"Roundheads and Ramblings"

point of view

The Road to Frogmore -- The Inspiration

Posted on Tuesday, June 06, 2017 8:13 AM

Whose Story Is It? Laura's? Or Rina's?

I began this book as an exercise in speedy writing. When I wrote my 50,000 words of “Gideon’s Ladies” for National Novel Writing Month” (NaNoWriMo), I typed away without ever considering point of view. The result was a mish mash. Each day’s output had a slightly different focus, and a second reading revealed that I had no idea where I was going.

The story of the Port Royal missionaries is, of course, a mish mash in itself. People come and go. Leadership changes. The events of the Civil War affect what is happening in the Low Country with unexpected results. The missionaries become involved in one dispute after another, and their alliances change with every change in the political winds that blow through their affairs.

I began to understand the magnitude of the problem when I tried to use Randy Ingermanson’s “Snowﬂake Pro” software to outline my novel. It’s a 10-step program, and I only made it to step two before I knew I was lost. Step Two asked for a one-paragraph synopsis of the story: the set-up, the disasters that occur, and the ending. Sounds simple, right? Hah! Story takes place in South Carolina during the Civil War. OK. That’s the set-up. So far, so good.

Now for disasters. Those we have in abundance. Storms, raids, murders, boll weevils, smallpox, yellow fever, vandalism, ﬁstﬁghts, searing heat, killing frosts, hangings, invasions, battles, conﬂicting laws, drownings—the list goes on and on. But whose disasters are they?

The emancipation proclamation is a disaster for the cotton agent whose workers walk off the job to celebrate their freedom.
A threat of invasion is a disaster for the missionaries whose sponsors call them home, but it’s a victory for the plantation owner who sees the slave schools close and his ﬁeld hands come back to work.
The failure of a cotton crop because of worm infestation is a disaster for the cotton farmer but a blessing for the ﬁeld hand, who can now devote full time to the crops that will feed his family through the winter.
The missionary-teachers celebrate the ﬁring of a corrupt cotton agent, who must return home in disgrace.
The cotton agents smile when they see a prominent minister recalled for lining his own pockets with money that should have gone to the plantations. It all depends on your point of view.

I began to ﬁnd my way when I started asking the right questions. Whose story is this? Who is most affected by the events? Who has the most to lose?

I thought I knew that my focus would fall on Laura Towne, the founder of the Penn Center, but she was not yet in the area when some of the crucial events took place. In almost every case, the slaves were the ones whose lives were being turned upside down. But could I write the story from the slaves’ point of view? That would be a real stretch, for a couple of reasons.

First, there is almost no evidence of what the slaves thought about the goings-on in the Low Country during the Civil War. It would be accurate to say they were confused, I suppose, but there is no actual evidence to back up even that claim. Because it was against state law to teach a slave to read or write, there are almost no letters or diaries. Most of the slaves spoke the Gullah language among themselves. The ﬁrst whites who came to work with them found them almost unintelligible. With no record of what they thought, I would be unwilling to trust my creative ability to ﬁctionalize their attitudes.

Second, the slaves were not in a position to understand much of what was going on around them. Even if we could ﬁnd some record of their reactions, they were limited because no one had ever told them about politics, or military strategy, or religious differences. Some of them had heard about Baby Jesus and Uncle Sam, but they had no real understanding of those concepts. Their white masters had wanted them kept as ignorant as possible because a lack of knowledge kept them from rising up in revolt. No, the slaves would not do as the narrators of my story.

And yet, I needed to tell part of the story from their point of view! As I struggled to deal with this issue, I realized that I did have a bit of evidence about the slaves after all. In the Laura Towne diary and letters, Laura makes repeated references to Rina, the woman who does her laundry and ironing for a small salary. Rina held an important place in the slave matriarchy, evidenced by the fact that when the slaves assembled for a “Shout,” they did so at Rina’s cabin.

Laura, too, found that Rina was invaluable. The diary echoes with one phrase—“Rina tells me that. . . .” As trust built up between the two women, Rina became Laura’s window into the world of the slaves. Rina also functioned in the book as something of a one-woman Greek chorus, commenting on the events of the day and the foolishness of the white people around her.

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Point of View, Part 2: Whose Story Is This, Anyway?

Posted on Tuesday, April 05, 2011 10:38 AM

Whose story is being told in The Road to Frogmore? Who is most affected by the events? Who has the most to lose? I thought I knew that my focus would fall on Laura Towne, the founder of the Penn Center, but she was not yet in the area when some of the crucial events took place. In almost every case, the slaves were the ones whose lived were being turned upside down. But could I write the story from the slaves' point of view? That would be a real stretch, for a couple of reasons.

First, there is almost no evidence of what the slaves thought about the goings on in the Low Country during the Civil War. It would be accurate to say they were confused, I suppose, but there is no evidence to back up even that claim. It was against state law to teach a slave to read or write, so there are no letters or diaries. Most of the slaves spoke the Gullah language among themselves, so the first whites who came to work with them found them almost intelligible. With no record of what they thought, I would be unwilling to trust my creative ability to fictionalize their attitudes.

Second, the slaves in South Carolina were not in a position to understand much of what was going on around them. This was especially true in the Low Country , where fear of slave uprisings lead the plantation owners to keep their slaves as much in the dark as possible. Even if we could find some record of their reactions, they were limited because no one had ever let them know about politics, or military strategy, or religious differences. Some of them had heard about Baby Jesus and Uncle Sam, but they had no real understanding of those concepts. Their white masters had wanted them kept as ignorant as possible because they knew that knowledge would make them dangerous. No, the slaves will not do as the narrators of my story. And yet . . . .

And yet, I need their point of view! As I struggled to deal with this issue, I realized that I do have a bit of evidence about the slaves after all. In the Laura Towne diary and letters, Laura makes repeated references to Rina, the woman who did her laundry and ironing for a small salary. Rina held an important place in the slave matriarchy, evidenced by the fact that when the slaves assemble for a "Shout," they did so at Rina's cabin. Laura, too, found that Rina was invaluable. The diary echoes with one phrase — "Rina tells me that. . . . " As trust built up between the two women, Rina became Laura's window into the world of the slaves. Rina also functioned as something of a one-woman Greek chorus, commenting on the events of the day and the foolishness of the people around her.

Once I understood Rina's role in my story, the point of view decision became clear. This book will use a mixed point of view. Rina's comments and stories will appear in short chapters written in first person. Laura's diary provides a close enough approximation to allow me to record Rina's own words, and I must let her speak for herself. But she cannot speak about all the ideological differences that erupt into crisis points in the story. Since she does not understand what the cotton agents are trying to accomplish, their part of the story must appear in a third-person narrative. The same is true of the soldiers and of the missionaries who come to South Carolina from a variety of backgrounds and with diverse motives.

Because there are so many stories to be told, I plan to use a limited third person point of view for all of the characters except Rina. Each chapter will clearly designate the character who appears as the subject of that chapter. Switching the point of view will allow the reader to relate to one character at a time as the focus shifts to those who are most affected by events at any given time.

The result, I hope, will allow the reader a clearer understanding of what the Gideonite Experiment was all about. When Rina speaks, she knows only what her own experiences have taught her. She may make assumptions about the other characters, but she will be presenting a single opinion that is already formed. She speaks her mind, allowing the reader to understand her, even if the truths she speaks are unwelcome. When the book turns to the people who surround Rina, the third person point of view allows the reader to form his own opinion about each of the characters because it offers many views.

And that, I think, will be the real message of the book. It will present as dispassionately as possible the ideological clashes that make up the great divide during the Civil War. It will not choose between North and South, Evangelical and Unitarian, abolitionist and slave owner, civilian and soldier, businessman and humanitarian, states rights advocate and federalist.

The one constant feature will be the voice of Rina, reminding the reader that she is the one with the most to lose when the people around her make the wrong choices.

Point of View, Part 1: Anybody Have a Map?

Posted on Sunday, April 03, 2011 1:54 PM

You can't figure out how to get to where you're going until you know where you're starting from. That may sound like a formula for a travel column, but it applies equally well to the design of a book. It also applies equally to the writer and to the reader. It's called establishing a point of view. If the writer has not decided on a point of view, the resulting book will wander around from character to character without focus. And if the reader cannot recognize the point of view, the story will make little sense.

There are actually five points of view from which to choose:

·      First-person — classic "I" narrative
·      Second-person — "You" approach, which tries to draw the reader into participating in the story
·      Third-person-limited — in which each character knows only his or her own reactions or experiences. "He" has a conversation, but the reader only knows what "He" is thinking.
·      Third-person-omniscient — "He said; She thought." The author knows what is going on in everyone's mind, which can be very confusing if there are many characters in a story.
·      Mixed-POV — in which the lead character narrates her own experiences, while separate chapters in third-person reveal what else is happening.

I've been hung up over this kind of decision for weeks. When I wrote my 50,000 words of "Gideon's Ladies" for National Novel Writing Month" (NaNoWriMo), I just typed away, without ever considering point of view. The result was a mishmash. Each day's output had a slightly different focus, and a second reading revealed that I had no idea where I was going.

The story of the Port Royal missionaries is, of course, a mishmash in itself. People come and go. Leadership changes. The events of the Civil War impinge on what is happening in the Low Country with unexpected results. The missionaries become involved in one dispute after another, and their alliances change with every change in the political winds that blow through their affairs.

I began to understand the magnitude of the problem when I tried to use Randy Ingermanson's "Snowflake Pro" software to outline my novel. It's a 10-step program, and I only made it to step two before I knew I was lost. Step Two asked for a one-paragraph synopsis of the story: the set-up, the disasters that occur, and the ending. Sounds simple, right? Hah!

Story takes place in South Carolina during the Civil War. OK. That's the set-up. So far, so good.

Now for disasters. Those we have in abundance. Storms, raids, murders, boll weevils, smallpox, yellow fever, vandalism, fistfights, searing heat, killing frosts, hangings, invasions, battles, conflicting laws, drownings — the list just goes on and on.

But whose disasters are they? An emancipation proclamation is a disaster for a cotton agent who sees his workers walk off the job to celebrate their freedom. A threat of invasion is a disaster for the missionaries whose sponsors call them home, but it's a victory for the plantation owner who sees the slave schools close and his field hands come back to work. The failure of a cotton crop because of worm infestation is a disaster for the cotton farmer but a blessing for the field hand who can now devote full time to the crops that will feed his family through the winter. The missionary-teachers celebrate the firing of a corrupt cotton agent, who must return home in disgrace. The cotton agents smile when they see a prominent minister recalled for lining his own pockets with money that should have gone to the plantations. It all depends on point of view.

I began to find my way when I started asking the right questions. Whose story is this? Who is most affected by the events? Who has the most to lose? Tomorrow, I'll try to explain the factors that went into my final decision on Point of View.

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point of view

The Road to Frogmore -- The Inspiration

Point of View, Part 2: Whose Story Is This, Anyway?

Point of View, Part 1: Anybody Have a Map?