The Big Speech

I’m currently working on Chapter 17 again. I had to rewrite Chapter 16 due to computer error (or operator error). I spent most of yesterday working on the second scene. This is the scene with Wendall Phillip’s big freedom speech. I have included most of the speech at this point. I substituted a few archaic words that I thought most readers would not be familiar with. As a historical fiction writer, this is one of the big questions for me. How much to stick with only the facts and how much to modernize the language to make it not only an easier read but a more entertaining read.

I will try Chapter 17 out on my writer’s group and see what their feelings are on leaving the whole speech in. I have the speech as seen through the eyes of one of the characters (a real life character) who would have had a vested interest in it. I, personally, find the speech rousing. It also sums up a great deal of what Elijah Lovejoy went through in his years of being persecuted. I thought as I was writing it that it feels climatic.

For those of you who are writers and outline, the first major reversal in the story comes with the attack on the warehouse and the final press. I think this Big Speech scene may be the second major reversal. In my rewrite of the book, I probably need to build better toward it. This Big Speech helps to turn the tide in the sentiments of the average American at that time toward Lovejoy. We’ll see as I begin writing the final chapters.