Where am I on the New History Press book?

Well, I am nearing the end of my writing for this book. I only have about 5000 words left to write and five stories I'd like to include. This means they have to be short stories or I have to cut back somewhere. I'm just happy to have found the material I want to write rather than fishing for something to fill in. I also have more images than I can use which is good. It will be difficult to cut back on these as I really like them all but something has to go.


Today, I am working on one of the last stories. I am very excited about it but also concerned with keeping down the word count while still making the story dynamic. For that reason, I have decided to tell the story from a different perspective. I like to do that for one or two stories anyway. My books are not supposed to be reports of facts but rather give the reader a sense of the human emotions of living in a time and place during an event, I'm a storyteller telling history rather than a historian relating a story.

Right now I am trying to decide if I want to write this story in first person, the only one like it in the book, or just tell the story as it specifically follows a real character, also unique to this book but less glaring. I am leaning toward the latter. Telling in first person means creating thoughts for the character since they did not leave a journal of their thoughts. Following the character will allow me to tell the reader what the character sees and hears and might feel based on historical context, always safer when not all the facts are known.

I will preface the story with events that led up to it, tell his story, and then close the story as I always do by letting the reader know how things are in that location today.

Okay, enough ruminating, time to write!