#56: Times and Seasons of Creativity
Writers and other creatives often feel the pressure to be creating constantly. Praise is extolled upon those who are able to draft quickly, revise quickly, and publish often.
I am naturally a slow writer. My ideas need time to simmer and develop, and I can’t rush the drafting process. At times, the pressure to be a fast writer has made me feel inadequate or insecure, or I’ve felt jealous of those with a faster process.
At other times, life has interfered with my creativity: sicknesses and other challenges can force creative projects into little scraps of low-energy time, or sometimes even cause creative projects to be put on hold.
This, of course, can be discouraging. However, I’m encouraged by looking at Jane Austen’s life and writing.
Let’s consider a few snapshots of Jane Austen’s writing life:
1787-1799: The Early Years
- 1787-1793: Juvenilia
- 1793-1795: Lady Susan
- 1796-1798: Elinor and Marianne; First Impressions
- 1798-1799: Northanger Abbey
This is a very productive period of writing for Jane Austen. During her teenage years, she wrote many short pieces of various genres and styles, and she shared these pieces with her family. These works are now known as her Juvenilia.
Then she moved on to longer, more developed works—Lady Susan, Elinor and Marianne, First Impressions, and Northanger Abbey.
1800-1809: Years of Struggle
- Some revisions of Lady Susan and Northanger Abbey
- 1804: started The Watsons
This period in Jane Austen’s life stands in stark contrast to the prior years. She did some revisions on both Lady Susan and Northanger Abbey, and while both books were sold to publishers, neither were published. She started the book The Watsons, but then abandoned it, leaving it unfinished. She may have done some additional revisions on her other works, and she did continue to write letters, but it was much slower period of writing for Jane Austen.
Why did she write less?
The answer was simple: Life was difficult for Jane Austen during these years.
First, her father uprooted their family to Bath. Jane Austen did not like living in Bath, and her days were filled with social obligations and responsibilities that were difficult to escape.
Then her father died. His death caused Jane Austen to abandon The Watsons—she could not work on it any longer. It also began a period of severe financial insecurity. Jane Austen moved from place to place, often having to rely on others for a place to stay and struggling to have enough for the basic necessities. It is little wonder that she was not able to make much progress on her writing.
1809-1817: The Chawton Years
- 1809: Moved to Chawton
- 1811: Sense and Sensibility
- 1813: Pride and Prejudice
- 1814: Mansfield Park
- 1815: Emma
- 1817: Persuasion; Sanditon (unfinished)
Jane Austen’s brother Edward had been adopted (became the heir) for distant relatives in Chawton. In 1809, he invited Jane and several other family members to live in a cottage on the estate. Suddenly, Jane Austen had security. She had a home. And she had the space and the time to write.
She revised Elinor and Marianne—which she had originally written between 1796 and 1798—and published it as Sense and Sensibility. She rewrote First Impressions as Pride and Prejudice. And then she wrote three new novels: Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion. She began the novel Sanditon, but did not finish it before her death.
Times and Seasons of Writing
We each have times and seasons of writing, and it’s important to treat ourselves with compassion and understanding. We will have times, like the decade in Jane Austen’s life, where it is more difficult to write, where life circumstances create additional challenges for creativity. We might even have years where we cannot actively work on our creative goals.
In another post, I wrote about how even at Chawton, Jane Austen had to actively work to create space for writing in her life. Even in seasons of writing, it takes active work to give time to writing, and writing may still not be easy.
I also like to remember that it’s okay if certain projects take time to reach their final form. Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice are two of the most important novels in English literature, and two of my favorite novels. And they were not written quickly. They required writing and re-envisioning and rewriting over a 17-year period.
Like Jane, life may at times interfere with our writing. But like Jane, we will have fertile seasons of writing. Like Jane, we can tell our stories and share them with the world.
Exercise 1: Write the story of your creative journey. What has led you to be the writer you are today? Which times and seasons of your life have been more or less creative? Is there anything from the less creative periods of your life that has helped you with your writing?
Exercise 2: Take a project that you set aside, perhaps years ago. Spend a few minutes considering it. If you were going to rewrite it today, how would you approach it differently?
#55: Dialogue as a Weapon (Manipulative Dialogue)
Many characters use dialogue as a speech act—as an action that can create or induce change. And one of the primary modes of dialogue is persuasion: the act of speaking can often influence emotions and choices.
While many characters will go to great lengths to be persuasive—consider, for example, Mr. Collins’ proposal to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice—other characters use dialogue not simply as a means of persuasion, but as a weapon. These characters wield dialogue in manipulative and even abusive ways.
In Mansfield Park, Mrs. Norris consistently uses dialogue as a weapon. She does not do so to everyone—those who she sees as her equals or her superiors are spared. However, she sees Fanny as lesser. Fanny is her poor niece that has been taken in to be raised at Mansfield Park, and to Mrs. Norris, Fanny is undeserving of any respect or consideration.
In the novel, the characters decide to perform a play, and they insist that Fanny participate. Fanny does not want to be in the play, for she sees participating as morally repugnant. She expresses her desire to not participate, and many characters attempt to persuade her. Then Mrs. Norris joins the fray, whispering a rebuke to Fanny, but doing so in a way that everyone else can hear:
Mrs. Norris completed the whole by thus addressing her in a whisper at once angry and audible—“What a piece of work here is about nothing,–I am quite ashamed of you, Fanny, to make such a difficulty of obliging your cousins in a trifle of this sort,–So kind as they are to you!—Take the part with a good grace, and let us hear no more of the matter, I entreat.”
“Do not urge her, madam,” said Edmund. “It is not fair to urge her in this manner. You see she does not like to act. Let her chuse for herself, as well as the rest of us. Her judgment may be quite as safely trusted. Do not urge her any more.”
“I am not going to urge her,”—replied Mrs. Norris sharply, “but I shall think her a very obstinate, ungrateful girl, if she does not do what her aunt and cousins wish her—very ungrateful indeed, considering who and what she is.”
Consider how language is used as a weapon:
- Norris shames Fanny publicly
- She trivializes Fanny’s concerns and emotions
- She is manipulative and speaks of what Fanny owes everyone
In her second passages of dialogue, she also:
- Casts weighty moral judgment on Fanny’s desires and planned actions
- Uses a logical fallacy to give Fanny no other possible paths of behavior besides obeying her or publicly going against her
- Alludes, very directly and unkindly, to Fanny’s inferior position
In response, we read that “Edmund was too angry to speak.” And perhaps he is too angry to speak—but in many ways, he is also used to the weaponized language that Mrs. Norris uses on Fanny. He does not come to her defense.
Instead, someone who is not a member of the family intervenes. Miss Crawford is shocked by Mrs. Norris’ verbal treatment of Fanny, manages to partially remove Fanny from the situation, and spends the rest of the scene trying to be especially kind to Fanny. And despite the fact that Miss Crawford is all in for the play, she attempts to show reservations about it and sympathize with Fanny’s perspective.
As often happens with abusive people in real life, Mrs. Norris does not just do this once to Fanny: this is consistent, and at times it escalates to threats of throwing Fanny out of the house.
In a later chapter, Miss Crawford has invited Fanny to dinner. Mrs. Norris is not pleased, feels that Fanny is undeserving of such favor, and informs Fanny of such.
“The nonsense and folly of people’s stepping out of their rank and trying to appear above themselves, makes me think it right to give you a hint, Fanny, now that you are going into company without any of us; and I do beseech and entreat you not to be putting yourself forward, and talking and giving your opinion as if you were one of your cousins—as if you were dear Mrs. Rushworth or Julia. That will never do, believe me. Remember, wherever you are, you must be the lowest and last; and though Miss Crawford is in a manner at home at the Parsonage, you are not to be taking place of her. And as to coming away at night, you are to stay just as long as Edmund chuses. Leave him to settle that.”
“Yes, ma’am, I should not think of anything else.”
“And if it should rain, which I think exceedingly likely, for I never saw it more threatening for a wet evening in my life, you must manage as well as you can, and not be expecting the carriage to be sent for you. I certainly do not go home to-night, and, therefore, the carriage will not be out on my account; so you must make up your mind to what may happen, and take your things accordingly.”
Her niece thought it perfectly reasonable. She rated her own claims to comfort as low even as Mrs. Norris could.
The terrible, tragic thing is that Fanny has internalized Mrs. Norris’ views. She believes she deserves no comfort. Of course she will not request a carriage, even if it rains.
While Fanny endures her tribulations with sweetness and courage, and while at the points where it matters most to her, she stands up for herself, this weaponized, abusive language has harmed her. As was Mrs. Norris’ intent.
In many ways, Mrs. Norris represents one of the most insidious types of antagonists: someone who is close to the main character and has influence and control, and who uses that power to abuse others in both action and speech.
Mrs. Norris is not a pleasant character to read—and likely wasn’t a pleasant character to write. But the inclusion of her character adds to the themes of the story, adds to our understanding of the oppression inherent in Mansfield Park and its characters.
Many of Austen’s novels includes characters who are manipulative to some degree or another. In Emma, Emma manipulates Harriet into refusing an offer of marriage. In Sense and Sensibility, Lucy Steele extracts a rather-manipulative promise from Eleanor. And in Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet tries—and fails—to manipulate Elizabeth into marrying Mr. Collins. Most of these characters are less flawed than Mrs. Norris, less thorough in their manipulation (not generally abusive), have at least semi-positive intentions, or have less power than Mrs. Norris does over Fanny. Yet some of the principles are the same. When characters have something they truly want, they are sometimes willing to cross the line between normal persuasive tactics and manipulation.
One of my favorite aspects of Mansfield Park is that by the end of the novel, Fanny is in a new situation—a situation in which she is free from Mrs. Norris’ manipulations and abusiveness. In Emma, Harriet also becomes free of manipulation, and by the end of the book is able to choose what she wants and be confident in herself. While dialogue is sometimes used as a weapon by characters in Austen novels, and while this dialogue may cause great harm, the characters on the receiving end of this harm are consistently able to overcome their struggles.
Exercise 1: Write a brief scene where a character is trying to persuade someone of something. Whether or not the character succeeds is up to you. Now write a second version of the scene. This time, the character should use some degree of manipulation.
Exercise 2: Make a list of people who are manipulative. They can be mildly, occasionally, or ineffectively manipulative; they can be thoroughly and abusively manipulative; or they can be anywhere in between. These people can be individuals you have encountered in real life, or characters from stories.
Exercise 3: Consider an antagonist in a story you have written, or a story you plan to write. Do they ever use dialogue as a weapon? Would it be useful for them to do so? If not, why?
Free Upcoming Event: Mystery Writers of America Symposium
This year, in advance of the Edgar Awards, Mystery Writers of America is holding a virtual symposium.
I will be part of a panel with other nominees for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. I feel really honored to be talk about mystery novels with these amazing authors.
The event is free for anyone to attend. All you need to do is register in advance: https://bit.ly/MWAMaryHigginsClark
Researching The True Confessions of a London Spy in London
One of the best parts of writing The True Confessions of a London Spy was visiting London.
I wrote a somewhat sparse first draft of London Spy during the second half of 2018. And then, in October 2019, I had the opportunity of a lifetime. I got to visit London.
While this was largely a family vacation, I coopted parts of the trip for research. There were places in London that I knew were going to be in the book, and I had to visit those places, as well as museums and historic buildings that I knew would help me with my research. A few months later, as I wrote the second draft of the novel, I ended up needing a few new settings for key scenes. I ended up choosing places that had an impact on me during the London trip.
Exhibit A: The Monument to the Great Fire
Because of all the other buildings, it is difficult to get a good picture of the Monument to the Great Fire.
Me, next to the bottom of the Monument. Picture by one of my children.
Why I Chose The Monument
I knew that the Monument to the Great Fire would be important even before I wrote the first draft of the novel. So much of London—its architecture, its culture, its people—was influenced by the destructive 1666 fire. In 1814, when my book was set, this monument still acted as a symbol to the city—a symbol of what was lost, a symbol of tragedy, a symbol of change.
In the book, I needed Mary to be at a setting that was close the old (now no-longer existent) Customs House, and I chose the Monument because of the symbolism for London, and how this symbolism relates to her own story. I’ll avoid spoilers, but I will say:
Who we are is intrinsically connected to the difficult things that happen to us: these challenges and tragedies become interwoven into the fiber of our being. These moments transform us, and not always in a clear way. It’s not a net good or net bad change. But you can’t go to the past and swoop in and erase what happened, or you would have a completely different city, a completely different person.
Me, at the top of the Monument, contemplating whether Mary Bennet would actually choose to climb the 300+ steps to the top. I considered adding this climb to the second draft, but decided against it.
Descending the steps of the Monument to the Great Fire. Carrying 3-year-olds is a great workout, even when going down.
Exhibit B: Other London Sites
To see the individual captions, click the expand button on one of the photos.
Many of the stereotypical visuals that we associate with London did not exist in 1814: Big Ben, the Tower Bridge, and the Eye. Others did exist–like St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower of London–but didn’t end up in the book.
A lot of what was useful was being able to walk through the London streets and experience the flavor of the city. I spent a lot of time walking along the River Thames and picturing what it would have looked like in 1814, covered in ice.
One of my big priorities for the trip was visiting the Museum of London. As you go through the museum, you walk through different eras of London’s history. I may have spent an excess amount of time in the 1600-1900 section. There was clothing, fans, models of houses, and scientific devices. One of the exhibits was a reconstructed section of Victorian streets and shops. While that postdates The True Confessions of a London Spy by a few years, it wasn’t that different than it would’ve been in the Regency period.
Exhibit C: Shakespeare in London
The first draft of the novel was about half the length of the final novel. It had plenty of subplots, but no plot, and it was missing a number of key characters. As such, in the second draft I had to add a plot, a number of characters, and plenty of new chapters and scenes. Which meant that I also had the opportunity to incorporate additional London settings.
One of the things that struck me during our visit to London was how much Shakespeare was part of the fabric of the city.
A Shakespeare mural in London. Picture by my husband, Scott Cowley.
I’ve loved Shakespeare since my junior year of high school, when an amazing English teacher introduced me to Hamlet and we watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead performed live. After my London trip, as I worked on building the character of Alys Knowles, I realized that I wanted Alys to love Shakespeare—this is her defining interest. During her life, Jane Austen read and attended Shakespeare plays, and she makes Shakespearean references in a number of her novels, so I thought it would be fitting.
Even though readers don’t meet the character of Alys Knowles in scene until the end of The True Confessions of a London Spy, Shakespeare became woven throughout the story, a lens through which to perceive relationships and interactions.
As I built up to the scene between Alys Knowles, Mary Bennet, and Fanny Cramer, I realized that I wanted the setting to have a connection to Shakespeare.
I considered placing the scene at Southwark Cathedral—this was the area where Shakespeare had lived, after all, it was near where the Globe had been located, and the cathedral predated Shakespeare by centuries.
One of my favorite parts of visiting Southwark Cathedral was seeing the stained glass window commemorating Shakespeare, but when I did some research, I realized that the stained glass had been added too late.
However, I liked the idea of using a religious edifice with a Shakespearean connection, because of the sense of immortality that gives. Which made me think of another place I had visited in London: Westminster Abbey.
Westminster Abbey is like walking among a who’s who of famous British dead people, and while Shakespeare was buried in Stratford-upon-Avon, there is a full-life marble statue of him in the Poets’ Corner. I realized that this was the public, safe spot that Alys Knowles would choose for a meeting.
While it is very possible to write a book without visiting the setting, and I have a number of research techniques that I’ve used when visiting a place is not an option, it truly was a remarkable experience to be able to visit London while writing a book set in London. London is one of my favorite cities, and I certainly plan to visit again.
#54: When to Summarize Dialogue
A common writing aphorism is “show don’t tell.” When it comes to dialogue, it is often powerful to show the dialogue in its entirety: to hear what the characters say and how they say it.
Yet while Jane Austen is a master of dialogue, there are countless moments throughout her novels when she chooses to summarize dialogue rather than showing it in scene.
Jane Austen summarizes dialogue when doing so better serves her storytelling purposes.
To consider what purposes summarizing dialogue could serve, let’s analyze a scene from Northanger Abbey.
Near the end of Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland is unceremoniously thrown out of Northanger Abbey by an angry General Tilney. When she arrives home, she tells her family what happened. Soon, they meet up with her friends, the Allens, and they too must hear the story.
What is interesting in this passage is that Jane Austen does not show us the full scene. Instead, she intermixes telling (in this case through summary) with showing.
In the first paragraph of the scene, Austen summarizes the entire interaction, giving a bird’s eye view of what occurred, with narrator interpretation. Then we are brought to near the beginning of the scene in order to hear Catherine’s mother, Mrs. Morland, tells the story, giving her dialogue line by line.
[Catherine] was received by the Allens with all the kindness which her unlooked-for appearance, acting on a steady affection, would naturally call forth; and great was their surprise, and warm their displeasure, on hearing how she had been treated—though Mrs. Morland’s account of it was no inflated representation, no studied appeal to their passions. “Catherine took us quite by surprise yesterday evening,” said she. “She travelled all the way post by herself, and knew nothing of coming till Saturday night; for General Tilney, from some odd fancy or other, all of a sudden grew tired of having her there, and almost turned her out of the house. Very unfriendly, certainly; and he must be a very odd man; but we are so glad to have her amongst us again! And it is a great comfort to find that she is not a poor helpless creature, but can shift very well for herself.”
The summary at the start of the paragraph frames the conversation—it tells us what happened, and what to look for in the responses. It also offers insights into their characters, particularly in light of how they react in response to what is a plain, unstudied account of the events. Then we see, in scene, the exact four sentences of dialogue that Mrs. Morland used to tell the story.
This paragraph is followed by another paragraph of mostly summary. When there are direct quotes, they are statements that the characters say multiple times, and their inclusion is used as an example of the type of response that Mr. and Mrs. Allen make:
Mr. Allen expressed himself on the occasion with the reasonable resentment of a sensible friend; and Mrs. Allen thought his expressions quite good enough to be immediately made use of again by herself. His wonder, his conjectures, and his explanations became in succession hers, with the addition of this single remark—“I really have not patience with the general”—to fill up every accidental pause. And, “I really have not patience with the general,” was uttered twice after Mr. Allen left the room, without any relaxation of anger, or any material digression of thought.
The conversation then turns to Mrs. Allen’s recollections of Bath. This conversation is shown in scene, with each line of dialogue included by Austen. Mrs. Allen explains that she had her gown with Mechlin lace mended, and then she elaborates on their experiences in Bath and the Assembly rooms. To each statement, Catherine gives only short responses, because this conversation is bringing to mind her love interest, Mr. Henry Tilney, which also reminds her that Henry’s father, the General, has just thrown her out.
In the next two paragraphs we have dialogue from Mrs. Tilney on Bath, followed by a sentence of dialogue summary, followed by more dialogue from Mrs. Tilney:
“It was very agreeable, was not it? Mr. Tilney drank tea with us, and I always thought him a great addition, he is so very agreeable. I have a notion you danced with him, but am not quite sure. I remember I had my favourite gown on.”
Catherine could not answer; and, after a short trial of other subjects, Mrs. Allen again returned to—“I really have not patience with the general! Such an agreeable, worthy man as he seemed to be!”
The summary phrase is of note: Catherine could not answer and after a short trial of other subjects. The use of summary here emphasizes that Catherine is struggling to hold this conversation, because everything connects back to the Tilneys. Mrs. Allen tries introducing other subjects—and the exact subjects they try speaking about are not included, because they aren’t actually relevant to the story. But summarizing the fact that she tries various conversation topics shows how very difficult this is for Catherine—the Tilneys are what dominates her mind, and it is difficult for her to speak of them, but also difficult for her to speak of anything else.
There are a number of reasons to summarize dialogue rather than to show it in scene.
The most common reasons Austen summarizes dialogue:
- To show the passage of time.
- To condense unimportant dialogue.
- To focus the reader on the most important dialogue.
- To give interpretation of the dialogue, and provide commentary on the scene.
- To draw us into the lens and perspective of the narrator OR to draw us into the perspective of the character.
Whenever I am writing a scene where the dialogue is not quite working, one of the questions I ask myself is: Would part of this dialogue be more useful if it was conveyed through summary? Summarizing dialogue is another useful tool that can be used to powerful effect.
Exercise 1: Write a short scene that consists largely of dialogue between two characters. However, there’s a catch. For one of the characters you can include the dialogue, but for the second character, you can only summarize their dialogue. Try to give a feel for the second character’s dialogue and its effect even though you cannot include the dialogue itself.
Exercise 2: In film, dialogue is rarely summarized: because of the conventions of the medium, it is almost always shown in scene. Find a dialogue-heavy scene in a film and rewrite this scene in prose. Include a significant portion of the lines of dialogue exactly as they were stated in the film, but then summarize other sections of the dialogue. What effects does this summary create? How is summarizing some of the dialogue useful?
Exercise 3: Take a draft that you have written and analyze the dialogue. Are there any full scenes of dialogue you could eliminate and replace with a summary? Are there scenes of dialogue where it would be advantageous to replace a small or large part of the dialogue with summary? Find at least one spot in your draft where dialogue summary would be useful and revise.
Everything You Wanted to Know About Newspapers in the Mary Bennet Series
Some of the most common questions I get about The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet and The True Confessions of a London Spy relate to the epigraphs at the start of each chapter:
- Are they from real newspapers?
- What inspired you to include these epigraphs?
- What purpose do they serve?/ What do they mean?
- How did you find them?
In this post, I’m going to give readers the answers to each of these questions.
The first page of The True Confessions of a London Spy, with an epigraph from The Times
Are they from real newspapers?
Almost all of the passages are real excerpts from real newspapers, with the exception of three headings in Secret Life and two headings in London Spy. In the upcoming third novel, The Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception, only one is from my own imagination, and one is from a letter instead of a newspaper.
What inspired you to include these epigraphs?
I loved the short newspaper excerpts at the start of each chapter in Mary Robinette Kowal’s alternate history science fiction novel The Calculating Stars, and I thought that they would fit well in my own story.
What purpose do they serve? What do they mean?
The newspaper excerpts do a number of things:
- Historical underpinning: unlike Jane Austen’s contemporary readers, most of us today don’t know the full historical context of the Regency. I wanted to Mary Bennet to solve mysteries that deal directly with the historical events and social issues of the day, and including these excerpts helps provide that context for the reader. For example, I wanted to establish the widespread dread of Napoleon Bonaparte, which is clearly present in the newspapers.
- Mary and other spies read a lot of newspapers: In the books, Mary, Lady Trafford, and other characters read numerous newspapers. I wanted to give a sense for some of the stories they encounter.
- Direct commentary on the content of the chapters: Because I use real historical events in the novels, many of the newspapers made direct commentary on these events. For example, in The True Confessions of a London Spy, the account that The Times made of the customs house explosion is devastating, and in the third novel, The Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception, I wanted to showcase some of the alternative viewpoints on the war that aren’t held by the main characters of my story.
A portion of the first article in The Times about the Custom House fire, printed on February 14, 1814
- Parallels and Alternate Experiences: Some of the epigraphs are not specifically connected to any of the events, but they create parallel narratives and showcase alternate experiences. For instance, in each of the books I include excerpts about women in disguise or as spies. In London Spy, the weather acts as a sort of character and so receives a number of newspaper excerpts.
- Other Purposes: At times the newspaper excerpts are in conversation with the subtext of the novel, deal with the themes of the book, or add humor or satire to elements of a chapter.
How did you find the excerpts?
For each of the books, I waited until at least the third draft to start looking for newspaper headings. I needed the overall story to be mostly solidified, and I wanted the date each chapter occurred to be relatively fixed.
I used two newspaper subscriptions: a personal subscription to the British Newspaper Archives (which has digitized hundreds of newspapers), and a university subscription to The Times.
The tricky part is that computer programs have a hard time reading old newspapers, some of which were not well preserved. If you do a search in the British Newspaper Archives for the name Napoleon or Bonaparte in the year 1814, you’re lucky if the computer program finds 10% of the actual references. (It also doesn’t help that some of the newspapers wrote his name as Buonaparte to try to delegitimize his rule.). Most of the time instead of searching, I would download half a dozen different newspapers for a given day and read them.
Sometimes I had something very specific in mind that I was looking for—I was looking for a news story Bonaparte, crime, the stock exchange, the or the Viennese Waltz, or the weather. Yet most of the time I didn’t have a specific type of news in mind. Instead, I would read the articles with a sense of discovery, letting myself wander to columns or advertisements that drew my attention, and finding endless connections to my book. Sometimes I would find the perfect article quickly; other times I would choose three or four possibilities and then consider which really had the effect I wanted for the chapter, and fit the overall arc of the epigraphs.
I quickly got a good feel for different newspapers of the news, which ones were liberal or conservative, had the most interesting ads, included a regular fashion column, published poetry, or wrote the best opinion pieces. There was also a variety of different formats—while many of the newspapers only printed ads on the first page, others included articles from the start. Newspapers would reprint articles from other papers, and sometimes the news would be about events weeks or months in the past, depending on how long it took the information to reach England’s shores.
Sometimes I shifted the dates and timeline for a book because I really wanted to use as particular newspaper heading. And I definitely revised numerous details in the chapters because of things I learned through reading the newspapers—for example, in London Spy, Kitty’s reference to ice skating in Hyde Park came from a newspaper reference.
I have now read hundreds of newspapers from 1813, 1814, and 1815, and I feel like doing so has not only helped my books, but made me a more interesting person at parties—after all, who doesn’t want to hear 1814 trivia?
More About My Journey with Newspapers
All this newspapering has influenced my readings of other Jane Austen texts.
- I was recently a guest on the podcast The Thing About Austen, talking about Anne’s newspapers in Persuasion.
- I wrote a post for Jane Austen’s World about how 1814 newspapers should impact our reading of the snow scene in Emma.
I also did a guest post on My Favorite Bit, talking about some of my favorite newspaper excerpts.
Coming Soon!
Next week, on this blog, I’ll be posting about my trip to London and how that influenced the setting of The True Confessions of a London Spy. I’ll also be showing some of the actual dresses that were influences for Fanny’s designs. So come back to the blog, keep a watch on social media, or subscribe to my newsletter!