The art of being pigeonholed (POST #2)

"When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature." - Ernest Hemingway, N/A date

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In last month's blog post, I touched on the early stages of the character of Giovanni Salzano, the genesis of the character's journey, and the importance of Jane De Longh's Margaret of Austria: Regent of the Netherlands (1953) in the 2022 Revised Edition of A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition). Correctly named A Folktale and a Duchess, the introductory blog post amply laid out that Giovanni Salzano and his story as we know it today would not be here without the historical Margaret of Austria (1480-1530).

Now, we move on from the genesis of the character---both the original 2016 A Story of the Beginning and the 2022 revised edition of the same name---and to the 2021 No Tears (Northern Company). But fear not, as you can no doubt deduce by the title of this blog and its opening quote by Ernest Hemingway, I aim not to give you a highlight reel of the greatest moments of that book. Rather, I wish to expand upon the very dubious expectation of success that No Tears (Northern Company) encountered, the book being---in all intents and purposes---a soft reboot of the story and world of Giovanni Salzano that was first laid out on the 2016 original book.

As I explain in the FAQ of this website, Northern Company took 5 years to write. While I would love to sit here and talk stories of daring adventure and battles between the pen, the paper, and the writer, such stories would be of greater fictional prowess than a child's imagination. And as such, the very credential of me being an author---however new or seasoned in such an endeavor I may be---would be in doubt. To say that the 2 1/2 years of research, done both consistently and in between drafts of Northern Company, was enjoyable and energizing would be a very accurate statement. I love history and exploring it and the process of that journey was my own private addiction. Conversely, to say that the writing experience in putting that historical research into a story was as equally addictive or provoking would be less than accurate; however, that is not to say I was a slave against my will working thanklessly at the task----I did find plenty of enjoyment, but at the expense of much labor I did not foresee.

Northern Company was my first serious book. As I explain in the introduction of the 2022 Revised Edition, A Story of the Beginning (2016) was, "...originally a small sampling of ideas, thoughts, and many years of characterization, roleplay, and historical research brought together and refined into a story about a singular character: Giovanni Salzano the Traveling Mercenary." Given the barebones nature, both story & characters and historically, of A Story of the Beginning (2016), tackling the task of Northern Company was as much a goliath undertaking as a new author as it was an exercise in world building for the main character of Giovanni Salzano.

Having the foundation of Jane De Longh and other supporting works, such as James D. Tracy (Holland Under Habsburg Rule, 1506-1566; 1990) and James C. Kennedy (A Concise History of the Netherlands; 2017), I had the cornerstone for the world of Giovanni Salzano the Traveling Mercenary. But much like a house built from the ground up, I had the framework for the structure, but I had yet to put on the walls, put in the windows, or populate the inside of the house with rooms and doors. Let alone plumbing and electricity. But even with all that work ahead of me, I had one glaring issue: I could build a world, but I needed characters to live in it. Believable characters.

Taking the approach of the historical background of the Netherlands and Margaret of Austria herself, I wanted the characters to be as believable as the world they lived in. I wanted Giovanni to be as fallible as a 17 year-old man should be----given the context of the early 1500s and social expectations verses our modern society in play a course---and the non-historical characters around him to be equally so. Whereas Giovanni Salzano brought a naiveness into the larger world of No Tears he entered, Lafontaine Vayssière needed to be as morally indifferent and counter to Giovanni, but not so much as I ventured into the non-realistic Hollywood tropes of good & bad characters. As much as Klaus Wolff came off as the stereotypical large, muscled soldier of the company, I also needed him to have a dysfunctional and believable attachment to the world he inhabited, that attachment being his relationship with his brother, Lars Wolff. For as much as Giovanni needed to be the "green" mercenary of the company of soldiers, he also needed a grounding to give him a springboard emotionally and a vehicle to mature in his world beyond the shallow approach of past experiences (A Story of the Beginning) and fictional sword fighting; that springboard would be Benjamin Bakker. I could go on-and-on about the details to enrich Giovanni Salzano's world, but I believe you get the point. I could not simply make characters to highlight Giovanni and his story, I had to make people, people to grow the world beyond Giovanni but also keep the focus on the Italian mercenary without it being overbearing in its approach.

Once I had the foundation, framework, and characters for the story, I had to start to color in the world of Giovanni Salzano the Traveling Mercenary. As much as the historical events and persons gave a road to follow and barriers to stay within, the fictional characters of the story had to provide the vehicle to drive on that road. It was this process that was, perhaps, the hardest. I had the historical background, the world the characters lived in, and the characters themselves to give flavor to that world. But now I had to somehow make it all work together. Threading the needle between historical accuracy and story was a challenging endeavor; having committed to being as faithful to the source material as possible, I had pigeonholed myself into a commitment I had little understanding of how much labor would be required for it. This commitment and balance with story led me to other source materials and even corrections for No Tears (Inheritance), including Geoffrey Parker (Emperor: A New Life of Charles V; 2019) and Leonie Frieda (Francis I: The Maker of Modern France; 2018). In light of this commitment and various source materials, it still came down to the characters---the people---to drive the story forward. If the character/people value failed with the story, then the historical background and historical commitments would mean little in the end. The characters had to work, both historical and fictional, in the story.

For as complex and detailed the journey of No Tears (Northern Company) was to simply lay the foundation and characters, the meat of that process would be the writing. The undeniable truth of me being a new author and essentially writing his first book, coupled with the pigeonholed expectations I put on myself, created a dynamic experience. Not only did I have to take this body of historical research and characters and translate them into a story, but I also had to learn how to write professionally. If memory serves me correct, I believe I did 5 or 6 rough drafts of the story, mostly through Part I (chapters 1 through 11); these were near complete rewrites too, not surface fixes. Once I got to Part II and Part III of No Tears (Northern Company), things fell into place and both the story, and my writing, not only took off but improved greatly. By the time I got to A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition) the following year and No Tears (Inheritance) the year after that, I felt that both the story and especially my writing was falling into place more naturally. But it took many frustrating nights, weekends, and many mistakes with Northern Company to get those more refined processes and results later on.

In conclusion and looking forward, it was a dance between world building and character development in No Tears (Northern Company) that laid the foundation for No Tears (Inheritance), a book that I truly felt took all the good of Northern Company and made it better, while taking the less desirable aspects of Northern Company and bringing it to acceptable levels.

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“No tears, son,” Corradeo said, trying his hardest to keep his own eyes dry, “No tears.”

--- Corradeo Salzano (16th century) ---
A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition), 2022