{"id":10879,"date":"2024-03-11T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10879"},"modified":"2024-03-10T19:28:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-10T23:28:36","slug":"letting-dr-john-watson-occupy-your-writing-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10879","title":{"rendered":"Letting Dr. John Watson Occupy Your Writing Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Authors of the 14 pastiches in the recent anthology, Sherlock Holmes: A Year of Mystery 1885<\/em><\/a>, edited by Richard T. Ryan, talked about how they time-travel from the 21st century back to the Victorian era for their stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the anthology\u2019s contemporary authors\u2014including DJ Tyrer, George Gardner, and George Jacobs say re-reading some of the Sherlock Holmes stories gets them going. This, or watching one of the Basil Rathbone films, helps Hassan Akram \u201cget into Watson\u2019s mental atmosphere.\u201d Tyrer uses the original stories to channel Watson\u2019s voice and remind himself how Holmes talks. When Gardner starts writing, he tries to adhere to the stories\u2019 basic structure: Watson sets the scene, a visitor arrives at Baker Street and explains the problem, Holmes (and sometimes Watson, too) investigates, the villain is apprehended, and the pair discuss the case in an epilogue. If Jacobs gets stuck, he finds a jumping off point by seeing how Conan Doyle approached an analogous situation in one of the stories. He also says that the audiobooks narrated by Simon Vance help him \u201ckeep the voice going in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Gardner noted, \u201cWatson has quite a direct voice suited for action scenes, but he still retains a Victorian flourish in some of his descriptions.\u201d The language \u201chas to be consistent not only with the era, but also with Watson\u2019s social standing and experience,\u201d Gustavo Bondoni says, adding that Watson is \u201ca gentleman with a military (and medical past), he will think in very specific ways, and I don\u2019t want to get out of that groove.\u201d Katy Darby says \u201cImitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but it has to be accurate, otherwise, what\u2019s the point?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stories have to establish the right tone, too. Paul Hiscock says that the author guidelines for one of the first of the many Holmes pastiches he has written advised that Watson should always refer to The Great Detective as Holmes, not Sherlock. This formal touch, even within such a close relationship, helps establish that correct tone and, with all his experience, he says, \u201cthese days I barely think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Marcum has written so many Sherlockian pastiches that the can afford to, as he says, \u201csimply wait for Watson to speak.\u201d He says he never knows more about the situation than does Watson, \u201cwho is in the middle of it and watching it unfold\u201d (spoken like a true pantser). This makes the story all very immediate to him, and he says he can re-read one of his earlier stories and, \u201cexcept for a few plot highlights, the whole thing is a surprise to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting into Watson\u2019s head? Kevin Thornton says, \u201cA slightly pompous, middle-aged, educated white man? I think I have that covered.\u201d LOL<\/p>\n\n\n

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Let\u2019s take a closer look at Paul Hiscock\u2019s captivating story, \u201cThe Light of Liberty,\u201d dealing with political and fundraising difficulties surrounding the Statue of Liberty. Designed and built in France, the Colossus was to arrive (disassembled) in New York in 1885, there to await completion of its pedestal. But a key piece of the statue\u2014the Flame of Liberty\u2014has been stolen from a warehouse near the docks in Rouen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holmes and Watson journey to France to sort out this tricky diplomatic business, which is perfectly suited to Holmes\u2019s deft touch. You\u2019ll meet French Inspector Lapointe, even more reluctant to accept Holmes\u2019s help than his English counterparts. Libert\u00e9<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See how these authors put fact and fiction together. Their stories in Sherlock Holmes: A Year of Mystery 1885<\/em><\/a> are:
D.J. Tyrer – \u201cThe Japanese Village Mystery\u201d
George Gardner – \u201cThe Adventure of the Damaged Tomb\u201d
George Jacobs – \u201cThe Mystery of the Cloven Cord\u201d
Hassan Akram – \u201cThe Return of the Buckinghamshire Baronet\u201d
Gustavo Bondoni – \u201cThe Burning Mania\u201d
Katy Darby – \u201cThe Adventure of the Lock Hospital\u201d
Shelby Phoenix – \u201cSherlock Holmes and the Six-Fingered Hand Print\u201d
Paul Hiscock – \u201cThe Light of Liberty\u201d
David Marcum – \u201cThe Faulty Gallows\u201d
Kevin Thornton – \u201cTracks Across Canada\u201d and \u201cTracked Across America\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo of Sherlock Holmes London statue by Oxfordian Kissuth, Creative Commons license<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authors of the 14 pastiches in the recent anthology, Sherlock Holmes: A Year of Mystery 1885, edited by Richard T. Ryan, talked about how they time-travel from the 21st century back to the Victorian era for their stories. Most of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"What techniques do successful authors of Holmes\/Watson pastiches use to channel the voice, sensibilities, and style of John Watson, MD?","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1335,61,174,120,29],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-10879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amateur-detective","category-character","category-first-draft-blog","category-short-story","category-writing","tag-sherlock-holmes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2Pt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10883,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10879\/revisions\/10883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}