Possibilities: Changing Gears about a Character’s Background

FLDS…

Polygamy…

Placed Marriages…

Why in the world would I want to learn more about this off-shoot of… well I don’t really know how to explain it.

Let’s put it this way, a while back I wrote something that when I did some research and background prior to writing it involved being in an enclosed community that a couple of characters escaped from.

However as time wore on I started to feel unsure as to the legitimacy of what I was trying to do. So I decided to shelve the project until some smidgen of inspiration came for me to look at it again and rework it.

Well that moment happened and I found myself researching the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and their world which led me to look into the autobiographies of those that have escaped that particular world and their reasons (which tended to have similar reasons).

Thus how I found myself listening to the audiobooks of Elissa Wall (Stolen Innocence) and Carolyn Jessop (Escape and Triumph). As thus this post will begin with the first of the three audiobooks that I started listening to in an effort to understand the inner-workings of a community that I knew nothing about and suddenly have a desire to use as background information for a character and to use as realistically as possible.

What is interesting is that my original idea involved a completely different but also very secluded world in America. The only difference (that I know of) is that the original idea did not include polygamy while this plausible new idea does.

But how to create this world realistically? I am not entirely sure if this is something that has been done on a grand scale before… and even if it had are people willing to work with it? This is interesting indeed.

Yes I know I am being purposely vague, but this project is a continuous work in progress and as thus there is very little that I am willing to reveal… but I suppose the above clues would be enough to figure out an aspect of it.

UPCOMING
Literary Review: Elissa Wall’s Stolen Innocence
Literary Review: Carolyn Jessop’s Escape and Triumph

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