds and privilege to win though. There may also be a clash of classes - working class verses upper, or perhaps working class and upper fall in love and are forbidden to see each other.
2. The heroine who is or who becomes her own woman, who develops and grows through the novel. She may have ideals from the start of come to have them. She may wish to excel ‘out of the box’ - that is, what is expected of her because of her class, or age, or experience.
3. The hero may have a similar story arc as the heroine (above) and he learns to appreciate the heroine. The brooding Heathcliffe-style hero is less popular now than in the past.
4. Characters who suffer, who learn, who are set back but usually ultimately win through. Villains may get their comeuppance.
5. Plot threads that go down through generations. A family secret. Revenge and counter-revenge. Forbidden love. Events that impact down generations. Enmity coming down generations. People living in the past and affecting the futures of themselves and their family members.
6. Heroine or hero or both may be wounded in some way - physically or psychologically - and the novel shows their healing, coming to terms. Other wounded characters within the saga may grow or diminish.
7. A ‘mirroring’ of stories down the generations - the 3 women thing, working either down the generations or as contrasting or mirroring characters all at the same time. 3 sisters. 3 cousins. 3 friends in the same street.
8. Suffering and set backs. Struggle against great odds. Grinding poverty. The good-heartedness or narrowness of other family members or neighbours.
9. Family ties and pressures - marriages, births, deaths. Whole lifetimes. Multiple subplots. A richness that readers can enjoy. Several key characters and their stories.
10. Various Cinderella type themes for both sexes. The plain girl in a society household who is made to feel useless and excluded. The young woman who wants to be a doctor when only nursing was considered acceptable for women. The man who wants to succeed in a world where privilege is considered essential. In sagas, the reader sees their struggles impact not only on themselves but on the larger family unit.
11. ‘Family’ can be thought of as extended family, or people who regard themselves as family - not just simple blood ties.
These are only guidelines and certainly not set in stone! If you want to learn more, have a look at the new blog group, Historical Saga Novels, http://historicalsaganovels.blogspot.com/ There are many wonderful writers of this rich and varied genre.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Sagas and Saga Writing
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
'Now and then': making the past seem present
How to create a living past in a historical or contemporary romance is always a challenge for me. We all live both 'in the moment' and in the past of our memories and experiences, and in my writing I aim to transport my readers to another past, whether that past is recent or long ago.
This is what I do to aid the rebuilding of the past, and what I would suggest is useful.
1. Read the contemporary accounts of the period: sagas, chronicles, Books of Hours, histories, autobiographies, biographies, newspapers. magazines, letters, local histories, children's books. Absorb the style of the language used so that you can 'echo' it in your work - not always as a direct recreation, more a flavour. Note the popular expressions, the slang, the attitudes. Then you can have your characters speak some of the slang and reflect some of the attitudes.
If available, you can also look at films of the time, radio and TV broadcasts, postcards, photographs and the messages scribbled on the backs of photographs. Again note the rhythms and kind of speech, the attitudes and beliefs, the fashions and settings. Your local history library may have an oral sound archive or local history archives. You can go there to listen and to look. Street names can be treasure troves of history and evocative in themselves. Keep an eye out for them and use them if you can.
2. If writing about the recent past, talk to those who lived through it. Ask them specific questions. What was X like? What was it like, working and living then? How did people feel? What do they remember? Again, the local archives and newspapers may be a fund of information for you.
3. Use language in the straight narrative of your fiction that does not date - unless you are attempting an entire re-creation of a period by using the language of the period. In speech you can use the slang of the time, or what you feel could be the appropriate slang of the time. Georgette Heyer did this in her Regency historical romances: she devised what she felt could pass as expressions of the time, thereby adding intimacy and immediacy to her work.
4. If writing about more distant times, be careful of using a lot of olde-worlde expressions that may actually 'break the spell' of your now-past. You can suggest a present-past by putting in occasional expressions that imply a flavour of the time. Also your characters can reflect certain common attitudes of a period via their thoughts, actions and speech.
5. People have not changed so much yet in 35000 years. We still feel the same emotions: love, hate, fear, passion. The more you create living characters, the more you will transport your reader with them into the world of their sorrows, fears, hopes, dreams, wishes, aims and loves.
6. Put the reader into the past with you. Let them savour the flavours, music, passions, fashions, the main ideas and ideals of the time. Thread in these references. If some are difficult and offensive to present day audiences, then perhaps you can places such ideas in the minds and mouths of your secondary characters, or of your main characters if you can make your lead characters compelling and appealing in other ways. Have your characters humming a popular song, or drinking frothy coffee, or eating fondue or their first prawn cocktail. Seize upon those items, songs, fashions, flavours, that tend to 'sum up' a period for present-day readers. Make it personal, too - allow the reader to feel with the character how a mini-skirt feels, how constricting a corset is, how heavy and hot a suit of armour. Always show and give the reader the experience of being and living in your 'now' past.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
I was all set to blog more about marketing and promotion, but I'm having problems with a new medication I'm taking and I just don't have the energy. Rather than miss an opportunity to share something, I've decided to post the newest review of my latest release, Sparta Rose.
Getting this book published is a story in itself. After signing with and having my first agent close her doors before anything productive happened, I was successful in signing with a second. I submitted Sparta Rose and she loved it, and after waiting several months, she contacted me and said she had found a publisher who loved my work. Although I'd never heard of the "house," I asked the questions I thought were pertinent, ready through the contract and signed on the dotted line. I later discovered that I'd been lied too, and the company was indeed another e-publisher, like the several with whom I'd already signed, and although they professed not to deal in "print on demand," that was exactly what they did. Rather than cause I scene, I honored my agreement. Unfortunately, something totally unforeseen happened and I asked for, and received my rights back to the story. The beautiful cover that had been designed for me was pulled and promptly assigned to an anthology group.
I secured a second publisher, went through editing, sat back and waited for October 2007 to come. Right before the book was due for release, the editor and owner of the company encountered family problems and put everything on hold. Rather than wait to see if things played out in my favor, I asked for and received my rights back again. The second beautiful cover fell by the wayside. Of course, you realize any good author has already been promoting a book long before it's release, so now I've promoted two covers that will never be... even entered them in the Covey awards. Do you know what a headache it is to have to pull your promotions from every site you've posted to? It sucks.
Luckily, a third publisher contracted Sparta Rose. Another editing, another wait, but at long last, Ellie's story is finally published. Eternal Press released my story this month, and I'm happy to let you sit in on her first official interview:
Our special guest this evening is Miss Roselle Fountain, the heroine from author, Ginger Simpson’s historical, Sparta Rose. Welcome, Roselle.
RF – *Fidgeting* Oh please call me Ellie. I’ve never much identified with such a flowery name. You probably can’t tell by the way I’m dressed today, but I’ve always been somewhat of a tomboy.
INT - *Laughing*. So I’ve heard. You look very nice in your flowered print—very much the lady.
RF – That’s Pa’s doing. He insisted if I was going to make an appearance, I needed to dress more high-falutin’. I’d much rather be wearing britches and boots. *Tugs at the neckline of her dress*. These things are too danged uncomfortable at times.
INT – So, Ellie, tell the readers a little about Sparta Rose.
RF – *Smiles* Well, I can’t give away too much. Ginger would skin me alive, but I’m sure she won’t mind me telling you that it’s got a little romance, a lot of western, and even more feistiness than her last historical romance. My problems begin when Pa hires Tyler Bishop as the ranch foreman. I kinda figured Pa always wanted a son, and Ty proves me right. Their relationship gets me pretty riled up. I have a bad temper at times… I think it comes from this red hair. *pulls a strand forward and grins*.
INT – So, besides your jealousy of Ty, is there any adventure involved.
RF – Oh, you bet. *Squares herself in her chair*. The polecats that live on the neighboring ranch are aiming to get Fountainhead away from Pa. Dude Bryant and his twin boys are meaner than snakes… well at least Dude and Jeb are. Joshua comes across as quiet and a follower. But, *balls hands into fists* I’ll be danged if they’re gonna get my legacy. I actually bought a gun and taught myself to shoot it.
INT – A gun? What do you plan to do with it?
RF – Protect Fountainhead of course. I’m aim to show Pa he don’t need Tyler Bishop around when he has me. I just wish Ty wasn’t so dang good lookin’.
INT – I haven’t heard you mention your mother. How does she feel about you owning a gun?
RF - *Lowers her eyes*. My ma died when I was very young. I suppose that’s why I took up with the ranch hands and spend so much time workin’ outdoors. *Raises a steely gaze*. But, now that Ty’s in the picture, Pa wants me to spend more time in the house doing womanly things.
INT – Would that be such a bad thing?
RF – Of course it would. I don’t much care for cookin’ and cleanin’. We have Cook for that. I’d much rather brand a cow as fry one.
INT – So what about the romance part of the story?
RF – *Chews her bottom lip for a moment* Well, I accompany Ty to a dance in Sparta, and as usual, he gets my dander up there, too. I never should have gone, but those eyes of his make my knees weak. My better judgment flew right out the window. *Takes a deep breath* What happens from then on, you’ll have to find out for yourself. I may look young and naïve, but I’m not silly enough to give away the whole story. Miz Ginger is counting on sales to help pay for a face lift or something like that. I wouldn't want to let her down.
INT – I certainly wouldn’t want you to. You’ve given us enough of a teaser to stir some interest. Hopefully we’ll see you on a best seller’s list somewhere.
RF – That would be right nice. It just may happen cause remember, I have a gun. *Slaps hip and fakes a draw*.
INT - Well, here’s hoping you don’t have to use it. *laughs*. Thank you so much, Ellie for being with us today. And good luck in the future.
_________________________
So far, Ellie is garnering good reviews...here's the newest I received today. Can't argue with five of these puppies.
Reviewed by Lynn for Review Your Book
Sparta Tennessee-1860
Roselle was a tomboy from the get go. Of course, she would much rather be called Ellie and drop the Rose. That was more like the name of a fine lady. When she was only 3-years-old, she lost her mother to Typhoid. With no brothers, Ellie was compelled to follow to father around.
She had learned to rope, ride, move cattle, and brand as well if not better than, some of the ranch hands. She could mend the fences and even occasionally shoe a horse if need be.
Ellie is now 17-years-old, and her father decides that she needs to start doing things around the house--inside; woman things, learning to cook, washing. How could her father, after all these years, turn her away from what she loves to do? Why was she not born a boy?
Tyler Bishop (Ty) is the main ranch hand. He has a time trying to figure out Ellie. One time, she is one of the guys so speak. Next, she is all female. All Ty know is he is bound and determined to keep her safe, and also he is falling for her.
Ellie is getting tired of Ty bossing her around and being so overly protective of her. Ellie goes out and buys a gun, and she will learn to use it.
Ellie knew that one day she will run the ranch--or will daddy turn it over to Ty? When Land buyers want to buy the ranch, Ellie is bound and determined to stop it. Will her dad and Ty see things her way?
This is a great novel, and being from Tennessee myself, I think it is beautiful around Sparta. You can’t help but learn to become involved with the characters. They seem to grow on you.
If you like a good historical romance, you will enjoy this book. The book is written with such clarity that it keeps the readers interested. You can’t help but care about Ellie, and occasionally she will even bring a smile to you.
It is listed as a Western Historical Romance, but I put it more as just Historical, Civil War Era. I found it such a interesting read that it was hard to put down until I was finished.
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