Taking on the Challenge

Can I write fiction? An historical novel to be precise. Why not give it a try, I say to myself. It will be a great challenge, but I need a writing project to work on. I’ve read countless novels over the decades, but does that qualify me?

I want to build a story around a great-aunt who lived a rather unconventional life for the times. I only knew her when she was an elderly woman. Now I’ve become a sleuth, piecing together bits and pieces from her past: photographs, mementos, diplomas, possessions and remembered conversations.

She and her two sisters, my grandmother and another aunt, were born and raised in Scotland and immigrated to the States in 1910. Internet has greatly facilitated exploring family history. As I access Scotland’s census documents with birth and death dates, cause of death and addresses, the family members have taken on life for me. Now I know my mother was named after a Scottish aunt and my grandmother’s younger sister who died at the age of eleven. I’ve had to make deductions, like their reasons for immigrating, probably due to the fact that both their parents were deceased at an early age and few prospects were available in their small town.

The research fascinates me. I discovered photos of the ship on which they traveled. I’m currently reading “A History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1800 to 1900”. Gradually, with more and more details, I begin to imagine family members, breathing life into them. My greatest challenge is creating interesting complex characters that feel as real to the reader as they do to me.

My grandmother, Molly, her two sisters and brother