Freewrite - April 25, 2015
I must make an outline for Runaway Sam. I started one today on a piece of scrap paper. That is not the title of my proposed book, at least my public/family title. But in my mind, that's who he is - the main male character of the book. Betty, I don't know her well enough yet to give her a nickname. Sam's son, Daniel, Karl wrote, was called Old Dan, so that is what I called him. He was 68 when he died; 5 years older than me. Not so old, but then, age is a relative thing. I never gave Charlotte a nickname, so maybe I won't give Betty a nickname. If I do, it's because it just happens. I never went about searching the closets of my brain for a name for Sam. It just happened into my head and I thought it appropriate.
"1920. Is it to be believed? I feel as old as Methuselah." Violet Crawley
I just finished watching Season 4 of Downton Abbey. At least it ended better than Season 3. That was dreadful. Matthew, lying there, pinned under his car, eyes open and staring at nothing, blood pouring out of his ear. I figured he was dead but I wasn't sure if they'd revive him Roadrunner like, so I googled Matthew Crawley. Yup. He's dead. And it gave him a pedigree, a family history, a biography; like he really lived.
What has that to do with Runaway Sam? Well, Lynne, who gives me these ideas for writing a great family history that generally leads me into Trouble, says that every chapter should end with a cliffhanger. It must leave the reader with a terrible need to read just one more chapter. Like when I went to lunches at Mom's whilst working at the bank. I'd eat her good, salted, food, and when I got back to the bank, I needed water. Badly. Cups and cups of it. What water she gave me with dinner didn't suffice. I don't know if that's a good analogy or not, but this is a freewrite so I can say what I want. Unlike Runaway Sam's tale.
Julian Fellow gives every epidsode of Downton Abbey a hook at the end. It sticks in my mind, and probably yours, and I want desperately to know what happens next. For Season 4, I forced myself to wait three days before touching Netflix on my tablet. I don't know how well I can do it with Sam's tale, as I know so little, and I can't write a main character like Matthew out of the book just because someone doesn't want to renew their contract, because it's history, not a fictional television show. But I need to work on it. Little hooks to keep my reader's interest in reading just one more chapter before they close the light.
"I should hate to be predictable." Mary to Matthew at the wedding alter.
Thelma, president of NBGS, has told me twice that she never read a family history quite like mine. She said that is not a criticism. The look on my face when she first said it might have implied to her that I thought it was.
I tell you something. A book writing is like a living thing. It takes over sometimes. It tells me what it wants done. Sometimes my characters just do what they want to do. I have to keep a tight rein on the words. I have a sort of introduction started. It will change. My outline will change. Each and every page will change. It is not predictable. A book that I write myself, even a letter or a diary entry I write myself, is not predictable. And I'd hate for it to be predictable. I probably like the surprises more than any of my readers except maybe Paula.
Outline - Take One
I Introduction
Thesis Statement
II In the beginning. Bedford, NY. Birth of Samuel
Someplace,not sure where yet. Birth of Betty
Their parents and grandparents: Samuel Sr Holmes and Elizabeth Fountain
Peter McElmon and Mary Margaret Fillmore
Genealogy. Get the begats out of the way and somehow make them interesting.
III Places
Bedford and other places Samuel lived before moving to Canada
Nova Scotia
Upstate New York
Also Betty's places
IV Life in upstate New York
Family
Farm
Faith
V Family in more detail: each person
Samuel and Phoebe (1st wife)
Daniel
Other child, probably a son
Samuel and Betty (2nd wife)
James B
Ann
Betsy Marinda
Benjamin McElmon
Margaret Mariah
Lyman White
VI Conclusion
Refer back to thesis statement
Somewhere in there I need to put what I know that influences Samuel. It will require research. The Revolutionary War affected him indirectly. His parents and the Holsteads were Loyalists. Maybe the McElmons were also. The Civil War affected his children, although he did not live to know about it. I need to know the history, the geography, and the terrain of Cumberland County, Nova Scotia; Westmorland County, New Brunswick, near the Northumberland Strait; Jefferson County in New York, etcetra.
"War has a way of distinguishing between the things that matter and the things that don't."
Matthew Crawley
As I've said before, I don't think highly of Sam, my great great great grandfather. How could he leave two young children behind with their grandparents, never pay child support, never even inquire about their well-being? I wonder what kind of man he really was. But, like Black Sheep Fenwick Holmes, I might grow to like him in a way. It will help if I understand him. All I have to go on is two letters that he and Betty wrote home, and some dry facts that need verification in transcribed tomes and records. I sure hope some other tidbits of his life show up.
"Don't dislike him before you know him. That's the hallmark of our parents' generation, and I
forbid it." Matthew to Mary
All quotations are from Downton Abbey, series one and two.
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