Who I was

[mongrel]

I've gotten out of the persona aspect of this sport almost completely, simply because my gun work and trying to SELL my work doesn't leave much time for a whole lot of anything else. But when I did step into the shoes of a man way back, a lot of the back story came easy to me. I applied some basic circumstances of my own life, adapted to the different time period. So....

Back in high school for obscure reasons I had the nickname "Alex", and my brother's middle name is Patrick, and my dad's surname at birth was Craner. By heritage I'm primarily Scots-Irish and Irish with drops of English and Scottish mixed in. At times in my life that I didn't want to give my real name (allowing religious folks at the front door to put me on mailing lists, for instance) I could rattle off "Alex Craner" or "Alexander Patrick Craner" without a second thought. Made sense to stick with the name and stay true to my own breeding. And as far as what brought me to the Colonies, just after the F&I War -- the course of my actual life made possible a back story of running out of both financial and legal luck in Ulster, and to avoid some rather unpleasant consequences allowing myself to be sold into the slavery that we now politely refer to as indentured servitude. I've always been a loner and circumstances have made it such that I'm perfectly content with my own company, most times, and I have what you might call a knack for weapons. After serving my stretch of servitude (five years, not seven, owing to having skills that were fairly profitable to my master and that thus allowed me to pay off my contracted debt that much sooner) I had no particular desire to be around people, had put back sufficient money of my own to outfit myself with a rifle and such other gear as I needed, and after doing so turned my back on the civilized world and people in it.

I could rattle off dates and details, lots of them, but the fact is back in the day no one would have asked (more than once) and I wouldn't have been inclined to say, so that's sufficient.

I found at the tail-end of doing this, I'd wonder, as no doubt Alex did, back in the day, when and if the excretion was going to hit the fan so far as the Gov't overstepping its bounds and what seem like a pitifully few folks getting into a way of thinking that they're not going to put up with it much longer. But that is a discussion for a different type of forum -- let's not go there.

Most of my reenacting, if you'd call it that, I did while actually hunting (something else I find I don't have time for, any more), or if I attended an event I wasn't part of any group or camp -- I just sort of drifted around, visiting people I might be acquainted with but basically keeping to myself. Needless to say, at that rate attending events never made a lot of sense -- hanging around people when in real life and in persona I don't care to be around people. But that also was in keeping with my persona, and for better or worse what I really am.

Now I'm a guy cobbling primarily percussion trade rifles, more of an 1840's thing than pre-Revolution, so Alex is just someone I used to be. But I did enjoy the walk in his shoes, while it lasted.

[heatherhistorian]

 

[Hawken50]

  I thought your persona was a devil pup that liked to whis acid on unsuspecting ankles.

[mongrel]

I thought your persona was a devil pup that liked to whis acid on unsuspecting ankles.

No, no, that's who I actually AM. I only pretend to be human....

[mongrel]

A thumbs-up from you, m'lady, tells me I didn't do too awful bad in nailing down a once-upon-a-time identity.

Truthfully, though, the fact is I've been writing historical fiction of one era or another (viking/Celtic, complete fantasy based on vikings and Celts, the Reformation period in Europe, and Colonial/Revolutionary America) since I was thirteen, and early on I came across a really cool article on creating believable fictional characters. The focus of the article was a twenty-five-point list of details about the character, ranging from his, her, or its name and birthdate to favored pasttimes to best friends to basic life philosophy. The author of the article insisted that if the creator of a character could not give convincing answers to each and all of the twenty-five questions, then that writer really didn't know the character well enough to write about. Even details that would never figure in a story, not in a million years, were part of who that person was and as such knowing them was to know how he/she/it would act, think, and feel in any given situation.

It was actually really easy to apply the same focus to a persona, and doubly easy because in my family history has always been a popular subject of discussion and a certain amount of wishful thinking (dad and I both would prefer an abrupt end on March 6, 1836, at the Alamo, to the long wasting that is a "civilized" death today), so the only real research I had to do was external -- clothes, weapons, accoutrements, and things in the world around him that Alex would have been aware of and affected by. The man himself I looked inside for. Being sort of the eternal outsider makes it easy, in a way, to fit myself into most any situation -- even one two hundred years removed from my own reality.

[heatherhistorian]

Totally understand what you mean. You can be the eternal outsider and I am ever the "weirdo" of my family...labels put on us by society because the don't understand how to look deeply at a subject and take from it. We preserve the lifestyles of our forefathers for future generations.

Enjoy your writings on here too by the way.

[Bulldog lady]

   Totally facinating- would you share the list of 25?  Why is it- we the black sheep - are always the ones mis-understood- and yet manage to preserve the old ways and yet  make paths toward new ways keeping in mind the old?  Does that  make sense??   One last question, totally off the subject--your devil dog kinda reminds me of some of my old greyhounds at times, they was always (or most of the time, unless you was fuzzy) comical, loving, and great creatures.  I raised them for over 15 years so had the chance to experience the whole gamet of their unique personalities.  Just wonderin.    thanks for all the stories and info,  loved it. 

[mongrel]

Unfortunately I lost the list, a long, long time ago. There have been moves from California to Arizona, living single in Arizona to married in Arizona, then AZ to Indiana, and here in Indiana from married to single again. Somewhere on my back trail....

In no particular order, as best I can remember it: The character's name, birthdate, age at the time the story begins, and birthplace -- even in purely fantasy stories it was expected that there would be some context in which all this could be established. Physical traits -- skin, eye, and hair color, height, weight, and basic build. The character's parents, siblings, best friend, worst enemy, and acquaintances for good or ill. The form of religion/spirituality subscribed to (of which in a sense even atheism qualifies). Basic worldview (optimist, pessimist, pessimistic realist, etc). Occupation. Pasttimes and hobbies. Major problem/challenge (in a given story or series of stories). Political and/or social system in which the character operates. That's twenty-one, the other four elude me.

Might seem to leave a lot out but when you get into really defining those traits you find yourself not only defining a person but an entire way of life and by extension a whole society or even world. I believe there might have been a category regarding defining moments to shape the character's point of view, but if not a person going into the proper depth would ask, "All right, my character is a realistic pessimist -- what events have caused or reinforced this basic way of looking at life?" And even if it wasn't actually on the list it was a question that required a specific answer.

Basically you grew this person in your mind, envisioning first a child brought up in a family and society that to some degree, as with all of us, imparted or inflicted numerous points of view, attitudes, and prejudices, then envisioning the world and the circumstances in that world that have brought this person to the point he/she/it is at, at the beginning of the tale. NOT GOOD ENOUGH to dismiss all the backstory with, "He's a viking (or a longhunter or a voyageur or mountain man or whatever)" -- as if that statement cancels out a childhood, parents, some attitude toward the world, and what the guy might actually enjoy doing or be obliged to do when he's not raiding in Ireland or exploring the Dark and Bloody Ground. As stated in the article I cribbed the list from, it makes the difference between a cardboard cutout and a real person.

As far as the mutt -- that's some form of Chinese breed, and the specific one in my avatar won the World's Ugliest Dog contest several years in a row, until its death (or being called home to Hell) a few years ago. I knew the instant I saw the picture that that was the vaguely-disturbing image I wanted to present to the world. The eyes glowing in the camera flash were the crowning touch.

[gunmaker]

Truly a dog to warm one's heart, if'n ya got one...........The only real black sheep ram in my family..........Tom