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So, this year ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
st_aurafina and I are going to try Nanowrimo, which I'm sure you're all sick of by now! I'm writing a superhero story set in 1920s Tokyo, feauturing a young country girl named Tomoko. She's come to the city to work as a telephone operator and send money back to her parents and sisters. She loves the excitement of the city, but as her powers develop, Tomoko has to fight hard to hang on to her happy life.
Choosing a historical setting for my first try at Nano may not be as insane as it sounds - back in the day, I studied Japanese literature, history and language at university and have plenty of background knowledge about the Taisho period (1912-1926: Japanese eras are named after the Emperor). It's an exciting time of modernity and freedom, particularly for young women, before the growth of the militarism and nationalism of the early Showa period (1926-1989) that leads into the colonisation of China and WWII. For any story set in Japan at this time, a major event is the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which killed about 140000 people, and will happen towards the end of the story. I feel a bit odd writing about a disaster that is still in living memory, but I think as long as I don't have Tomoko miraculously save large numbers of people or save the historic buildings that burnt, I'm not writing with the ashes of the dead. Please let me know if you think otherwise - I'd love an outside opinion on this.
Likest_aurafina, I'm reading the official Nano book, "No Plot No Problem" and so have made a list of things I like and don't like in fiction. A good number of them apply to fantasy worlds, so I hope they're not too hard to avoid, and I shouldn't have a problem with "Magical Negro" tokenism, as my entire cast is Asian (and then I think "OMG! I'm fetishing my entire cast! No, wait! I'm okay - there are no samurai or ninja!" and my head starts to spin). I have no title yet, but I've been looking through the tanka of Akiko Yosano (a popular feminist poet of the time) for a quote to use as a title. Unfortunately, her poetry is sexy, sexy stuff and my story is not!
( Likes and Dislikes in Fiction )
st_aurafina and I are going to try Nanowrimo, which I'm sure you're all sick of by now! I'm writing a superhero story set in 1920s Tokyo, feauturing a young country girl named Tomoko. She's come to the city to work as a telephone operator and send money back to her parents and sisters. She loves the excitement of the city, but as her powers develop, Tomoko has to fight hard to hang on to her happy life.Choosing a historical setting for my first try at Nano may not be as insane as it sounds - back in the day, I studied Japanese literature, history and language at university and have plenty of background knowledge about the Taisho period (1912-1926: Japanese eras are named after the Emperor). It's an exciting time of modernity and freedom, particularly for young women, before the growth of the militarism and nationalism of the early Showa period (1926-1989) that leads into the colonisation of China and WWII. For any story set in Japan at this time, a major event is the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which killed about 140000 people, and will happen towards the end of the story. I feel a bit odd writing about a disaster that is still in living memory, but I think as long as I don't have Tomoko miraculously save large numbers of people or save the historic buildings that burnt, I'm not writing with the ashes of the dead. Please let me know if you think otherwise - I'd love an outside opinion on this.
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st_aurafina, I'm reading the official Nano book, "No Plot No Problem" and so have made a list of things I like and don't like in fiction. A good number of them apply to fantasy worlds, so I hope they're not too hard to avoid, and I shouldn't have a problem with "Magical Negro" tokenism, as my entire cast is Asian (and then I think "OMG! I'm fetishing my entire cast! No, wait! I'm okay - there are no samurai or ninja!" and my head starts to spin). I have no title yet, but I've been looking through the tanka of Akiko Yosano (a popular feminist poet of the time) for a quote to use as a title. Unfortunately, her poetry is sexy, sexy stuff and my story is not! ( Likes and Dislikes in Fiction )