This week, we finally managed to install our new (not new ) item of furniture - a mid-18th Century grandfather clock. It's not bright and shiny like more modern ones, but a dark oak with a warm patina which the beeswax polish is drawing out. In order to set it up, we had to do a certain amount of research - how to hang the pendulum, where the weight went on the endless chain - and it got me thinking... where and when did certain divisions of time come from? The time periods which I have written either had household clocks or didn't, I have not written novels from the time of their invention. Clocks have been around for a long time, and the obsession with measuring time in an ordered fashion dates back to at least the ancient Sumerians. It was they who established a circular reading of time and, I imagine, the sixty seconds/minutes came about as much because it was an easy way to divide a circle as anything else. But it wasn't until much later that the precision of seconds ...
With global events reaching a boiling point, I've been thinking quite a lot about what makes a hero or heroine. Because it's an historical fiction blog, that's what I'm focussing on, but I'm pretty sure these thoughts can pass over onto other genres too.
The first thing is that the hero/ine does not have to be the main character. Tolkien said that Samwise Gamgee was the real hero of The Lord of the Rings (which can hardly come as a shock to anyone who has read it) but he was not the main - or even the second - character. If you are writing with an ensemble cast, this is a more obvious distinction. Chances are, if you have only one major character, they are also going to be the hero/ine.
Next, consider that a hero/ine does not have to be right the whole time. The important thing about their decisions is twofold:
- They always do what they believe to be best for other people
- They always work (and hopefully achieve!) to put right any harm their choices have made
These two factors must go hand-in-hand. Without the second one you could potentially have (at best) an antihero or (at worse) a psychotic lunatic. Without the first you just end up with a character who is constantly a little bit preachy as they go around mopping up other people's mess.
Throughout history there have been some fantastic examples of hero/ines. But a word of warning! If you choose to write about one of them, remember they are probably someone else's hero/ine and they might have very different ideas about how that person would have responded to whatever situation you put them in. This can cause a reader who might have really enjoyed every other aspect of your book to grow unsatisfied with it. I'm not saying you should never write about real heroes or heroines, but that you should be prepared for the readers' response!!!
But, I suppose the most important thing of all, is that a hero/ine - a true hero/ine - puts themselves after the wellbeing of others. It would be untrue to say that they never think of themselves, but they have to prioritise others. There will be slip-ups, there can be massive flaws, and they should never be perfect. But they have to be the next best thing!
Finally, remember that those people who you find heroic are not necessarily the same as other people's. They might not agree with you, but that is the reader's right. I don't hold with "the author is dead", but just bear in mind that - in order to produce your best work - you will be writing for yourself as much as anyone else.
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