Patrick G. Whalen

Years ago, when I first began to realize a personal ambition to become a writer, I thought it was as simple as putting pen to paper. As any writer will attest, the process is nowhere near that cut and dry.

Of course I do not mean to say that writing is difficult. With few exceptions, anyone can write. My problem was that I actually desired people to read my words. Therein lies the rub. Writing something that is not only readable, but enjoyable, suspenseful, and perhaps even meaningful.

If you want to write for readers, you can’t afford to cut corners. It is reasonable to expect that more experienced, published writers may indeed cut corners, but I tend to believe that to be an exception to the norm. The success rate for a person who sits down at a table and pens, from beginning to end, a best-selling work is astronomically low.

There are scores of great blogs and how-to’s out there that cover the necessary mechanics to a well-written manuscript. This entry however focuses on only one aspect of the process.

When I first began to realize that my writing was sub par, I too began looking into the how-to’s of writing, and still do. One of the themes that kept recurring in my research was this: Write What You Know!

I went through self-inventory processes to define just what it was that I knew so that I could begin writing. The problem was that upon honest reflection upon the things that I knew, I realized I didn’t know what I wanted to write. Oh I knew what I wanted to write, but I didn’t know much, if anything, about the subjects. What was I to do?

Two obvious options surfaced:

1) I could change what I wanted to write about and focus instead on what I already knew
2) I could learn more about what I wanted to write about

I chose option 2, but the subsequent question was, “Where to begin?”

Those were the days before the internet so I began in the library. I wore out my library card even had to pay a hefty overdue fine when I discovered one of the books had travelled around the world with me on a US Navy vessel. I spent so much time at the library, and visiting battlefields, that it wasn’t long before my friends began wondering who my secret lover was!

The advent of the internet has made such research more accessible, but it has been incrementally more essential to check and recheck sources. The internet can be a great tool, but if you remember back to the beginning of this article, anyone can write.

Over the course of the last two decades of reading and research, I do not claim to be an expert upon the US Civil War, but I have arrived at the same understanding that most scholars come to. I know something about the subject, but the more I learn, the more I realize I do not know.

I think it is important for any writer, especially one engrossed in historical fiction, to reach this pinnacle. A writer who presumes to be an expert, often with little education (whether it be colligiate or personal), is bound to write a heap of garbage. People may read it, but what they have read is propaganda, not history. That, of course, is a hot topic for another time.

To return to the theme of today’s topic, if you want to write today, write what you know. If you desire to write on a subject you are unfamiliar or relatively unversed in, you need to read and research to a point that you know what you write.

Anyone who has tried their hand at writing has experienced swings from inspiration to boredom and creativity to lucidity. For me, what causes these things is not as important as how to handle them. Certainly being a husband, father of five and a Boy Scout Scoutmaster lends itself to periods of pure exhaustion. Still, there are those oasis periods in that I find hours upon hours without something “scheduled” to do.

Naturally when these periods occur I tell myself to run to the computer and begin writing. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Although I’m not much of a television person, I have been known to fill some of these downtimes with mindnumbing video excursions. Other times however I can be found sitting at my computer staring at a pure white screen that begs me to begin typing, but nothing comes.

The rarer of these occasions will find me at my computer, typing like a madman, unable to type as fast as my brain comes up with ideas. If I am writing on one particular project, those are some of the most fruitfull experiences. If instead I am simply writing to keep my mind excercised or to compose a short story or article, the files get saved and remain dormant somewhere within the recesses of that electronic black box.

In the past, I have had the luxury of specifically set aside times each day to write, but lately I primarily have only one small time slot during the week to write my great American novel. Sadly, these boxed in timeslots are often accompanied by an internal conflicted desire to simply relax. Sometimes that is just what I do.

Because my current status as a writer is more as a hobbyist than a career, I find it suitable to enjoy both the times of creation and relaxation. It has taken me a number of years to accept the fact that my novel will not be written this week, but each time I pen a scene or chapter, I feel a sense of accomplishment.

I rest in the hope that one day the story in my head will land in your hands, and the years of toil and rest will bring you joy and excitement.

What could possibly stir up more controversy concerning the US Civil War than the issue of slavery. If nothing comes to mind, the next time you are at a Civil War roundtable or reenactment, ask someone thier religious convictions about slavery.

To me, this was (and is) at the very heart of the matter. If modern historical-revisionists insist on their claim that the United States was not founded on Christian principles, let them tackle the slavery question from an atheistic point-of-view. Of course this is tried time and again through socio-economic terms, but those views simply fall flat upon the revelation of historical documentation.

I no longer actively participate in Civil War reenactments but did so for the better part of a decade. The groups I participated in were considered “hardcore” representations of historical units. Our efforts were less on the dates and battles that history textbooks are ripe with and more upon the realistic portrayal of the private soldier. The problem was, everyone seemed to want to play the part of the drunkard or irreverant and profane backslider.

Few to none actually felt inclined to play the part of the reverent Christian of which the majority of both armies consisted of. Most wanted to be the general or the captain or the lieutenant, but few wanted to represent the revered regimental chaplain. In fact, in my early days as a reenactor, it was my own personal disdain for the chaplain that caused me much strife on a weekend event.

Through fervent study to try to revise the chaplain from the field, I discovered a most uncommon history.