Hi everyone!
I have been doing research on what is shaping up to be a series of books. Please indulge me in a little background information ....
The end of my marriage happened in a very small town. A lot of strange and 'bad' things happened at the same time, including some things a normal (for lack of a better word) person might suspect were paranormal, if that person were to believe in that sort of thing, of course.
I thought it might be clever to mix the two, and create a story about a woman whose marriage was ending, mainly due to cheating and abuse. She finds herself living in a house where weird things keep happening, and eventually weirdness turns into terror, kinda sorta what happened to me. There was a point in time where I was not sure if I was truly sane and the stress of the situation was causing my brain to malfunction, or, well, I was truly sane. I am hoping that anyone who has been through a traumatic break up knows what I mean.
What I wanted to achieve was a story that was ordinary yet scary and perhaps horrifying. My main character could be any woman who finds herself in an abusive relationship and trying to deal with it as well as the rest of life’s demands, with a supernatural element added in to scare the pants off the woman as well as the reader.
When I started putting together my outline, I wanted my story to have a believable ghost, someone (or something) responsible for what the main character was experiencing. I also wanted the setting to be real, so I began refreshing my memory on the place where all of this had taken place (I had moved from a big city to this small town for a few years). I stumbled upon the story of a woman who was perfect as my ghost. She had been dead for over 100 years, but the circumstances of her death made her story dovetail perfectly with mine.
Due to the wealth of information I uncovered (and am still uncovering), including numerous newspaper articles and legal documents, the original intent changed and I decided to incorporate her story in mine. I would like to know to what extent I can use this material in my actual text. For example, in articles where she is quoted, or letters she had written - I would like to use her actual words, as well as words of those who testified at her trial. This would enable me to make her story more real, especially using the language of that time. As part of the series I would like to tell both a fictionalized (my conclusions as to the truth) version of her story and a factual version, reproducing the various articles, letters and legal documents if possible.
I have no issue with sourcing any of my material. My problem is that most of my material is over 100 years old, written by folks long gone, and published in newspapers that no longer exist. I have tried to search on the legal ramifications and/or procedures involved, but no luck. As I am now beginning to create the actual text, I would like to know what I can/cannot do before proceeding.
Does anyone have any advice on where to get answers to these kinds of questions? My grateful thanks in advance.
I have been doing research on what is shaping up to be a series of books. Please indulge me in a little background information ....
The end of my marriage happened in a very small town. A lot of strange and 'bad' things happened at the same time, including some things a normal (for lack of a better word) person might suspect were paranormal, if that person were to believe in that sort of thing, of course.
I thought it might be clever to mix the two, and create a story about a woman whose marriage was ending, mainly due to cheating and abuse. She finds herself living in a house where weird things keep happening, and eventually weirdness turns into terror, kinda sorta what happened to me. There was a point in time where I was not sure if I was truly sane and the stress of the situation was causing my brain to malfunction, or, well, I was truly sane. I am hoping that anyone who has been through a traumatic break up knows what I mean.
What I wanted to achieve was a story that was ordinary yet scary and perhaps horrifying. My main character could be any woman who finds herself in an abusive relationship and trying to deal with it as well as the rest of life’s demands, with a supernatural element added in to scare the pants off the woman as well as the reader.
When I started putting together my outline, I wanted my story to have a believable ghost, someone (or something) responsible for what the main character was experiencing. I also wanted the setting to be real, so I began refreshing my memory on the place where all of this had taken place (I had moved from a big city to this small town for a few years). I stumbled upon the story of a woman who was perfect as my ghost. She had been dead for over 100 years, but the circumstances of her death made her story dovetail perfectly with mine.
Due to the wealth of information I uncovered (and am still uncovering), including numerous newspaper articles and legal documents, the original intent changed and I decided to incorporate her story in mine. I would like to know to what extent I can use this material in my actual text. For example, in articles where she is quoted, or letters she had written - I would like to use her actual words, as well as words of those who testified at her trial. This would enable me to make her story more real, especially using the language of that time. As part of the series I would like to tell both a fictionalized (my conclusions as to the truth) version of her story and a factual version, reproducing the various articles, letters and legal documents if possible.
I have no issue with sourcing any of my material. My problem is that most of my material is over 100 years old, written by folks long gone, and published in newspapers that no longer exist. I have tried to search on the legal ramifications and/or procedures involved, but no luck. As I am now beginning to create the actual text, I would like to know what I can/cannot do before proceeding.
Does anyone have any advice on where to get answers to these kinds of questions? My grateful thanks in advance.
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