Lesson 5: Beyond Dusty Books: Researching Characters and Plots through Crafting
A real boon of researching by doing hand work is that you find a rhythm when you're using your hands, and that can spin out nicely for pacing a scene.
For example, you can have some grandmothers sewing a quilt of family events and discussing various family members, maybe relating personality characteristics or events to colours on the quilt. Or you could have a heroine weaving a blanket and thinking about all the threads in her life, the warp and weft of people and events and places.
Or you can have a man making barrels in the back yard and have the heroine admiring his hands and the ease with which he shapes his barrels, and maybe think about how he has molded and shaped his children into beautiful works of art, too.
You get the idea. I would love if some other people pitched in with some ideas on this!
As I mentioned at the beginning of this course, I spent a few years farm volunteering around Europe, and I've done this a little in Canada too. I know there are many wonderful places to do it in the states, too.
The organization I volunteer with is WWOOF: Willing Workers on Organic Farms. The deal is (generally, though there are an umpteen of variations) that you work 5 hours a day, and get the rest of the time to yourself. The farmer feeds you and gives you a bed. Just perfect for writers to live a low-cost few months!
The other thing I love about this organization is that it's generally peopled by farmers who are organically farming, often in ancient ways, and who love to share knowledge. Some of them are revitalizing linen cloth straight from growing flax. Others make jams and jellies. Others weave baskets or make soap, or weave cotton, or raise animals. All of these basic, simple skills are extremely satisfying to DO.
This program provides and opportunity for those of us who are currently landless to try out loads of homesteading and historical skills that we might not otherwise have an opportunity to try.
I have found that my characters can really form while I'm hoeing a walled garden at a castle in Ireland, or weeding a potato patch on the prairies, or putting stones on an ancient wall. Quilting and rug hooking and knitting and weaving are other soothing activities that ties us to our foremothers with our hands, and can really help us to get inside our heads. Doing these tasks that almost all of humanity has done until we hit the industrial revolution really connects our hands and our experience to history in a way that gives our writing authenticity.
What ancient or old skills have you tried? What have you built or made or contributed to?
Ruth Goodman is a British historian I mentioned before who is great at describing how it feels to do many old tasks. If you want to get some inspiration, just look her up on YouTube. Here's one of several playlists with several of her historical living experience shows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFpctGEGSjM&list=PLs-2EWm6ahLXqoJulOUW218M4HGzL_5Nq
Christa
The organization I volunteer with is WWOOF: Willing Workers on Organic Farms. The deal is (generally, though there are an umpteen of variations) that you work 5 hours a day, and get the rest of the time to yourself. The farmer feeds you and gives you a bed. Just perfect for writers to live a low-cost few months!
The other thing I love about this organization is that it's generally peopled by farmers who are organically farming, often in ancient ways, and who love to share knowledge. Some of them are revitalizing linen cloth straight from growing flax. Others make jams and jellies. Others weave baskets or make soap, or weave cotton, or raise animals. All of these basic, simple skills are extremely satisfying to DO.
This program provides and opportunity for those of us who are currently landless to try out loads of homesteading and historical skills that we might not otherwise have an opportunity to try.
I have found that my characters can really form while I'm hoeing a walled garden at a castle in Ireland, or weeding a potato patch on the prairies, or putting stones on an ancient wall. Quilting and rug hooking and knitting and weaving are other soothing activities that ties us to our foremothers with our hands, and can really help us to get inside our heads. Doing these tasks that almost all of humanity has done until we hit the industrial revolution really connects our hands and our experience to history in a way that gives our writing authenticity.
What ancient or old skills have you tried? What have you built or made or contributed to?
Ruth Goodman is a British historian I mentioned before who is great at describing how it feels to do many old tasks. If you want to get some inspiration, just look her up on YouTube. Here's one of several playlists with several of her historical living experience shows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFpctGEGSjM&list=PLs-2EWm6ahLXqoJulOUW218M4HGzL_5Nq
Christa
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