Early in my version of Treasure Island with a female protagonist I include an incident that actually happened to Princess Victoria before she became Queen of England. My protagonist plays a minor role in the episode and I drafted the scene based on a description I located during my research. From there I drafted the story using Treasure Island as my guide. Note, the first draft was completed during NANOWRIMO 2020. Getting words on the page was the goal each time I sat at the computer.
Draft two was an effort to clarify the narrative. Correcting the I-knew-what-I-meant-at-the-time problem of missing information, confusing pronouns, and so forth. I was part way into draft three when I realized I needed to keep track of the number of days the scenes covered and where they would be on the 1834 and 1835 calendars. The 1834 incident at the beginning of the novel had established the timing of everything that followed.
I wasn’t satisfied with the ending of the novel and wondered if there was a way to connect it back to the beginning of the story. So I went down the rabbit hole of online research to discover a possibility within the needed time frame.
That’s when I finally accessed pages of Princess Victoria’s journal that described the the 1834 incident with more accuracy than my original source (talk about firsthand witness!). Which indicated my scene needed to be rewritten. In matching scenes in the draft novel to the actual calendars I came across a major historical event that would have affected a minor character, so I had to at least reference it. Then I discovered a potential scene for the end of the novel at a specific location and date — provided it included Princess Victoria. I delved deeper into the rabbit hole on a topic I hadn’t originally expected to include in the novel. This raised more historical accuracy issues: if I could substantiate Princess Victoria’s presence for the intended scene, was it plausible for my protagonist to be back in England by that specific date.
ARGH!
And I thought it was difficult enough adapting a female protagonist at a different time period into the story framework of Treasure Island.
I think I finally have a handle on fitting the required scenes to tell a version of Treasure Island into actual historical events. Now to make sure I’ve included sufficient characterization into the this-happened-and-then-this-happened story action.
Mary S. Potter 