NaNoWriMo 2016

November was an interesting month for me. My parents visited for a week and we painted the main living area, which has made the house look much warmer. A family of nine stayed for a weekend which was simultaneously exhausting and refreshing because I got to play with my favorite children. My husband was home and not working for a total of four days. And then, like every November, there was NaNoWriMo.

This is the third year in a row that I've participated and probably the most successful year of all. There were four days where I was unable to write at all and six more that I wrote under 1,000 words. That means that there were twenty days which I was able to devote my entire attention to writing 50,000 words. And I still managed to reach the goal. Oh and my computer died in the middle of the month. I almost lost half a chapter because it froze suddenly and never worked right again. That was fun.

That might not sound very impressive but for me, writing 2,500 words a day is difficult. I have to force myself to focus (aka. get off Facebook and ignore my longing to play Civilization V) in order to reach my goal and most days I did just that. I record how many words I've written each day because I love looking at statistics. My lowest days were always the one that I was unable to devote a good chunk of my day toward writing. November 26th was my lowest day (I went shopping and to a concert; it's amazing I wrote at all) with 683 words. My highest day, ironically, was the following day, November 27th, with 4,397 words. I think I was overcompensating for not reaching my goal the previous day but in reality it was one really long chapter. My total was 53,300 words. I wish I had planned it to come out so evenly but that was unintentional.

Starting NaNoWriMo right with coffee and essential oils to encourage creativity.

The synopsis for this novel is unlike most historical fiction, in my opinion. Most historical fiction novels (particularly those set in the Regency Era) detail a single woman's quest for a husband, but what happens after the wealthy son of a baronet proposes and they live happily ever after? Marriage isn't always the Instagram-worthy picture of perfection, like a lot of fiction makes it look like. If you think Mr. Darcy and Lizzy or Mr. Rochester and Jane never argued (you know, if they weren't fictional characters) then your view of marriage is unrealistic. So my goal was to paint a realistic picture of marriage -- one where all a person's flaws are laid out on the table and where the couple must sort through their issues together.

Cecilia Blackwell thought that she married Mr. Henry Blackwell, Member of Parliament for Lancashire, out of love but her first month of marriage proves that Mr. Blackwell's last priority is his wife. When she is left alone for months at a time, she consoles herself with reading political treatise and riding her horse across the desolate, lonely Lancashire Moors. She meets Mr. Douglas Middleton, the younger son of a baronet, and he instantly falls in love with Cecilia despite his knowledge of her marriage. She pushes him away multiple times until she realizes that, in her husband's absence, he is her only friend. Cecilia struggles with infidelity but refuses to give in to that temptation. Mr. Blackwell's best friend, Lord Greystone, invites her to visit and at a party the two Parliamentarians discover that Cecilia is not only educated on politics but she is also shrewd and persuasive. Eager to use her abilities for the Whig cause, Cecilia visits London while Parliament is in session. She and Mr. Blackwell quarrel multiple times over her education and it causes a great rift between them. They both must humble themselves or they risk estrangement and potential scandal that could be detrimental to Mr. Blackwell's career.

Normally I write Regency stories that aren't dated except for general references to major events or people, like Napoleon who terrorized a bulk of the era. I quickly realized that this wouldn't be possible for this novel. Since Mr. Blackwell is a Member of Parliament and Cecilia's vast political knowledge is a crucial part of the plot, it is difficult to be vague. I placed the novel post-Napoleon because everyone knows so much about the Napoleonic Wars but not so much about the struggles of post-war England. Haphazardly I chose for it to begin in 1818 and I didn't realize how much was going on politically during that time. Poor crop yields in 1817 caused a recession. This was aggravated by the Corn Laws, a tariff on incoming grains meant to prop up British grain production and sales. This was a Tory scheme proposed by Thomas Malthus. The Whigs and David Ricardo violently opposed this, particularly in light of the famine, and pushed for free trade. (The Corn Laws were not revoked until 1846.) There was an election in June-July of 1818 in which the Whigs gained a few seats but the Tories retained overwhelming power. (The Tories had a firm grasp on the House of Commons from 1783-1834 with only three Whig Prime Ministers for a total of five years. In 1834 the Tory party broke down and transformed into the Conservative party; the Whig party followed suite in 1859 becoming the Liberal party. Can you imagine a single party retaining power for fifty years?)

Also during this time there were debates about civil liberties and Parliamentary reform but little progress was made since those were Whig-backed projects. The result of the Tories ignoring the wants of the populace was the Peterloo Massacre in which the British Army attacked 60,000 protesters in Manchester demanding Parliamentary reform and representation for growing industrial areas. (Manchester and Lancaster had growing populations and only two Members representing them in Parliament while some declining rural areas had multiple Members representing them.) The result of this tragedy was an even greater tragedy: the Six Acts. This piece of legislation significantly limited civil liberties by outlawing large gatherings of people, increasing the punishment for political dissenters, and gave magistrates the power to search private homes and seize arms. (Some of the legislation was not revoked until as late as 2008. Manchester didn't gain representation until the Great Reform Act of 1832.) Of course, the Whigs fought this vehemently but made little progress.

In another ironic twist, I located this novel in Lancashire because I wanted the barrenness of the Moors and Cecilia's marriage to mirror each other. Imagine my surprise when I discovered in my research that during this time both Lancaster and Manchester were located in Lancashire county. (English borders have shifted over the years in relation to population and representation. It's very confusing.) The significance of the Peterloo Massacre means so much more when this occurs in Mr. Blackwell's own region. The story will end late in 1819 but I toyed with the idea of continuing it into 1820 so that I could address the Cato Street Conspiracy, an assassination attempt on the Prime Minister, the Earl of Liverpool. But I've decided that the defeat of the Whigs over the Six Acts serves my purposes perfectly.

If I didn't make this clear already, researching is one of my favorite parts of writing and my love of political and economic history really shines through in this novel. In a way, Cecilia and I are alike in our interest in economics but she was unfortunate in being born in a time where such subjects were unsuitable for a lady. (She is a big fan of David Ricardo, who was a Member of Parliament during this time, and I am planning on reading Ricardo before the end of the year, even though I'm not a huge fan of his theories.)

But politics isn't the only thing I learned about on this journey. I had to research pregnancy and childbirth because Cecilia's sister had a child later in the novel. I always thought that the "confinement" period was for a few months before giving birth, but in fact it last 4-6 weeks after the birth. The Regency period was actually one of the least restrictive eras for women and childbirth. In the Medieval period, women were oftentimes confined to their bed with all the windows shut for several months, while in the Victorian period, childbearing was considered vulgar and the moment a woman began to show signs of her pregnancy, she would remain out of society. Regency women were active until giving birth but rested afterwards. The link I found for this information can be found here.

The other interesting thing that I researched was the education process. I was trying to discover how old a man would be when he went to university, and I ended up learning even more about higher education. I always thought that the scene in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice where they show Darcy and Wickham at university together was ridiculous. Why in the world had they put Colin Firth in that horrible cap and gown? It turns out that the ridiculous cap and gown was historically accurate. Those attending university dressed according to their level of wealth. Indeed, a man of Darcy's wealth but without a title would wear a black gown with a golden tassel. The link to that information can be found here.

I realize that I'm making it sound like I did more research than writing, but it comes with the territory. One of the things that I appreciate the most in historical fiction is when everything is as accurate as possible, and one of the reasons why I despise some historical movies is because they ignore historical accuracy. It is possible to be historically accurate and create an interesting book or film.

Delenn "helps" me write. Actually she just sits on me in ways that I can't type.

Much to my disappointment, I did not finish this novel. I started NaNoWriMo with around 5,000 words and now I'm just shy of 60,000. My goal is to finish it by the end of December. I am estimating that I have at least ten chapters left. Given that I've written thirty in the last month, I think ten will be attainable. And I came up with a title which, for some reason, always seems to be the hardest part for me.

Writing a novel isn't just recording a story on paper. It's more than just creative expression. In a way, it teaches you something about yourself. It makes you realize just how talented you are, and in return it makes you thankful for those God-given talents. It's incredibly satisfying to know that you've accomplished something, even if it's not well written and only friends and family ever have a chance to enjoy that creation. I'm incredibly proud of this accomplishment and I encourage anyone who has ever had that creative spark to record your tale. You'll be amazed at how much you see yourself grow as you release your creativity and construct a story that is completely unique to you.

Goodbye until next November, NaNoWriMo.