Guest Author: Vali Benson
Today the Book's Delight is thrilled to have a guest post by author Vali Benson. Benson talks about how she came to be a published author, her writing process and offers research and writing tips to authors new and old.
Blood and Silver by Vali Benson
Author Details:
My First Novel:
A Process
By
Vali Benson
I always felt that I was meant to be a
writer but I never had the time or focus to earnestly pursue it. Then, ten
years ago, I sold my business and “retired”. My passion for writing hadn’t gone
anywhere so I finally sat down at my computer. I had a lifetime of ideas and
since I finally had some time on my hands, I decided to bring some of them to
life. My name is Vali Benson and I just had my first novel published.
For my first novel, I decided to explore
an idea that I had nurtured for years. My goal was to craft a narrative that took
place in the past but where the characters deal with modern day issues.
However, I was having trouble finding a setting for my story. Then I remembered
a piece of advice I was handed many years ago. As a young schoolgirl growing up
in the Midwest, a great teacher told me, “Write about what’s in your own
backyard.” I took her advice and turned in an award winning essay. That advice was
the inspiration in writing my book; a young adult historical fiction novel
called Blood and Silver. The story
takes place in Tombstone, Arizona. For thirty years, I have lived in Tucson,
Arizona. Tombstone is only forty five minutes down the road, practically backyard
distance.
I have been to Tombstone many times.
People are fascinated with Tombstone (not so much after they visit!). Tombstone
is not like other “Wild West” tourist towns, like Deadwood or Dodge City.
Tombstone has only two blocks of “downtown”. People walk on the original
boardwalk (with some repairs) along the main thoroughfare, Allen Street, which
was, until recently, a dirt road.
However, Tombstone does have one enduring
claim to fame - the shoot out at the O.K. Corral. It is called “the most famous thirty seconds
in the history of the American West”. The legendary incident is a gunfight that
occurred in 1881. The shoot out involved Doc Holiday, Wyatt Earp and two Earp
brothers against a gang of outlaws called the Cowboys. Three men were killed,
all of them Cowboys. The Earps and Doc Holiday were already famous in the old
west. The gunfight made them infamous.
The real reason people remember
Tombstone is because of its enduring place in pop culture due to the twenty or
so movies made about the fight. People show up from far and wide and pay a $10
admission fee to look at a dusty, dirty lot behind a run-down barn. At the
actual site, people look at mannequins standing where their real life versions
stood during that fateful afternoon 139 years ago.
Putting compelling sentences together
was not my problem. The difficulty arose when I needed to create a vibrant
world for my characters that was not only interesting but also historically
accurate. This began my off-and-on ten year process to complete my book. This
is when I made the transition from a creative person who writes to a writer.
It is all about the research. One
needs to look in unusual places, not just the top three Google hits. I love
sourcing museums, libraries, newspaper archives, and even historical homes.
Don’t rely on your computer only. Everyone can get that information. Not only
is it not original, it is not interesting. One tip that I would like to
emphasize to a burgeoning writer of historical fiction is to seek out the
primary sources whenever possible. This allows you to not have to depend on
someone else’s version of the truth.
I immersed myself in research until I
felt I had enough of a foundation to build my historically accurate yet fictitious
setting. After building my world, I applied my plot and inserted my characters.
Because I had taken the time to ensure that every aspect of my world would be
historically accurate, the attitudes and tones of my characters occurred
organically. I simply placed my fictional characters into historically correct
settings and let them take me where they wanted to go.
Many writers believe in outlines as a
method of organizing and categorizing their research. Outlines don’t work for
me. I tend to be too specific and end up writing the whole story in my
outline. What works best for me is to
simply write. Just start, and see where
it takes you. I flesh out the characters
first. I often go back and change them,
but that’s the beauty of writing. You
can do whatever you want with your people, just be sure you wind it up so that
it makes sense.
This is why research is so important,
because if I can understand the times in which my characters live, I will shape
their circumstances and attitudes into the narrative.
People have asked me, “when is your
story finished”? It is finished when you think it is. Before you begin, you will know where you
will end up. If you don’t, don’t
start. You need to have an idea where
you are going and create your character’s journey. If your story is crafted
with an interesting premise and told in an entertaining mode, people will care
about your characters. If people care about your characters, they will care if
they complete their journey.
My novel, “Blood and Silver”, tells
the tale of a young girl who finds herself in trouble and alone in 1880 in
Tombstone. The heroine uses her wits and charm to carve out a new life for
herself and her sick mother. I knew where I wanted my characters to end up
before I started; all I had to do was get them there.
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