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!

Story

The originally written prologue (originally also the only thing I was going to try to stick to throughout the story) has now been changed. Initially, it was Carrington breaking down after all of the events had taken place, including the relief of the bodies that he took part in etc, but now it's John Portugee Phillips, the civilian miner, arriving from his long, epic ride across hostile Indian territory 240 miles in a blizzard, at Fort Laramie, to deliver the news of the massacre to General Palmer and his Officers there. Reality has, at this point, turned up with another great event too because when he at last arrived there, freezing cold and exhausted, there was a Christmas ball taking place near the Officers quarters so that means I can use lots of comparisons and contrasts ! Also, because of the day he arrives, I can also try and compare it to the three Kings in Bethlehem, following the star (in this case, the lights of the ball) and also Santa (in this case, John Phillips arriving with an almost white beard!) . That's if Santa was celebrated over there then....Have to check that ^^
I changed the whole Carrington thing because after writing his profile, I thought that I'd been working up to get him a big cover up for his truly worried and stressed personality so he comes across relatively calm and level headed to his men. Having him immediately break this facade would downplay all this it would be more dramatic if it was built up to, rather than said immediately.
Plus, I have to change some of the parts I've written already - namely the parts with Captain Brown in the first section, as I've written him as quite impatient and irritable about Powell who is riding with back from the wood train. In fact, he was quite good natured and happy go lucky so instead of acting so miserable around Powell like he is at the moment in the story, he's going to act pretty respectful around him but when Powell turns his back, he shakes his head like he thinks he's just a joke. This may be shared with some of the Officers with him. This change also kind of helps accentuate Fetterman's irritable personality.
Also on the subject of writing, I've added some parts that kind of suggest Carrington sent them out to the massacre. He was accused of that by a few people after the events and I think it's a really interesting take on it. Obviously, he was blamed for it by many people but to actually say he was the cause of it is slightly different. So, to reflect this, some of his feelings towards Fetterman are thrown out of context and perspective at some points, implying (or not, however it's taken) that he would send him to his death, or at least he wanted to. That sounds very dark but it makes it interesting ^^ An example of how exaggerated he gets now is that in their huge argument (the first real time Fetterman and Carrington actually have direct anger poured out to each other in front of one another), Carrington gets carried away and gives into true, furious feelings, hitting Fetterman. Fetterman doesn't say anything to anyone else after - purely because he doesn't really get the chance and plus, he's trying to get the command of the fort after Carrington is relieved (because of the reorganisation of the army) and the people investigating whether Carrington actually acting violently towards him would draw up the question of why he did hit him and this would reveal Fetterman's violent actions towards him and so on... - but Carrington gets even more paranoid he will.
A book that has really helped with is one I got for my birthday: Dee Brown's The Fetterman Massacre. Thankyou Dee, once again! :D