by Stoker, Bram
I shall be with you tomorrow … P.M., and be assured until I see you I will keep in loving remembrance your last words and your fervent prayer!
Sleep well, and may God grant you a peaceful summer with your devoted
Edgar
LETTER #2
August 25, 1880
Dear friends,
I think I mailed you a letter recently, telling how I unfortunately had to leave Cyprus and how I arrived here after sailing down the Red Sea. Here I am working in the office of a coffee importer. The company agent is a retired general. Business is good, and is going to get better. I don’t earn much, it comes to about six francs a day, but if I stay here, and I have to stay, it’s so far from everywhere that I’ll have to stay a couple of months just to make a few hundred francs so I can leave if I have to well, if I stay, I think they’ll give me a responsible job, maybe an office in another city, and that way I’d be able to make something a little quicker.
Aden is a horrible rock, without a single blade of grass or a drop of fresh water: we drink distilled sea water. The heat is extreme, especially in June and September, which are the dog days here. The constant temperature, night and day, in a very cool and well-ventilated office, is 95 degrees. Everything’s is very expensive, and so forth. But there’s nothing I can do: I’m like a prisoner here, and I will certainly have to stay at least 3 months before getting on my own two feet again, or getting a better job.
How are things at home? Is the harvest finished?
Tell me what’s new.
Arthur Rimbaud
Born in 1854, Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud astonished the world as a teenage prodigy with his poetry, and he scandalized society with his libertine habits. He wrote for five years, then abandoned his wild ways, and attempted to become “petit bourgeois”—with little success. He died in 1891.
LETTER #3
To Michael Puchberg, merchant, of Vienna
June 1788
Honorable O.B.! (O.B. - Brother of the Order)
Dearest best of Friends!
The conviction that you are indeed my friend, and that you know me for a man of honour, emboldens me to disclose all my heart to you, and to make you the following petition. In accordance with the frankness natural to me I will go straight to the point without affectation.
If you would be so kind, so friendly, as to lend me the sum of one or two thousand gulden for a period of one or two years, at suitable interest, you would be doing me a most radical service! You will no doubt yourself realise and acknowledge that it is inconvenient, nay, impossible, to live from one installment of income to another! Without a certain necessary capital sum it is impossible to keep one’s affairs in order. Nothing can be done with nothing! If you will do me this friendly service I can imprimo (being in funds) more easily meet unavoidable expenses at the proper time, whereas now I have to postpone payment and then, usually at the most inconvenient time, part with my whole income at once and, secondo, work with a lighter heart and more care-free mind, and consequently earn more. As to security, I do not suppose you will entertain any doubts! You know, broadly speaking, how I stand, and you know my principles! You need have no anxiety about the subscription. I am now extending the time by a few months, and hope to find more patrons abroad than I do here.
I have now opened my whole heart to you in a situation of great gravity to myself—that is, I have acted as a true brother. But it is only with a true brother that one can be perfectly frank! I now look eagerly for an answer—indeed for a favourable answer. I do not know, but I think I see in you a man, who, like myself, if it is in any way possible will certainly help his friend, if he be a true friend, his brother, if he be indeed a brother. If you should perhaps be unable to spare so large a sum at such short notice, I beg you to lend me a few hundred gulden at least till tomorrow, as my landlord in the Landstrasse was so importante that, in order to avoid trouble, I was obliged to pay him on the spot, and this has put me to great embarrassment! We are to sleep to-day for the first time in our new quarters, where we shall remain summer and winter. I consider this will do equally well, if not better, for I have little to do in the town, and without hindrance of numerous visitors I shall have more time for work. If I have business to transact in the town, which will certainly be seldom, any fellow will take me there for ten kreutzers, while these rooms will be cheaper and pleasanter, too, during spring, summer and autumn, as I have a garden. Our rooms are in the Waringergasse, at the Three Stars, No. 135.
Now pray accept my letter as a true sign of my confidence in you, and remain ever my friend and br. as I shall remain, til the grave,
Your true, and most devoted friend and bro.,
W.A. Mozart
P.S. When are we to have a little music at your house again? I have written a new trio!
Michael Puchberg was a member of the lodge of Freemasons, which Mozart joined in 1785.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 into a musical family: He was a child prodigy and then, as a young man, an often childish prodigy, given to outrageous pranks and spendthrift habits—and immortal musical compositions. He died at age thirty-five.
LETTER #4
My Dear Madam—
In an hour like this the common words of sympathy may seem like idle words, and yet I want to say something to you, the noble wife of the hero of the nineteenth century. Belonging to the race your dear husband reached forth his hand to assist, I need not tell you that my sympathies are with you. I thank you for the brave words you have spoken. A republic that produces such a wife and mother may hope for better days. Our hearts may grow more hopeful for humanity when it sees the sublime sacrifice it is about to receive from his hands. Not in vain has your dear husband periled all, if the martyrdom of one hero is worth more than the life of a million cowards. From the prison comes forth a shout of triumph over that power whose ethics are robbery of the feeble and oppression of the weak, the trophies of whose chivalry are a plundered cradle and a scourged and bleeding woman.
Dear sister, I thank you for the brave and noble words that you have spoken. Enclosed I send you a few dollars as a token of my gratitude, reverence and love.
May God, our own God, sustain you in the hour of trial. If there is one thing on earth I can do for you or yours, let me be apprized. I am at your service,
Yours respectfully,
Frances Ellen Watkins
Post Office address:
Care of William Still,
107 Fifth St., Philadelphia, Penn.
Frances Ellen Watkins (later Frances Ellen Watkins Harper), was an African-American abolitionist and poet. She spent two weeks with Mrs. John Brown while Mrs. Brown was awaiting the execution of her husband, the preacher-abolitionist-insurrecetionist John Brown.
LETTER #5
December 23rd, 1828
To Carl Czerny in Vienna.
My very dear Master,
When I think of all the immense obligations under which I am placed towards you, and at the same time consider how long I have left you without a sign of remembrance, I am perfectly ashamed and miserable, and in despair of ever being forgiven by you! “Yes,” I said to myself with a deep feeling of bitterness, “I am an ungrateful fellow; I have forgotten my benefactor, I have forgotten that good master to whom I owe both my talent and my success.” …
At these words a tear starts to my eyes, and I assure you that no repentant tear was ever more sincere! Receive it as an expiation, and pardon me, for I cannot any longer bear the idea that you have any ill-feeling towards me. You will pardon me, my dear Master, won’t you? Embrace me then … good! Now my heart is light.
You have doubtless heard that I have been playing your admirable works here with the greatest success, and all the glory ought to be given to you. I intended to have played your variations on the “Pirate” the day after tomorrow at a very brilliant concert that I was to have given at the theater of H.R.H. Madame, who was to have been present as well as the Duchess of Orleans; but man propo
ses and God disposes. I have suddenly caught the measles, and have been obliged to say farewell to the concert; but it is not given up because it is put off, and I hope, as soon as ever I am well again, to have the pleasure of making these beautiful variations known to a large public.
Pixis [a notable pianist in Paris] and several other people have spoken much to me of four concertos that you have lately finished, and the reputation of which is already making a stir in Paris. I should be very much pleased, my dear Master, if you would commission me to get them sold. This would be quite easy for me to do, and I should also have the pleasure of playing them from first hand, either at the opera or at some big concerts. If my proposition pleases you, send them to me by the Austrian Embassy, marking the price that you would like to have for them. As regards any passages to be altered, if there are any, you need only mark them with a red pencil, according to your plan which I know so well, and I will point them out to the editor with the utmost care. Give me at the same time some news about music and pianists in Vienna; and finally tell me, dear Master, which of your compositions you think would make the best effect in society.
I close by sending you my heartfelt greetings, and begging you once more to pardon the shameful silence I have kept towards you: be assured that it has given me as much pain as yourself!
Your very affectionate and grateful pupil,
F. Liszt
Viennese Carl Czerny had been Franz Liszt’s teacher, highly regarded as both teacher and composer.
Franz Ritter von Liszt, 1811–1886, was a piano virtuoso, composer, and conductor. He influenced his contemporaries as a teacher and benefactor of promising talents, and his innovative compositions led to much that we consider modern in serious music.
LETTER #6
April 24th, 1861
Dear Father,
Please write me immediately if there is a company nearly ready to leave for the South that I can join.
I cannot stand by and see this war go on. This is a time when everyman especially single men should respond to their country’s call and I will not hold back.
Very likely there will be fighting in this state but I prefer going from my own State with my friends & into immediate action.
Gov. Jackson has called a special session of the Legislature to convene on the 2nd inst. He with most of the state officials are traitors & if they can, they will precipitate the State out of the Union. Many are leaving & getting ready to leave with their families or send their families from the State. The Arsenal is now well defended.
I commence drilling tonight with the “Home Guards” & shall be ready for the first action if there is one & I am here.
If there should be a company getting ready to leave, please send me $20 or $25 of the balance of my funds or if there is not time telegraph me & I will find a way to get home immediately.
Wrote Mary two or three days since enquiring is all was satisfactory with her. If she says no, I will go after her.
Am to know tomorrow morning if I can get the clerkship mentioned but I care not for that now. “My Country First.”
Very affectionately, your son.
Watson
(Watson B. Smith)
Watson B. Smith was a Union soldier during the American Civil War.
RESEARCH
Research is one of the (many) keys to Dracula’s success. Whether presenting scientific and religiously approved means of dispatching a vampire, commenting on the use of paprika in the foods of Eastern Europe, or highlighting the flora, fauna, and (not always) natural oddities of the Borgo Pass, Stoker gives us a book solidly based on factual knowledge. Ignoring some medical details, of course.
In order to use the previous “letters” exercise to its greatest effectiveness, you would have had to do some research not just concerning the biographies of the letter writers but also the worlds in which they lived. When you undertake your research, you cannot tell exactly what you will or won’t use, but I have come to believe that you will come across information that you will dismiss as “not likely to be needed” but which may become a principal point in the crafting of your novel. Likewise, it’s possible that the a-ha! concept on which your entire fictional world is based could become not all that important—or even could get thrown out of the mix.
That’s how research works: For most contemporary writers (not necessarily writers of contemporary fiction), research begins with Google. Google will always lead you to Wikipedia—and between the two of them, you are likely to find either access to the primary sources that scholars insist on using, or the primary sources themselves. In addition, many secondary sources that can yield who knows how much information will also present themselves.
Those of us who can remember pre-Google search engines know that there is indeed a world of information that can be accessed without the click of a mouse or the swipe of a finger. A terrific book titled Facts in a Flash: From Cruising the Stacks to Surfing the Net by Ellen Metter came out in 1999, published by Writer’s Digest Books. For me, this sadly out-of-print reference work is a research starting point as often as Google. It’s true that with the passage of time some information is no longer accurate, but so much still is, giving you chapters on specialized databases and government publications and almanacs. Metter’s chapter on “Research Techniques and Strategies” is the equal of any college-level course on practical research.
The world also abounds with “ask the expert” possibilities: When I want to glean the latest information about hematology for a story about Dracula’s blood transfusion (avoiding the problems Dr. Seward might have encountered!), I can ask a cousin who just happens to be a hematologist and oncologist. The fee I pay this maven is typically a corn beef on rye at 11 City Diner, one of Chicago’s best kosher-style delis. Utilize whatever experts you can find. Most will be happy to help.
Finally, not distinct from the above, you can research a place by going to it. I don’t want to go a’dabbling in metaphysics, but I’ve come to believe that there’s a vibe you can and will pick up on by “being there.” I’ve felt it regarding the entrance to Notre Dame in Paris, gazing into the impossible and endless colors of the Grand Canyon, and looking up at the small room where Abraham Lincoln studied his law books at night in Springfield, Illinois.
Use the following exercises to sharpen your fact-finding skills. Write one of the following activities on the lined pages that follow. Or at the very least, begin taking notes about what kinds of things you will need to research in order to write these accurately.
It’s “Career Day” at the local junior high school. You’re putting together a 500-word presentation on your job as an EMT in a suburb of a large city.
Your great uncle Ozymandias has left you three boxes of reel-to-reel tapes he recorded from the 1950s to the 1990s. You want to listen to them, and so you’ve decided to buy a reel-to-reel tape recorder. You don’t want to spend more than $500. What do you purchase? How did you choose? Who sells it to you?
You are visited by a living being from the planet QuatroLemonodo. You’ve decided you will write a novel—or even an endless series of novels!—set “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away …” on QuatroLemonodo. Your visitor says he’s kind of in a hurry, but he will answer any ten of your questions. What do you ask him? What are his answers?
It’s summer, 1950, and you and your family live in Newark, New Jersey. Your two grade-school kids, Bill (male) and Billette (female) want to be outside playing, but you are of course concerned about polio. What do you do to keep your kids as safe as possible? What do you tell them?
You are in charge of the Cairo, Illinois, welcoming committee, which will receive Charles Dickens when he visits your town in 1842. What do you (and your committee) do, and how does Dickens respond to your welcome?
CHARACTERIZATION
In Chapter 1, I asserted that Stoker’s rich characterization is a major reason that Dracula is remembered and ranked as a classic. A well-developed fictional character is someone who is every bit
as alive and just as much a unique individual as anyone we really know out here in RealityLand. Because of this, we get to know the character so well that we like or dislike, love or hate him.
You never want a reader to feel only indifference toward a character, which is what we do feel toward people (fictional or real!) that we feel we don’t know. And that means you must know your characters just about as well as you know yourself.
Many successful contemporary writers put together a detailed sketch for each principal character. Here is a chart I use (and so do the students in my classes) as a starting point for building character.
CHARACTER CHART
HIS NAME:
How much impact on a person’s psyche does his name have? How might your life have been different if you’d been given a different name? If you name your son Fido, don’t be surprised if he has self-esteem issues.
GENERAL PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
Even though this is a general description, you will want to bring in some sharp specifics. Imagine you’ve seen the character in the act of stealing your new Lexus. What do you say to the police that might actually help narrow the list of suspects? A handful of specifics mixed with the basic physical makeup (height, weight, hair color, etc.) is a good place to start.
DOES HE OR SHE HAVE ANY OUTSTANDING PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OR MANNERISMS THAT GO BEYOND THE DESCRIPTION ABOVE?
Everybody has unique physical characteristics and mannerisms. Knowing that Cindy Lee has a cross-shaped scar on her knee because she fell down and landed on a broken pop bottle when she was skipping school—and that now, twenty years later, she gets a twinge of guilt when she looks at it—yields some real character insight. Same goes for the fact that Miles Farnsworth still makes all the gestures of a smoker, even though he has not had a cigarette in fifteen years.
WHERE WAS HE OR SHE BORN?
