{"id":507,"date":"2014-01-29T09:14:11","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T16:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=507"},"modified":"2024-03-27T15:50:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T22:50:01","slug":"how-to-write-fiction-based-on-fact-prompt-41","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/how-to-write-fiction-based-on-fact-prompt-41\/","title":{"rendered":"How to write fiction based on fact. Prompt #41"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part Two of how to write fiction based on fact.\u00a0 Part One is Prompt #40<\/a>.
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

Alla Crone-Hayden began one of her first historical novels with this opening line:<\/p>\n

\u00a0On the cold Sunday of January 9, 1905, the pallid sun hung over the rooftops of St. Petersburg trying to burn its way through a thin layer of clouds. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>The weather matches the mood of character, of story.\u00a0 Perhaps draws you in.\u00a0 Maybe you want to know more \u00a0 .\u00a0 .\u00a0 .\u00a0 does the sun succeed in burning through?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>Second sentence:<\/p>\n

\u00a0By two o’clock in the afternoon the dull light had done little to warm the thousands of people milling in the streets. <\/em><\/p>\n

The second sentence answers the unasked question about the sun. Notice the word choices:\u00a0 cold, pallid sun, thin, dull light . . . words match the mood or tone of the day\/event.<\/p>\n

Alla used weather to match the narrator’s mood. The weather matches the tone of the story. It’s probably not going to be a pretty story. It’s probably going to be gritty.<\/p>\n

Writing Prompt:<\/b>\u00a0 Take a pivotal event from your life and write it as fiction.\u00a0 Suggestions:<\/p>\n

Use weather to mirror your narrator’s emotions.<\/p>\n

Add any details you want. . . whether they really happened or not. Remember, you are writing fiction based on a true event.<\/p>\n

Here are some lines you can start with:<\/p>\n

In the early morning light, while still calm and quiet. . .<\/p>\n

The sun played peek-a-boo . . .<\/p>\n

Just as day was fading into night . . .<\/p>\n

I could feel the storm gathering . . .<\/p>\n

The sky opened and rain bellowed down . . .<\/p>\n

Sunset, that quiet time of day, good for reflection . . .<\/p>\n

Mid-afternoon, hot sun beating down . . .<\/p>\n

Mint julep time, or as Granny\/Grandpa used to say . . .<\/p>\n

You get the idea. . . use weather or time of day to match the mood of your story.<\/p>\n

For brilliant fiction based on fact, check out Alla Crone<\/a>, author of Captive of Silence,<\/em> Winds Over Manchuria<\/em>, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part Two of how to write fiction based on fact.\u00a0 Part One is Prompt #40. Alla Crone-Hayden began one of her first historical novels with this opening line: \u00a0On the cold Sunday of January 9, 1905, the pallid sun hung over the rooftops of St. Petersburg trying to burn its way through a thin layer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[258,265,270,260],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prompts","tag-alla-crone","tag-captive-of-silence","tag-how-to-write-fiction-based-on-fact","tag-winds-over-manchuria"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-8b","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13143,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions\/13143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}