Creating Characters

Some writing musings as I write the first draft of the 3rd Light Dragoons series:

Writing a historical character can be both easy and hard. Easy if there are a lot of source materials and analysis to figure out what makes the character tick and what are their wants, needs and interactions with others around them.

Good example: George Washington. Stoic, proud and very, very understated in both anger and frustration. History books tells us Washington was humble and a calm leader at times, but reading the letters and lots of analysis, Washington was a very proud man and easily frustrated by the politicking of the American Revolution. He was also very controlled in his anger. It was always quiet and never explosive when it came to talking with anyone. A natural leader and always teaching his subordinates.

The hard portion of writing a historical character is if they have some information, but not enough to determine what are their wants and needs. Ezekiel Belden from the 2nd Light Dragoons is one good example. As is Colonel Elisha Sheldon.

For both of them, I took as much of the letters and what others have said about them through their own letters (i.e. Tallmadge, Blackden, etc.) and came up with what I hope was a good read on their characters. In turn, this also made me bend their stories a little bit to become foils to Tallmadge.

The last way to write a historical character is to take their name and wholesale make things up. Prime example: David Edgar and Andrew Adamson of the 2nd Light.

David Edgar existed on the roster rolls as a Captain from New Jersey and served in the 2nd Light. There were a couple of letters and mention about him - Sheldon's trial and Tallmadge's reports to Washington about Edgar's participation in several raids over the years, but nothing concrete to establish him. So I took those, turned it into timelines and worked him into a foil for Tallmadge.

Andrew Adamson then became the other foil - a completely wholly made up character to be what I needed him to be: an amalgamation of several of the non-coms in the story as well as a proxy for Tallmadge regarding spying since I did not want to rehash TURN: Washington's Spies' Abraham Woodhull and his actions.

All of this is to say that with Major Alexander Clough, it is fascinating that there are letters from him that give us a good idea of who he is and what his wants were, but the fact that he is a doomed character that will not see the end of the war. One could only speculate why he fought and what he wants and that's both fun and frustrating as a writer. I can wholesale his wants and needs, but I am also make a character that needs to carry the 1st book of the 3rd Light Dragoons in a compelling way.

So, when all is said and done - I hope that I do Major Alexander Clough justice with the 1st book in the 3DL series.