![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Nation creation
Aug. 9th, 2009 09:32 amRealised this morning that the reason I need to actually get into research for the Dragon novel for the next couple of months isn't just that I, well, need to do it, but because I'm actually up to the part in the novel where I can't fudge and write around it anymore. Because this is the part where the dragon gives Our Hero his life story, and as that spans several thousand years of human history...there is only so much I can make it on my own steam without a good knowledge of history to back it up.
It's an interesting conundrum; on the one hand, I didn't feel I could write a novel around an existing dragon myth and in an actual country (the novel was inspired by reading the story of the Polish dragon, Smok Wawelski) because of a) the obligation that a writer has when dealing with history to 'get it right', and b) the constraints that an already well-known story imposes. By that I mean that as a key conceit of the novel is an alternative 'reading' of a 'known' dragon myth, were I to use an actual as opposed to invented myth, I would have to do some very clever thinking to make what I want to say about dragons and such fit the 'real' myth.
(not sure how much sense that above paragraph makes...)
On the other hand, I am still beholden to make the history of my invented country 'true.' I need to have a good grasp on the history of the surrounding countries, and indeed the shared history of the region itself to make the invented country's history believable. In someways this is slightly trickier as I have to, along side the already known history, 'make up' my own as well, as opposed to having the ready made template of the history of real place.
Anyway, just some random thoughts on the process.
It's an interesting conundrum; on the one hand, I didn't feel I could write a novel around an existing dragon myth and in an actual country (the novel was inspired by reading the story of the Polish dragon, Smok Wawelski) because of a) the obligation that a writer has when dealing with history to 'get it right', and b) the constraints that an already well-known story imposes. By that I mean that as a key conceit of the novel is an alternative 'reading' of a 'known' dragon myth, were I to use an actual as opposed to invented myth, I would have to do some very clever thinking to make what I want to say about dragons and such fit the 'real' myth.
(not sure how much sense that above paragraph makes...)
On the other hand, I am still beholden to make the history of my invented country 'true.' I need to have a good grasp on the history of the surrounding countries, and indeed the shared history of the region itself to make the invented country's history believable. In someways this is slightly trickier as I have to, along side the already known history, 'make up' my own as well, as opposed to having the ready made template of the history of real place.
Anyway, just some random thoughts on the process.
