User talk:WBardwin/Chapter

Notes from Project Discussion Page
Right now I have written three pages, and I think that can be, if not enough perhaps for a chapter, then at least its a good start. Since I am not quite finished I won't post it on the project page yet, but I have put it in my user space. There are a number of things I would like to get comments on before "finalizing" the plot of the chapter (but, as I said, it is not done yet, I have a few more things to write).

Characters introduced:


 * Sir Gregory H. Christopher, protagonist and retired major
 * James "the Count" Winter, host and deceased
 * Johanna, his daughter
 * Adams, the butler
 * Lord Margret, a physician
 * Lady Janine Margret, his wife
 * Corporal Marsden, a young soldier
 * Lady Chetfield, anemic aristocrat
 * Roger Penfield, long time friend of the Count
 * Miss Inglewood, columnist
 * Ethelynn Strand, maid

Are these acceptable to everyone? I'm happy to change them if they arn't. If you want to introduce new characters, please do so in flashbacks or something, because I snowed the manor in. I'll be writing for a few more hours and see if I can get it done, but I'd love some comments if anyone has the energy to read what I wrote. Oh, and again, I apologise for the language. Gkhan 18:13, Apr 4, 2005 (UTC)


 * What if we took the info above, claimed a chapter, wrote from one of the listed characters or additional character's POV (I'll be Ethelynn, the new upstairs maid), and then put it together and edit jointly for content and flow? Each character would tell about events before, the murder, and events after from their POV, then we would have different snapshots to work from.  We could then jointly write the revelation of the murderer and the conclusion.  Having the first chapter to work from would be important, however.  How goes it, Gkhan? WBardwin 17:56, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Working Notes:
Novel Name:
 * Something about the manor house: "The Storm at Ravencroft House" "Storm at Falconhill Manor"  "Death at Eaglecrest Manor"
 * Winter's Dark Past: "White Revenge"  "Death's Due"

Murder and discovery:
 * If Lady Margret's version stands, Ethelynn alerts Christopher that something is wrong upstairs. What if -- Ethelynn, in the course of work on the bedrooms, sees blood on Mr. Winter's doorframe and on the carpet nearby.  She knocks on his door, receives no response and goes for help.  Adams is busy (hauling coal/firewood) and she can't immediately find him, so she goes to Christopher (because as a near neighbor, he is the only one of the guests she has met) as she doesn't want to alarm Miss Johanna.  We might have to shuffle events and times -- a lot happens that evening in Chapter 1 -- however, almost everything there could happen before the Margrets arrive, and Ethelynn's entrance into the party could be delayed until the Margrets settle in and socialize a little.

House structure and layout:


 * I've established three stories with stairwells, two wings of bedrooms, an entry hall, kitchen, dining room and servant's working areas and quarters. Others have referred to a living room, a billiards room and perhaps a library.  A house of this type might have something like a "great hall" either built on an axis through the centre of the house or at right angles to the entrance.

Re: consistency in naming rooms, see the following taken from Dining Room:   " In the middle ages, Britons in castles or large manor houses would eat in the Great Hall. This was a large multi-function room capable of seating the bulk of the population of the house. The family would sit at the head table on a raised dias, with the rest of the population arrayed in order of diminishing rank away from them. Tables in the great hall would tend to be long trestle tables with benches. The Great Hall would have been extremely noisy, and likely would have been quite smokey and malodorous, making it an unpleasant place to hold a discussion."

"In response to the discomforts of dining in the Great Hall, the nobility began to construct parlours or drawing rooms off the Great Hall. These were far smaller rooms to which the nobility could withdraw to relax and talk in comparative quiet. Over time, the nobility took more of their meals in the parlour, and the parlour became, functionally, a dining room (or was split into two separate rooms). It also migrated farther from the Great Hall, often accessed via grand ceremonial staircases from the dias in the Great Hall. Eventually dining in the Great Hall became something that was done only on special occasions."