Tomorrow is the first of June – and you can follow along, day by day, with our version of the classic story.
Meet our new characters as they come to grips with the Martian Invasion of 1897.
My character, Toni, had been challenged by Wells’ brother in May 1897, to keep a diary entirely in ‘telegram style’ for a month. Despite the challenges, she kept the style throughout the Martian invasion. For ease of understanding by the modern reader, since words such as Naloopen, or Empanel, are not in current usage her diary entries have been translated to current ‘text/tweet’ speak, for which telegram style was a forerunner.
This was an entirely different way of writing for me, but I had a lot of fun with it. When I re-read HG Wells’ classic story, I was struck by the more narrative structure of the book, when compared with our contemporary writing styles. Writing in ‘tweet’ or ‘text’ speak, with a limited number of characters per tweet made me condense my ideas down considerably. I began my writing career with an overly wordy style, which I hope has become less unwieldy over time. This time around, I endeavoured to convey my character’s thoughts and emotions as concisely as possible, while still retaining the sense of the moment.
I’ll leave it to you to let me know if I’ve succeeded. Hopefully you’ll also appreciate the interweaving of the story lines as well, as the story comes together day by day.
But it’s ready now, and tomorrow the entire project will step into reality!
Don’t forget to follow along at:
Leonie Rogers 