How The Turncoat in Carrington Park changed over time
I think it’s a common experience for writers to find their stories going in a direction they didn’t anticipate. I know that’s how it is for me. Loads of writers map out detailed outlines and are so in tune with their plots and characters that there are no surprises. Either I am not so skilled, or my brain simply doesn’t work that way, but the changes in The Turncoat in Carrington Park were so numerous that I can’t list them all here.
Warning: This list contains spoilers!
When I started this story in 2019...
Lottie’s name was Iris. I still actually love the name Iris for her, but I couldn’t find it on any lists of girls’ names in the 1700s. Not a single one. I considered leaving it and explaining it away with a “mother was a countrywoman, it was her favorite flower” bit, but ended out changing it.
Margery’s name was Sandra. This was just a placeholder until I could find something better.
Benjamin’s name was Sterling Powell. Again, I couldn’t find evidence that Sterling was a common name in the late 1700s. That normally wouldn’t bother me, but similar to Lottie, I didn’t think having a distinctive, unusual name would be a desirable/realistic quality for a spy.
Benjamin was originally a British redcoat. Changing him to an American colonist was a tough move that required an enormous amount of rewriting, but in the end it made him a more complex character and I’m so glad I made the change.
Lottie could read. I decided to add her illiteracy to underscore her feelings of powerless and marginalized position in her family, and it served as a unique obstacle for her to overcome (and plays a big part in the story’s climax, as you know if you’ve read it). At that time period, most urban women of her class would have been taught to read, so the fact that she couldn’t would have been considered shameful and something to keep secret. That she could carry that secret (among others) and ultimately overcome it gave deep insight into her character. It also showed the importance of being able to read during a conflict when so much information (and propaganda) was distributed in print.
Lottie played the violin, not the harpsichord. I changed it because I realized that no matter how many youtube videos I watched, or books I read about the history of the violin, I did not know how to play the violin. What I originally approached as a fun new challenge quickly became a nuisance. So in true “write what you know” spirit, I changed her instrument to the harpsichord since I play the piano. This was a big motivational push for me, since at the time I made this change I was struggling to find time to write, and I wanted to make it as frictionless as possible to get words on the page.
The story was originally set in Philadelphia. Changing this, again, required loads of rewrites. Setting the story near Philadelphia was crucial since that’s where the actual winter occupation took place. I looked at tons of old maps of the city, watched tourism videos, and learned a lot about the city’s layout before I decided to pull the plug. Making Luntley as a fictional “sister city” gave me more freedom to tell the story without the constraints of dealing with real historical locales and people who lived there.
The ending. I wrote, or at least started writing, about four different endings before I settled on the one I ultimately published. It was very important to me that it have a lively, unfinished business type air to it, similar to the movie Master and Commander. I love the ending of that movie. It could have easily wrapped everything up in a nice neat bow, but they threw in that last twist and sent it shooting off in a totally unexpected direction. I think it shows great skill and restraint on the parts of the filmmakers, and I wanted the end of my story to have a similar feel. You could also argue the ending has a bit of Jason Bourne flavoring, and I’m okay with that too!
Have you ever started a book that ended out veering off in a totally unexpected direction? Or have you ever made big changes to your plot/characters/setting that you weren’t sure about? How did it turn out for you? Let me know in the comments!