Opening the Gates

Well, first things first. 144 years ago today, Fort Phil Kearny was completed, or at least, as much as to have a celebration ceremony and to raise the flag. The fort would last little over 2 years but obviously nobody anticipated that back then, certainly not Carrington who spoke at the opening like he was running for president. This was just about the time when the troubles that had been brewing started to boil over though and get even worse.
Aside from this anniversary, I have finally finished the timelines for 1866. It took a while (and December seemed to be even harder than the rest of them because the sheer amount of things that go on in them - and I even cut out the battles to write about them on a separate sheet) but they are done at last and now I only have to do the 1867 timeline with the more political things that happened because of the fight and all the reorganisation. After that, I get the chance to go through them again and cut out things I don't want and choose which bits I do want and eventually put in the fictional events so they all fit together. Saying it this way makes it seem like I am actually close to finishing the planning and research! I might be but I still feel like there is quite a bit to do.
For example, Smoky's character profile needs to be cracked on with which I have been meaning to do for a while. However, he has quite a lot already made up and done for him so it should be fun to do his profile. The only thing is I need to look up the Native American lifestyle and childhood a bit more.
To keep track of everything I still need to do, I stuck a bit 'To Do' List up on my pinboard in my room, as well as the little one in the old Fighting With Their Eyes Closed folder (and other little ones I seem to keep writing). This one has more of a colour code system with green if I've done it and red if it definitely needs to be - the only one of these 'reds' so far is Smoky's character profile. I did have dates written next to the things that needed to be done (or the more important ones anyway) but I crossed this out pretty much as soon as I'd written them, knowing I'd never work against a schedule for this - until it comes to writing it, I suppose!
The Character Dynamics sheets are going well though - Carrington's has been completed and printed out into the (relatively) new folder and Fetterman's has been started too and as I'm doing them, more ideas are coming up.
Sticking with ideas for the moment, I have been thinking about where this story is going to start and end and yesterday, a few things were cut out. For instance, I'm not sure about Tom - Willow's brother who is a journalist - telling the story anymore as that just adds another story on top of everything else and also, I don't think I'll actually write the events of 1867 or 1868, other than a mention - or a developed mention. I would love one of the endings for the story me and my dad talked about but I think it might be too dramatic and I want the Fetterman fight to be the climax of the story. However, I'm having more luck with the beginning of the story. I was thinking about going back to the old John Phillips opening (and when writing him down into the timeline, I can't wait to write his part!) but I'm still very keen on starting it with one of Willow's surreal and recurring nightmares.
Talking about Willow, his profile is coming along nicely though it is becoming more of a thing to do when I haven't got much else to do which is okay as I have most of Willow finished anyway! Also, with the characters, Grummond, like I said in the last entry, is being a darling to develop and I'm thinking about giving him a different personality almost every day and even to follow the 'Seven Deadly Sins' over time - or at least some of them!
Also, my Uncle and brother want a picture version of the story, seeing as both of them are more into films than books so I had fun drawing some of the characters on Photoshop and adding a little write-up to them - despite the slowness of my nan's computer sometimes! They are still ongoing as it is a nice little thing to do!
As well as this, my dad, who loves music and writing it, has a new music software on his computer that he has written a few things on based on the story and I love them so far! I will listen to them when writing for the feel of things!
In other news, I saw Glory recently and I liked it a lot! One of the top Civil War films I've seen!

It's On Now, If It Wasn't Already

It's on now, if it wasn't already.
But to begin with, as this will probably be the first blog entry in the new folder to keep track of everything for Fighting With Their Eyes Closed, welcome! The last folder was getting way too full so now we're moving into another for the next pieces of information, documents, pictures and so on for most of it!
Anyway, in the last entry, I said that Willow's character was being developed quite a lot. That's continued and now I am growing to adore him which is always nice for writing. But as well as Willow, Lieutenant Grummond is taking a form that I also am growing to love. He's got a bit (okay, very) unstable and unpredictable personality and nobody really knows what he's going to do or say next which makes them pretty wary of him! Along with him, he's brought some nice little other scenes, as has Lieutenant Bisbee too, and all of the 'other' characters' personalities and such are being put into 'mini' character profiles that are shorter than Willow's, Carrington's and Fetterman's (and eventually Smoky's) but by no means 'short'.
The timelines are going on too. August is finished, as is September and at the moment I'm on October and there are some nice (probably the wrong word to use...) events that I'm going to try and incorporate into the story. Thank God for Dee Brown, even if he was wrong about Captain Fetterman (or at least in this story's terms he is...!).
A character dynamics sheet has also been started, talking about the relationships and opinions and feelings between different characters. There are about 22 different pairings to cover and so far, I think I've done about five; Carrington and Fetterman (that took ages!!), Carrington and Willow, Carrington and Brown, Carrington and Grummond and at the moment, Carrington and Bisbee.
Too, I've been reading Terry C Johnston's Sioux Dawn that is about the Fetterman fight and some of the events leading up to it which is pretty handy for the dialogue but he still portrays Fetterman as an arrogant, brash commander which I totally disagree with now.
Relating to the letter I mentioned in our county press last entry as well, I did get a reply back from that which was good!
Also, a plan to get to America next year has been set up and I'm entering writing competitions, car boot sales and so on to get enough money for it! This trip will definitely include Fort Phil Kearny (at least what's left of it) and the Fetterman fight location and I will at last get to see beautiful America!
In other news, I watched The Colt (2005) a week back and it is simply incredible. I don't really know what else to say about it apart from that it was absolutely beautiful.