Reducing down an era using journal entries...

[Phyrebrat]

The 1700 section of my wip is from 1712 - ~1770.

It relates to how a property is inherited between three generations/parties of the Selwyn lineage.
The real meat of the story is from 1761 - 1770ish but there are catalysing events that happen earlier in the century affecting the latter part.

As there is a bit of detective work going on by one of the characters in the 1760s period, instead of writing the early stuff, I'm planning on having the detective-work POV bits interspersed with written journal entries from Lady Selwyn's memoirs (1712 - 1725), along with common knowledge within the family regarding 'Mad Earl Greville', who inherited it afterwards (i.e the mid-1700s). This seems the tidiest way of introducing the early century history without actually writing it contemporaneously.

No-one's would complain I have abridged this history would they? Do you think? It seems a little onerous on the reader (let alone the author!) to read periods of 1178, 1349, 1700s, 1807, 2009-present but also have a middle section that is bloated with a load of different dates in one century. As these 5 eras run parallel in the book, I think it'd just get confusing.

pH

 

[Juliana]

Phyre, it would work for me. I usually enjoy things like journal entries mixed up with the regular prose.

 

[HareBrain]

'Mad Earl Greville', who inherited it afterwards (i.e the mid-1700s).

Shame he's not called Breville, then he could have got together with the 4th Earl of Sandwich.

The journal excerpts sounds an ideal technique for what you want to do.

 

[Dave]

As I always preface my posts on these subjects, I am not a writer, but I am however, a reader. Journal entries would work for many people, but probably not everyone, and it might be hard for it not to seem like info dumping. Does anyone ever write from the point of view of an inanimate object? In this case, I was thinking of the house itself - seeing the seasons pass by, the trees grow up and gardens landscaped, the inhabitants come and go like ants, babies born, old men die, fashions changing, furniture being brought in and taken out again, wallpaper pasted up and then stripped off, fires in the kitchen, leaks in the annex roof, floods in the cellar - but life happening more quickly due to having a longer historical view than a human.

 

[Ursa major]

A quick question....

Are the journal entries simply presented to the reader as and when you, as the author, think they would best help the reader, or are they presented in the context of the detective work (i.e. the reader gets to read them when the detective-work PoV character** finds/reads them)?

I think the latter way would keep a strongly PoV narrative working; you selecting which bits of the journals to appear wouldn't, not really. And as for

It seems a little onerous on the reader (let alone the author!) to read periods of 1178, 1349, 1700s, 1807, 2009-present

only your PoV character** needs to read a lot of the journals (saving both you and the reader a lot of effort) and this provides a realistic explanation of why the narrative only contains the relevant bits: because those are the bits that the PoV character** will be interested in (where relevant is defined as 'what the PoV character** deems useful to him/her').


** - Or PoV characters. (Or even just characters with access to some or all of the journals.) If there is more than one character in the book reading passages from the journals, they might have different ideas about relevance (depending on how they view life in general and what it is they're seeking).

 

[Vaz]

I really like the idea, I also enjoy prose which includes diary entries/letters seems like a good plan PH

 

[Phyrebrat]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

As I always preface my posts on these subjects, I am not a writer, but I am however, a reader. Journal entries would work for many people, but probably not everyone, and it might be hard for it not to seem like info dumping. Does anyone ever write from the point of view of an inanimate object? In this case, I was thinking of the house itself - seeing the seasons pass by, the trees grow up and gardens landscaped, the inhabitants come and go like ants, babies born, old men die, fashions changing, furniture being brought in and taken out again, wallpaper pasted up and then stripped off, fires in the kitchen, leaks in the annex roof, floods in the cellar - but life happening more quickly due to having a longer historical view than a human.

Funny that you should mention that. The house - grounds - are like a silent character throughout the 900 years and I was considering at one point how to, or if I could, bring in the ground's 'personality' as a character itself. I toyed with the idea of changing the entire story to omniscient 3rd a few weeks ago and then revealing at the end the book had been the house's musings, but it came across as anthropomorphised and seemed like too much gimmickry for one little pay off, and I'm not sure I'm ready to attempt omni just yet.

It's a really interesting and possibility to me, though, and I'm still holding it loosely as an execution.

A quick question....

Are the journal entries simply presented to the reader as and when you, as the author, think they would best help the reader, or are they presented in the context of the detective work (i.e. the reader gets to read them when the detective-work PoV character** finds/reads them)?

I think the latter way would keep a strongly PoV narrative working; you selecting which bits of the journals to appear wouldn't, not really. And as foronly your PoV character** needs to read a lot of the journals (saving both you and the reader a lot of effort) and this provides a realistic explanation of why the narrative only contains the relevant bits: because those are the bits that the PoV character** will be interested in (where relevant is defined as 'what the PoV character** deems useful to him/her').


** - Or PoV characters. (Or even just characters with access to some or all of the journals.) If there is more than one character in the book reading passages from the journals, they might have different ideas about relevance (depending on how they view life in general and what it is they're seeking).

Yes, I was only going to have excerpts of the journals as the POV comes across and reads them. And in addition, they were personal memoirs of Lady Selwyn, so they are written in her voice - like a cheaty way of getting in a character from 50 years earlier without having to write that time period.

pH

 

[The Judge]

In case you needed another voice in support, I'm happy to read relevant journal entries, too, especially if they're part of the POV character's research.