WWI Creative Historians
Video of Author Reading Exhibition
Project Reflection
Before writing historical fiction stories, we spent several weeks studying World War I and reading the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. After learning the causes of the war, and the results after its end, we started to brainstorm. The project was to write a historical fiction story that was between 5 and 10 pages. The idea was to show The Truth of War through your story. Stories ranged from civilians, to soldiers. My story focused on the family of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who’s assassination triggered the war.
In order to write our stories, we studied several literary elements. The strongest one in my story was historical integration. This is a strong section of my story because it describes the world Sophie grows up in. It makes my story come alive and believable. You can imagine what day-to-day life must have been like for Sophie.
“Shivering I opened my newest book. It has just arrived from England. I cracked it open, running my fingers over the title page. Eagerly reading the title page, I flipped to the first page. A Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. A servant knocking on my door to announce that breakfast was ready brought me back from India, leaving Mary to cope alone. Thanking her, I dressed and hurried down to the table. Tardiness is not accepted. I arrived at the table to be greeted by a delicious aroma. Adrian had come out with food. He is an incredible cook, and has been promoted to nobleman status for his excellent cooking. It was a traditional breakfast, with csiga and mákos patkó pastries, boiled eggs, csabai kolbász sausages, bundáskenyér, black pudding, rice pudding, and many different homemade jams. Breakfast is always eaten together.”
At the same time historical integration was my strength, it was also my weakness. I would get really into the historical details and research, and focus on little things, instead of writing my story. The problem is I get really interested in whatever it is I looked up, and then get distracted reading about it, whether I need more info for my story or not. I spent at least an hour researching food for the breakfast scene, and every fact, name, and detail was researched extensively. I spent too much time researching the tiny details and finding the perfect info, when I should have focused more on just finishing writing. At one point I turned off the wifi connection to keep from looking things up. Towards the end I started setting a timer and when the time ran out I had to pick something from the things I’d found to use, or forget that detail.
My story completely changed from the first draft to the final draft. Originally my story was centered around Sophie having a forbidden romance with the stableboy Zoltán. She snuck out to meet him and almost drowned in the pond. The parents found out and were very angry with her, and she with them. That was my rising action and internal conflict. A suggestion was to make the readers feel what it’s like to have a crush on someone. From the beginning I knew I didn’t want this to solely be a love story, because I always write love stories, so I decided to cut that whole aspect. Because of this I was rewriting my whole story days before it was due. Cutting the romance may not have made my story stronger, but it was challenging for me, and I like my story much better without the romance. The other major revision I made while rewriting my story was to bring in Sophie and Ernst’s great-grandchildren. Instead of just Sophie as the narrator, I changed it so the kids are reading her diary. This caused my story to switch between the perspectives of Princess Sophie, and Prince Ernst’s great-grandson, Maximilian. This made my story much stronger, and allowed me to jump around in time. I’m really glad I changed it so Sophie had a diary, because it helps me to explain the gaps in my story, and I only had to explain the things I wanted. My story reads much better now too.
By making the major revisions I made, it enabled me to easily add a challenge extension, which I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do. The challenge extension I did was multiple points of view. I didn’t really chose, it kind of chose me. As I rewrote my story, multiple points of view fell seamlessly into the storyline. It was after I started to do it that I realized it would get me the challenge extension option. Maximilian, the great-grandson, is actually real and he’s currently 12, so his character was based on a real person. This is a section of my story at the very end. The italics is the diary entry, and after that Sophie stops reading and it switches back to Max’s perspective. This makes my story stronger because it creates suspense in areas, like in the section below because you want to know what happens to the children but it’s interrupted by the descendants. It allows readers to relate on two levels: as modern day people, and as someone during Sophie’s time.
Arrangements have been made for us to move in with Jaroslav von Thun und Hohenstein and his wife. He was our father’s hunting partner and friend. They come and stay at the castle for a few days, while we prepare to leave. Maximilian, Ernst, and I have been anticipating and wondering what it will be like there. Although he was our father’s friend, we had never met him or his wife before now. When the time came, carrying my last bag in hand, I took the steps down to the waiting car boldly and fearlessly. The boys followed, less confident of themselves. Looking out the window I watched as the castle disappeared behind, lost to the past, and we moved forward, towards the future.
She stops reading and looks up at me from the diary in her lap. We sit there in silence for awhile. The sun has stretched above us, and is returning to nest for the night just below the horizon. The sunset lights up the sky with oranges and reds, lighting the world on fire. We watch it burn as the tragic news of our great-great-grandfather’s death sinks in.
Finally, able to stand the silence no longer, I whisper “Is there more?”
Sophie nods slowly, biting her lip. “Just this,” she says, and points to the last page of the diary. This one has no date, just a single paragraph etched purposefully onto the thin and fragile page.