Yesterday, we had a workshop with Felicity Pulman, author of various bestsellers, who had the kindness to grace us with her guidance in writing historical fiction. I found it helpful in terms of the research needed to write historical fiction. What also intrigued me was how she thought about writing her novels - she saw it as an entire journey spread over six books; she knew what she wanted as the beginning and the end, and she had an idea of what sort of change that occurred in the character in the middle. This was very different from what I think of, when I write. We also did some character creating, but I didn't really do much there (sorry, Ms. Pulman) - well, except for creating a Russian 17yo boy called Alexei, who has brown hair and brown eyes, plus a freckle under his left eye, and is a manservant whose parents are a cook and a seamstress working in Catherine the Great's Winter Palace. Historical fiction sounds okay; I just am stuck on how I can work my question into a short story, etc.

Speaking of which, I have finally narrowed my topic down a little! Yay :D My question will basically be about how real Catherine the Great is through her memoirs and letters. A possible development of this question is 'How is she different from her letters to her memoirs?' or something like that. Why I am choosing this subtopic from 'Memoirs and Letters'? Because I assume that a large amount of information about Catherine is obtained from her memoirs and letters (mainly because from the films that we watched, there was a significant number of references to Catherine's letters and memoirs), and I am skeptical that her writings can be used as  reliable sources. I'll be probably addressing issues like identity and genuineness...which may be difficult without a well-rounded knowledge of Catherine's life, relationships, policies, etc. I have already been searching for letters and particularly, memoirs, that are in readable English. I think I'll do a little more research since the deadline's still a considerable while away. I will also try to come up with a way that I can incorporate 'How real Catherine is in her memoirs and letters' into historical fiction...

If you haven't checked the Notebook section yet, I'm glad. It's depressing seeing how the Summary Notes section is longer and more paragraph-filled than the Raw Notes section.

Other than that, I have discovered that there are actually a few useful websites out there for my topic! Applause. I will look into that a little later, but I am a bit proud that I have briefly recounted (of sorts) Catherine's life in a little more than several paragraphs. I'm thinking that I should look at videos, since I haven't been having much luck with websites...so, look forward to a video (hopefully) :) Also, my blog posts probably won't be so long anymore. I think my Journal will end up being more of an update-book than a legit 'write a two-page entry daily' diary. I think that's better for you (mr/ms reader) and moi. Less junk-reading for you, and less junk-writing for me, win-win.

On a side note, a lot of exchange students have arrived! Very exciting. Unfortunately, more so than scavenging the web for good websites on my topic. I've met a lot of lovely Germans and I'm looking forward to meeting some lovely Frenchpeople and Kiwis. I'm heading for Europe in the coming holidays, so I should probably learn as much as I can from them. Or stun them by my outstanding knowledge on a certain Enlightened autocrat, whichever suits. Have a nice weekend everyone :)

Back to school and we've received 2 assessment notifications and continuing an assessment task. Yay. I didn't do anything but sleep and eat in the holidays so I have made zero progress on this project :D Life is good.

A historical fiction incursion is heading our way which I'm looking forward to. I haven't decided yet on what medium I'm doing this project with, but historical fiction is a possibility. Maybe I'll write a Memoir? Does that fit into historical fiction?

Another topic that I just thought up a second ago is how Catherine the Great is portrayed. I noticed that she has a lot of variations in her appearance as well as the way she looks. For example, in one painting she looks like a really nice grandma and other times she's a beautiful stern empress. This also applied to the different films that we watched in class. I find this interesting, but I really hate analysing images and film, since we went bananas in doing that in English.

I will research a little more tomorrow about my initial topic - Memoirs and Letters. I have already made some notes, so I will post them up soon in my Notebook :)