My NaBlo posts are in the form of letters to my journal about my revision process. Along the way, I'll include Home-Made Revision Workshop posts, and my Friday Challenges.
an aside: the photo from yesterday was not mine - it is by a Dutch guy who's name I couldn't fathom on his all Dutch site. He said it was OK to use it though - I'm being mega careful these days when people are so lah-di-dah about taking other's work. I'll try and find it and the link today. I need to look at photos as it is has been a long time since I was at the place I'm writing about. eek.
Dear Journal,
Yesterday I got one chapter done. I'm pleased though, because I had a very busy day. And I didn't use my hard-copy journal. No, I didn't. I did think about things and I have lots of ideas, but they are just ruminating around with the images and delight of reading more Sharon Butala. Now, I really want to go to the location.
Journal, I have a question for you or my subconscious. Why did my protagonist leave the delightful Nova Scotia location I know so well - near where I've lived for the past 35 years? What is it that I needed to work out here? To give you some context, I am an Air Force brat. I was born not too far from the area I'm writing about, in gorgeous Medicine Hat, Alberta. But we only lived there until I was two or maybe even younger. Then it was on to Rivers, Manitoba; Edmonton, Alberta; Osgoode and Ottawa, Ontario ; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Oakville, Ontario; and back to Ottawa. We didn't even go back to Alberta except to drive a few times to British Columbia. We would go to Manitoba but that isn't as far west. But still, that rolling prairie is in my blood. Both my parents are Manitobans - Manitoba is more farm, less ranch, though my Mum's mother was a ranch-wife in her second marriage. Yep, my grandma married a cowboy! Yeehaw! When I was a grown woman, my second husband and I moved from Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. For the years I was there, he and I would ramble in the truck through the mountains, camping and hiking. We didn't go as far as the area I'm writing about - though Nelson, BC, also figures in this novel and we went there a number of times, and even considered moving there.
I seriously tried to get my protagonist to stay in Nova Scotia but she is even more stubborn than me, and so insisted on moving to Alberta less than half-way through the book. And before that, she visited for a couple of chapters. I felt bad that I was writing about a place that I don't know that well, and about the Blackfoot which I know not at all, except through writings and research. I say felt instead of feel because I don't feel that way any more. I've given in to her desire to be on that land - the land becomes a very important part of the story.
Because of a reversal of fortune in our lives, my guy and I won't be travelling to Paris and Basque this spring - perhaps I can somehow get a grant to travel to Alberta. Any ideas out there?
And now, I must get to work. I'll give you a photo I took of the prairies near where my Dad grew up.
4 comments:
That is a totally stunning photo!
Thanks Bish, I painted it in oils a few years back but without the cows! They were too much for me. I remember how curious they were when my sister, Jude, and I approached to take the photo!
I thought the photo was a tourist post card. Good job.
characters and location always somehow go together or the one effects the other, though I'm not very good with writing about locations.
great photo.
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